heiby@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com (Ron Heiby) (10/20/90)
Last night, I returned from a two-day business trip, and one of the scariest nights of my life. I was in Dallas, TX. My home is in a Northwest suburb of Chicago, IL. Unbeknownst to me, an IBT installer had broken a wire on the pair leading to my home's unlisted number (the one we answer). I had made specific arrangements with my wife for her to be home by about 7pm. I tried calling at 7:15, 8:15, 11:10, 12:00, and 12:30. Each time, ring-no-answer. I tried my voice-mail system several times. I tried her sister. I tried her employer. I tried our Health Maintenance Organization and Hospital. I tried the police department for the town where she works (in a chemical laboratory). I finally found out that all was well when the police in my community sent a black and white over to my home and determined that she was fine. Throughout this period, I figured that there probably was nothing wrong with my phone as A) I was getting ring signalling, and B) My modem on my published number answered. I didn't know at the time about the massive cable cut in the western suburbs. It seems not to have affected my area, anyway. I figured that since my modem answered, a cable cut was unlikely. Further, I figured that since there was ring, a call to IBT repair was apt to get me nowhere. Once I found out (from my home town police) that my home phone was out of order, I figured that I'd report it to IBT repair, in case my wife didn't think to use the modem line to do so. Here's where things started getting really interesting. I, not knowing how to reach IBT repair, called 708 DA and asked them. They told me to dial "611". I explained that I was standing in DFW international airport in Texas. (I was waiting for an associate's plane to arrive.) The DA operator said there was no listing for repair, but could give me the main number in downtown Chicago. I called that number and asked to be connected to Repair. I was told that since it was after hours, they couldn't connect me. They told me to dial "611". I explained that I was in Texas and that I didn't think that dialing "611" would get me IBT repair. The person in the Chicago office then told me to "just dial '0' for Operator and have her connect you with IBT's 611". I expressed my doubts, but she assured me that that was the way to do it. So, I called the local (GTE) operator and asked to be connected with IBT repair service. The operator was shocked to receive such a request and told me that she could not do so, that Chicago IBT was mistaken in thinking that she could. I then called the Chicago IBT office back and spoke with someone else, explained the whole sequence, and received another phone number in 312 which (she said) would connect me directly with IBT repair. I dialed it and got nothing but some "click-clack" noises with about a 1 per second frequency for about 20 seconds, then silence. I called the AT&T (my LD carrier) operator and reported this event. She tried placing the call and got the same noise. She contacted another operator, I presume near Chicago, who also tried it. Same noises. The two AT&T operators probably spent 5-10 minutes trying to get me connected to IBT Repair. Finally, I had no option but to give up. When I reached my wife at work the next day, I asked her to deal with it (she hates that kind of thing). Well, my phone is fixed, now. I guess I know that next time I want to report a phone out of order somewhere other than where I'm standing I should write a letter! Ron Heiby, heiby@chg.mcd.mot.com Moderator: comp.newprod Moderator's Note: Here in 312/708 (except Centel) 611 translates into a seven digit number: 312-I forget the rest. David T, can you reply? PAT]
john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) (10/26/90)
Ron Heiby <heiby@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com> writes: > I called the AT&T (my LD carrier) operator and reported this event. > She tried placing the call and got the same noise. She contacted > another operator, I presume near Chicago, who also tried it. Same > noises. The two AT&T operators probably spent 5-10 minutes trying to > get me connected to IBT Repair. It is too bad that they couldn't get through. For anyone else who finds himself in the same situation, the FIRST thing to try is the AT&T operator. For various reasons, it is frequently necessary to reach "611" repair in cities all across the country from where I sit in CA. The AT&T operator has never failed to connect me to the most remote repair bureaus. Sometimes the call goes through directly and other times the operator needs to get other operators involved, but they seem very willing to help. Haven't tried this with Sprint :-) John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
kabra437@pallas.athenanet.com (Ken Abrams) (10/27/90)
In article <13963@accuvax.nwu.edu> heiby@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com (Ron Heiby) writes: >Once I found out (from my home town police) that my home phone was out >of order, I figured that I'd report it to IBT repair, in case my wife >didn't think to use the modem line to do so. Here's where things >started getting really interesting. [Very long and sad story deleted] Although I am not in a policy making position in my company, I DO care. Ron's story is pathetic. Things like this should never happen. Pat was correct that there is a 7(10) digit regular number that will connect you with Repair Service. Now all I have to do is convince the DA staff to change their proceedures to give it out in situations like this. I don't _think_ that will be too hard to do. If a solution is found, I will post it. Either way, I will drop Ron some mail (assuming that the address contained in his original post is a good one). I have forwarded a copy of Ron's message to the DA staff folks (minus his name); I hope that is OK. His words will likely carry more impact than if I tried to translate the story. Ken Abrams uunet!pallas!kabra437 Illinois Bell kabra437@athenanet.com Springfield (voice) 217-753-7965 [Moderator's Note: I know the number, as does Tamkin and a few other Chicago area Digest readers. I did not include the number in the posting because I am not sure IBT wants it published. Thanks for passing it along, Ken. PAT]
wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher) (11/04/90)
Ohio Bell went one better!
