esrosedotblog

NOPHONE

We are in our third day with no phone service.

It went out the other day during the heavy rain storm that we had. This, in itself, is not unusual. Desert phone gear dessicates and then when it gets damp or wet, bad things happen to the terminals.

I reported the outage. What I found is that the reporting is all voice-activated v-mail now. Or, one can go on the internet. If you want a live person who 'cannot do or know anymore than you will do or know using this auto-system' (probably because they are sitting in Bangladesh); you are out of luck.

Since I was out with the cell phone in the car (we can't get a reliable signal at the house with Cingular--gotta change it I suppose--I used the voice-act. It was OK until at some point, in the wrapup, 'she' said the problem would be cleared by 10/23/04 at 6 PM. I scoffed! THREE DAYS?!?! I exhaled and scoffed so vehemently that the scoff knocked the voice activated out and I got a hang up. Evidently, while an automated voice, the lady in question would not put up with nastiness. I had to do it all over again.

Now, we are listed for a repair on the internet as well. So I know that it is listed. I can see it. But, still no fix. It is not yet October 23 at 6 PM (tonight) so there is not a lot that I can do about it but wait it out. Did I mention that the three days is a grace period (in the contract) and that after the fourth day they will refund some money.

There are two parts to this. One is that this is one more example of real service approaching zero. When we moved here, we had old, inefficient, nearly bankrupt GTE as our phone company.

They were OK. When things went down you would call and there would be a real person who would actually make an appointment with you. I remember being upset that they would not make it more precise than AM or PM. Little did I know. The truck would show up. If it did not, then you could call in and, as I remember, they would even let you talk to a dispatcher rep. How lame is that? Look. No wonder they went out of business: "People moving ideas".

Then GTE got merged or swallowed into Verizon. I can't even google an image of a GTE artifact beyond this poor logo copy. Then Verizon and NYNEX ate each other. Eat me.

Somewhere Bell Atlantic is in there. Remember when it was a 'problem' that big bad ATT had all the phone business. That nasty service oriented Bell System. The bastards. They would pester you with service calls and you had to talk to real people when you had a problem. They would come when they said they would, the shits.

Now we are on the reverse path of the orbit. Our phone company is now a megaplex. And all automatic. And very distant and inhuman. There is no appeal. I suppose that I could go to a Verizon store and trash it but that won't get my phone fixed. They will also tell me that they only know what I do.

The second thing is that we are out of a phone and likely to be for the forseeable future. Interesting that once I get beyond taking it all too personally and ranting about the state of our nation and so on, it is not too bad.

There are no election calls. Friends can be called on the cell to let them know we are out of touch for awhile. There is the wonder of email. I cannot make any calls without going outside but that is a result of a poor choice in vendors for cell phones. But even that is not so bad.

We considered, and may still be, going all mobile. We could kill two birds or rather revive two birds by getting a new company for the mobile. The guys who work here on the pool have no trouble getting and recieving calls. It would be easy to find out who they have and just get that service so I could recieve calls at home.

Another thing. My cell-er is falling apart. It is the classic Nokia wedge. No frills. Well, it is blue.

But we are loathe to go all cell. We would not have the same number. Our 800 number that people use to call us would not be possible. Actually, it may be time to retire this anyway. We got it so our moms could call. They haven't called since 1996 and 1997 respectively. And are not going to. The kids use it but they are grown up. They make good money. They can pay for their own calls. And so on.

I guess it is not going to work. The cell phones are so fucking little! And you have to carry them all the time. I have seen this; I have written about this; I have laughed at this.

I don't think we are going to go mobile. But then again, as I write all this down, maybe this is God's way of telling us that it is time to get up with the front of the wave and just call Verizon and tell them to fuck off and disconnect us. But. I will have to get the new cell phone first.