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Thursday, August 4, 2011

New Curbs and The Land Line

Good morning,

Remember the recent post about the tree cutting across the street from our home because the curbs are being replaced on our street?

It gets better....
Now it is time for our side of the street.

These folks have a great machine that comes along and pours the concrete for the new curbs after another machine has come along to dig out the old curbs.
Sounds easy, right?

It is easy until the land line phone stops working.  I had gotten up at 6 AM, checked email, answered email, checked the blog, read other blogs, written comments on other blogs, then had gone back to bed (we are on vacation, you know), and had a nice snooze for another hour.

I heard noise out in front as the old curb was being removed in anticipation of the new curb machinery to follow.  I got up. I logged back on to the computer.  Well, I tried to log back on to the computer.  No connection.  I knew what happened.  My Honey knew what happened.
We connected via our Verizon air cards.  We had computer service.  BUT, that is not unlimited (we use the air cards when we travel) so eventually we would use up our allowance if we didn't get our Zoomtown connection fixed.  Yes, I know, we could get Internet service through our cable service, too, but that's another story.... 

 My Honey went out to talk with the men working out in front:  "Our land line phone and Internet service is out.  Did you hit a cable?"

"Nah, we aren't digging that deep."  The man went back to work.

I called Cincinnati Bell with my cell phone.  Have you called your phone company recently?  First you go through so many different recordings, you decide you really don't need their service.  Finally, after waiting 45 minutes for a call back through their automated service, I got a live voice who sounded like a recording himself.  Monotone:  "Have you tried to reset your Internet?"  I won't tell you the rest of that conversation except to say I am always professional, calm, and polite.  Before I got off the phone I got a promise that someone would show up to check on our lack of service at the first available time - two days later.  Hmmmm.

I went out and tried again with the guys working on the curbs.  I found a supervisor.  I was polite, friendly, but direct.  "Our phone and Internet service is out. I'm sure you hit a cable." 

The supervisor was very, very nice and got down into the trench himself to feel the soil at the edges for a broken cable.  A man operating a large earth moving machine drove it up the street checking for broken cables for us, too.  He found it about 50 feet up the street from the front of our home.
 Sure enough.  They had hit a cable.  The curb people had more pull with the phone company to get a repair person on the scene right away than I did.  In fact, they got a repair man to come and fix the cable before they poured a new curb over the spot.  Good plan!  The image above gives you an idea how the phone company fixes it.  See the electrical tape?
 And, so, the cable was fixed and there is a new curb over it now.

We and the rest of the neighborhood have phone service once again.  We are on the Internet and the part of our multi-faceted security system that requires a land line is functioning just fine, too.  ;)

How's your day going?

Lois

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19 comments:

Sherry said...

These people need to learn the meaning of customer service!

Diana said...

You are like Superwoman Lois!! You saved the day, good for you!
Love Di ♥

Wanda..... said...

Communications with the electric and telephone companies aren't what they used to be, that's for sure, but in the end, they always come through!

TexWisGirl said...

well, thanks to your persistence, they fixed it before having to re-dig up everything!

and yes, i've been dealing with our local phone co. these past few days. i HATE those dreadful pre-recorded 'make your selection' menu trees. they lead you down paths over and over again! then when you find a person, they do it all over again. i'm glad to have internet again, but still can't make a phone call...

Deere Driver said...

Oh Geez Lois!
I've been on those stupid phone calls for the past two months. Last Friday it was four times in one morning. They wanted me to wait another six days for a technician. HA! Monday the latest "fix" came along. Its frustrating to be without phone. One reason why I keep the cable and phone company separate is exactly because of what you suffered. Everything is out then.

Love the fix. Mine was not much different this time. A loose nut!

Montanagirl said...

I'm pretty fed up with "the recorded voice" everytime I make a call to a business. Whatever happened to getting to talk to a real live person????

Nedra said...

Persistance paid off!

Karen said...

oh how I understand!! I have had no internet since monday and they only fixed it this morning.....very poor service, very poor.

EG CameraGirl said...

How frustrating! But I'm so glad you persevered!

Leontien said...

See phone companies CAN fix things in one day... hahah excellent!

Thanks for the update, the curb looks good!

leontien

Bob Bushell said...

You were a bit overpowered by those who spend their time wrecking the internet. But, we can do it, float the internet in the middle of space, pretty nice, until the working person arrives and put up a paving....

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

After reading this post, Lois, I found myself wondering...how long does electrical tape hold something together...especially after the curb was poured over the repair job. BTW, our day was going fairly well yesterday, until Grenville pulled a muscle in his back.

Anonymous said...

Good Grief. Same ole' stuff...crappy customer service from any of our utilities. Good for you Lois!! You are today's Hero!!...debbie

stringsofpurls said...

I won't even tell you our story about my daughter's cell phone when we were on vacation. Cincinnati Bell x 6 phone calls later ending with a trip to the store when we got home. I was polite, but I wasn't happy....

Michelle May-The Raspberry Rabbits said...

Ahhh yes, the never ending cutting of the cables during construction. Was the story of my life for 10 years as a project manager in new home construction. Oy!
xx, shell

Elaine said...

Fun day! At least they fixed it before they poured the concrete. Usually it seems like one crew pours the concrete, and the next day someone is back tearing it up.

VP said...

I have never seen a machine like that, here it tooks days and weeks to get the curb done.

Lois Evensen said...

Hi Everyone,

The curb looks great; the street will get one more layer of blacktop. I can tell there is more blacktop coming because all the sewer lids are raised. The storm sewer drains also need to be finished individually. They are moving fairly quickly and it will look wonderful.

The phone saga went on. After I posted this curb post, we lost Internet service again. This time I was told "the engineers are working on it." The service magically reappeared a few hours later so I guess the engineers figured it out. ;)

Thanks, everyone, for stopping by and for your kind comments.

Very best,
Lois

Rose said...

I remain polite, too, on those calls, but sometimes it is very hard. But I am glad you did not have to wait two days on phone service.