tom@pdx.mentor.com (Tom Ace) (08/10/89)
A somewhat pompous full-page ad (lots of white space around a paragraph of text) for ROLM appeared in the 8/7/89 NY Times. It suggested that something special would happen to ROLM customers the next day. (The ad's text is reproduced at the end of this posting.) Sure enough, when I got into work on Tuesday, several extensions in the building, including mine, were making bizarre noises from the speakers in their bases: howls, fragments of various ringing tones, screeching noises, and more. We have a Rolm PBX. The repairman told me a card in the PBX was taken out by a power disturbance, and that we ought to have a power line conditioner. I told him a PBX ought to have a more tolerant power supply; he smiled knowingly. Dozens of computers in the same building (Apollos, Macs, others) had no problems. The same day, I called someone at another company in another state, and the voice mail was broken in their Rolm PBX. I found it amusing that all this happened on the day mentioned in the ad: "For just about everyone here in America, tomorrow, August the 8th, will be just another Tuesday. Alarm clocks will ring a little earlier than we'd like. The newspaper will arrive too late to read. Dressing the kids will take at least twice as long as planned. Three meetings will be scheduled for the same time. The lunch hour will only be 38 minutes. A few of us will get a raise. There won't be enough hours in the day. Someone will get a puppy for their birthday when they were really hoping for a pony. In other words, for most everyone here in America, just another typical Tuesday. Everyone, that is, except for the customers of ROLM." Tom Ace tom@sje.mentor.com ...!mntgfx!sje!tom
lih@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu (Andrew Lih) (08/10/89)
> Date: Wed, 9 Aug 89 13:10:10 PDT From: Tom Ace > Sure enough, when I got into work on Tuesday, several extensions in > the building, including mine, were making bizarre noises from the > speakers in their bases: howls, fragments of various ringing tones, > screeching noises, and more. We have a Rolm PBX. The repairman told > me a card in the PBX was taken out by a power disturbance, and that we > ought to have a power line conditioner. I told him a PBX ought to > have a more tolerant power supply; he smiled knowingly. Dozens of > computers in the same building (Apollos, Macs, others) had no > problems. > The same day, I called someone at another company in another state, > and the voice mail was broken in their Rolm PBX. Make sure to add this Ivy league institution to that list of broken PhoneMail sites. Here at Columbia, we will not have any voice mail capabilities for an entire 7 days while fixes are being made to the system. This all came very suddenly and no real explanation was given. It seems that many sites of PhoneMail seem to going down. Is there a general bug that has caused ROLM PhoneMail to be immediately shut down? We also have the problem with the ROLM power supplies. They have had a history of breaking down after several months of use. Andrew Lih (lih@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu) Columbia University Academic Computing
gpz@bridge2.esd.3com.com (G. Paul Ziemba) (08/10/89)
sje!tom@pdx.mentor.com (Tom Ace) writes: >Sure enough, when I got into work on Tuesday, several extensions in the >building, including mine, were making bizarre noises from the speakers in >their bases: howls, fragments of various ringing tones, screeching noises, [Assorted Rolm problems described...] >most everyone here in America, just another typical Tuesday. Everyone, that >is, except for the customers of ROLM." Just as I finished reading this article, _my_ Rolm-system extension, as well as several others nearby, started ringing continuously for no apparent reason. This has been happening several times a day for the last year, and Rolm is still unable to locate the problem in their switch. I suspect it is a design defect. Has anyone else on a Rolm PBX encountered this problem? ---- Paul Ziemba ...!pyramid!zapi!gpz gpz@bridge2.3com.com (415)940-7671 (w)
wing@social.dec.com (08/12/89)
->Sure enough, when I got into work on Tuesday, several extensions in the ->building, including mine, were making bizarre noises from the speakers in ->their bases: howls, fragments of various ringing tones, screeching noises, -> ->[Assorted Rolm problems described...] ->Just as I finished reading this article, _my_ Rolm-system extension, ->as well as several others nearby, started ringing continuously for ->no apparent reason. This has been happening several times a day for ->the last year, and Rolm is still unable to locate the problem ->in their switch. I suspect it is a design defect. Has anyone else ->on a Rolm PBX encountered this problem? Our whole building does it from time to time. The electronic extensions flash all their lights and they ring incessantly. The "flash-phones" ring too. After the ringing stops, we get "Error" on the display and a dead phone for a little while, then it starts acting like described above (howling, broken up ringing, etc...) Is there a company that makes a set that is compatible to Rolm's ETS-100A set? It is our understanding that Rolm does not make ETS-100's anymore. Ours are all, for lack of a better term, dying. We keep using "reconditioned" phones, but, this is not a long term solution. In 6 months I have has 12 phones. Both of the ETS-100 and ETS-100A variety. The Rolm serviceman has been here several times, but he seems to be fighting a losing battle. --> :) John <-- DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed above are strictly my own and not represented by my employer.