They discontinued "611" and installed all manner of intrastate 800
numbers to reach repair. UNLISTED 800 numbers, that is. Sure they're
in the front of your phone book, but if you don't have one, for
whatever reason, you are up the creek.
I called and raised hell. Their answer was 'Call 411." My retort: "You
charge for that. I was at a neighbors, and HE should pay because *you*
screwed up?" {They had disabled my TT detection, and I was not about
to waste an hour looking for my old rotary butt-in.} Silence ensued.
Several calls later the truth emerged. OBT has to PAY to get their 800
numbers listed. They wanted to save their money. {I understood the 800
DA service to be a contractor, but never could get details.}
Unlike the clerks I was talking to, I have heard why they went to the
INWATS. It seems the beancounters wanted centralized afterhours repair
centers. Sound familiar, PAT? But the union had a fit that all the
calls went to one place, and thus those folks got all the premium pay.
So the responding center had to rotate nightly. Thus, you needed to
collect all the local 611 ringdowns, and send them halfway across the
state, but somewhere different every night! But the people in charge
did all this without getting any transmission engineering done. Net
result -- it didn't work. Word soon came back to the Transmission
Engineering Dept. THEY asked the folks who had set it up, and their
reply was:
"Well, we figured that if we asked you first, you'd say
it would not work. So we went ahead anyhow, and thought
you could fix it up after we installed it."
{Or words to that effect}
Your telephone dollars at work....
wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (305) 255-RTFMccplumb@spurge.uwaterloo.ca (Colin Plumb) (11/04/90)
I had a similar experience when I tried to report a problem in Baltimore, Maryland from Toronto, Ontario. I tried umpteen different operators and directory assistance people and kept getting told that the repair department definitely did not have a 7-digit number and I should dial 611. But that gets me Bell Canada, you moron, and the problem isn't *in* Canada! Bell Canada, unfortunately, didn't have any ideas either. Eventually I decided I wasn't going to waste my time trying to improve their service when they so clearly demonstrated they didn't care. (This was a few years ago, and by now I've forgotten what the problem was, but it was quite clear it was at the remote end.) Colin
la063249@zach.fit.edu (Bill Huttig) (11/05/90)
I should have thought of this earlier ... Call AT&T repair at 1-800-222-3000 and they will pass the info to the local phone company. (I think). [Moderator's Note: That's very nice of them, if in fact they still do it. I know prior to divestiture the long distance operator would contact 'inward' in your community and that operator would turn in the report. Who knows now ... PAT]
dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (David Tamkin) (11/05/90)
Back in Volume 10, issue 758 (you mean I'm only ten days behind?), Ron Heiby wrote, concerning his problems in reporting his home phone out of order while he was out of town: | I then called the Chicago IBT office back and spoke with someone else, | explained the whole sequence, and received another phone number in 312 | which (she said) would connect me directly with IBT repair. I dialed | it and got nothing but some "click-clack" noises with about a 1 per | second frequency for about 20 seconds, then silence. | Well, my phone is fixed, now. I guess I know that next time I want to | report a phone out of order somewhere other than where I'm standing I | should write a letter! Pat Townson responded: | [Moderator's Note: Here in 312/708 (except Centel) 611 translates into | a seven digit number: 312-I forget the rest. David T, can you reply? PAT] When I moved from Illinois Bell's satrapy to Centel's I was absorbing the front pages of Centel's directory. It stated clearly that to call repair service one should dial 611; from outside Centel's area (now it should read "from a non-Centel phone" to allow for COCOTs and cellulars) one should dial 698-9955 [312 being assumed; this was two years before the 708 split, but it's in 708 now]. I thought, hmm, gee, what if I fear something is wrong with my parents' Illinois Bell service and want to report it? All Illinois Bell could tell me was to find an Illinois Bell phone and dial 611 or call someone with a working Illinois Bell phone and ask him or her to dial 611. There were at the time four Illinois Bell coin phones within a quarter mile of my home (the two nearest have since been replaced with COCOTs, though), so I figured I'd have to walk over to one of them if I ever needed to tell IBT about someone else's phone trouble. About three months later I had difficulty calling another Centel customer. I dialed 611 to tell Centel about the other phone's problems. While I was on hold, their recording told me, if I was reporting trouble with an Illinois Bell phone, to dial Illinois Bell repair at 509-2510. (It's still in 312.) Interesting; another telco knows the number but IBT doesn't. I've since had to use that number twice (once to report a vandalized pay phone, the other time for a reason I don't remember) and it got me through to IBT Repair. Is that the number Ron Heiby couldn't reach? Centel now advertises two numbers for reaching their repair department from outside their area: 708-698-9955 and 800-348-0833; but IBT has the Bell System "We're *the* phone company" mentality and cannot admit that there could possibly be a non-IBT phone to dial from. Nope, not a phone from a neighboring BOC (not even from their own sister subsidiaries of Ameritech, Indiana Bell and Wisconsin Bell); not a phone from a cellular provider (not even from Ameritech Mobile); certainly not a phone served by an independent telco nor a COCOT! So apparently 611 from IBT country in and around Chicago is translated to however one dials +1 312 509 2510. From Centel phones it is translated to +1 708 698 9955 (yes, I double checked after permissive dialing between the two area codes ended, and I did get put through from area code 312, so the translation was updated). A lot of COCOTs have 611 as their repair number as well, translating it to the procurer's ... er, provider's direct (and probably unpublished) number. Now, what I don't understand about Ron's story is why his wife couldn't pick up the line that worked and dial 611 from it to report the non-functioning line, but that's a different matter from IBT's not knowing its own repair number. David Tamkin Box 7002 Des Plaines IL 60018-7002 708 518 6769 312 693 0591 MCI Mail: 426-1818 GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com
john@mojave.ati.com (John Higdon) (11/05/90)
David Lesher <wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu> writes: > Unlike the clerks I was talking to, I have heard why they went to the > INWATS. It seems the beancounters wanted centralized afterhours repair > centers. Sound familiar, PAT? But the union had a fit that all the > calls went to one place, and thus those folks got all the premium pay. > So the responding center had to rotate nightly. Well, it's good to hear that there is a telco that is even more inept than Pac*Bell. For a decade and a half Pac*Bell has been diverting 611 calls to rotating centralized locations all over California without much customer inconvenience. Some of the machinations that the crossbar switches had to go through were fun to listen to: "Please hold for telephone repair service..." If you hit a '*', you could dump the device and get dial tone that belonged to telco and do many mean and nasty things. Unfortunately, preset translations to central routing points are used now and all the fun is gone. If I dial '611' on a weekend, there is a significant possiblity that the person who answers will be in Anaheim or even San Diego. John Higdon <john@mojave.ati.com> (hiding out in the desert)
cowan@marob.masa.com (John Cowan) (11/07/90)
In article <14329@accuvax.nwu.edu> Bill Huttig <la063249@zach.fit.edu> writes: >[Moderator's Note: That's very nice of them [ATT], if in fact they still do >it. I know prior to divestiture the long distance operator would >contact 'inward' in your community and that operator would turn in the >report. Who knows now ... PAT] Sure 'nough, they do. I had reason to believe that my father's phone was out of order one fine night some months ago. He lives in Bethlehem PA (Bell of PA -- Bell Atlantic) and I live in NYC (New York Tel -- NYNEX). Dialling 10288-0 got me an operator who got me an operator who got me a number in 215-land. I called it and filed a report. Bingo. cowan@marob.masa.com (aka ...!hombre!marob!cowan)
heiby@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com (Ron Heiby) (11/09/90)
dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (David Tamkin) writes: >repair at 509-2510. (It's still in 312.) ... >through to IBT Repair. Is that the number Ron Heiby couldn't reach? That number doesn't sound familiar, but I threw out my page of notes taken as I went though the mill several times. >Now, what I don't understand about Ron's story is why his wife >couldn't pick up the line that worked and dial 611 from it to report My wife absolutely *detests* dealing with phone repair, plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics, etc., etc. Thus, it falls upon me to arrange for things to be fixed when they break. Also, she didn't think of it. The line that was working is the Answering Machine and Modem line, which only I really make any use of (unless you count phone solicitors who leave messages or refuse to). Anyway, thanks much for the number. It's in my "Day-Timer", now! Ron Heiby, heiby@chg.mcd.mot.com Moderator: comp.newprod