“As to Bell’s talking telegraph, it only creates interest in scientific circles, and, as a toy it is beautiful; but … its commercial value will be limited. “
Summer, I believe, has finally arrived. It has brought beautiful mornings, hot and humid afternoons and tolerable nights for sleeping, at least tolerable so far. Yesterday afternoon, though, the humidity became stifling. No breeze blew to push away the moisture. I turned on the air conditioner, and the house became comfortable. Gracie and I both settled in for an afternoon nap in the coolness of the bedroom.
This morning I turned the AC off and opened all the windows. I didn’t want to miss the smell of morning with its scent of flowers and mowed grass and sometimes even the salt air of the sea. Through the opened windows, I heard the songs of the different birds from trees in the front yard and easily recognized the song of the chickadees, my most frequent visitors, then I heard a metal clank sound which I ignored. When I heard it a second time, I recognized the sound as coming from the half-sized metal barrel where I keep the bird seed. I went on the deck to check it out, and the red spawn scurried away from the barrel and off the deck. The barrel cover was off and was lying beside the barrel. Several sunflower kernels were strewn around the bottom of the barrel. The spawn had found the mother lode. I put the cover back on the barrel and put two bricks on it. I figured that would keep the spawn away unless he platooned his buddies, and they all lent their paws to the effort.
I am waiting for Comcast to come to fix my phone line. During the conversation yesterday with Comcast I wished more times than I can remember that I had the power to put my hand through the receiver and grab the so-called Comcast technician and throttle him. I had opened the conversation with him by explaining that my phone line did not work. I told him I had tested the phone by connecting its line to the modem and the phone worked so I knew the problem was the line. He started to ask questions phrased as if to a five-year old. I interrupted him and said I had explained the problem and didn’t a walk-through from him. He then said he would reset the modem. I slowly explained it wasn’t the modem. It was the line coming from the wall. He then asked a few more questions, all of which had been answered in my first explanation. He then concluded my phone was not working. I told him I was talking to him on that non-working phone. He paused and then told me to remove the line from the modem and reconnect it to the wall. I explained the call would end once I did that. He took my cell number, and when the phone went dead, he called me back on my cell. It was 25 minutes from the start of the call when he said I think there is something wrong with your phone line.
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This entry was posted on July 7, 2015 at 11:08 am and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: afternoon nap, Air conditioner, bird seed, Comcast, humidity, metal barrel, morning air, mother lode, red spawn, ridiculous questions, salt air, so-called technicians, stifling, summer weather
Both comments and pings are currently closed.12 Comments on ““As to Bell’s talking telegraph, it only creates interest in scientific circles, and, as a toy it is beautiful; but … its commercial value will be limited. “”
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
July 7, 2015 at 12:18 pm
Still, that was pretty fast anyway, those phone calls can take much longer 🙂 🙂 🙂 They simply just can’t do anything without following their script 🙂 I don’t think it says anywhere in that script: Listen to the customer, they might actually know what they talk about 🙂
Cool, sunny and with a strong wind here today, it’s just recently the wind caolmed down andf the clouds took over. We’ll get rain tonight and it will continue for a few days they say, mostly as showers though.
Now the squirrel knows where the mother load is and will never stop trying to get in there again and it will win 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
July 7, 2015 at 4:21 pm
Christer,
I think my tone made him realize his script wasn’t going to work on me. I knew more about the situation than that guy. The cabman just left my phone connected to the modem. He said everything worked fine.
Humid and off and on sunny here today. It hasn’t been a pretty day. I did little.
That beastie cannot remove the two bricks-far too heavy.
Have a good evening!
July 7, 2015 at 2:38 pm
Hi Kat,
BTDT. You have my sympathy.
My next door neighbor is a manager with Comcast technical. He has offered to give me the inside line to his group. I haven’t taken him up on that because I doubt it would be much better and I’d rather not have to say that to my neighbor. They’re good neighbors.
My worst experience was when the first tier technician decided he had to send me up the line to the second tier technician. Hang up if they tell you that. Second tier’s entire raison d’être is to sell you a monthly maintenance plan. Otherwise they’ve got nothing else with which to assist you.
Today is sort of murky and humid. I managed to get the AC unit into the window but have only run it on fan for the moment. The house is not yet uncomfortable. Later on if the sun is out and shines through the side windows, it will probably get yucky.
Enjoy the day and I hope you get your phone situation cleared up.
July 7, 2015 at 4:34 pm
Hi Caryn,
The technician said connecting it to the modem as I had done was the best solution. He said it would take him a long while to check each of the many outside wires. He gave me a new remote which doesn’t work all that well and he left.
The script the guy was reading didn’t allow for him to answer my questions. He was an idiot who knew very little and wasted my time. The technician aid that happens often, and he gets a lot of complaints.
It is humid and alternating sunny and cloudy here. The breeze when it blows is a good one but it doesn’t blow nearly enough.
Phone situation is okay. It works.
Have a great evening!
July 7, 2015 at 8:13 pm
July 7, 2015 at 8:21 pm
Birgit,
Clever play on words but I would never put them beyond a squirrel’s grasp.
July 8, 2015 at 12:15 am
Hi Kat!
I LOVE Birgit’s picture!
I am sympathetic to your phone problem, but I have seen the other side. I used to work for Cablevision in their local programming department (I dealt with the public, but not as much. You couldn’t pay me enough.). I have friends in NJ who live in Comcast territory. They hate Comast customer service. I also had many an earful concerning Cablevision’s customer service.
Most people who work for your cable company are good, knowledgeable people who want to fix your problem. The training for various jobs in the company – -which is always ongoing- – can vary from outstanding to downright crappy. If the training is poor, the customer service goes down the old toidy.
I am not saying you are wrong to be frustrated. The guy should be listening to you and not reading off a script. He has been trained poorly, and that is part of the overall problem.
I hope you still love me…a post like this does not win me many friends. But I have too many friends who worked in the industry to put them down. Some of them went to the extra mile for a customer…
Waving (to get a breeze),
Coleen
July 8, 2015 at 12:29 am
The cable guy and the phone guy have merged into the same guy. This is called technology improvement. Luckily you got a technician who was not calling from Mumbai. One time I called AT&T about an Internet connection problem. The techniction started his script by having me unpower the modem and wait for thirty seconds before restoring the power. I replied that I had already tried that and it didn’t work. He then said I should do it again. I told him that’s the definition of insanity, “Doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result”. 😉
One tactic is to threaten to move your business to the other cable provider. Oh, I forgot that our municipality has given a monopoly to one provider in return for them wiring the town thirty years ago.
Our summer will arrive next Tuesday when they are forecasting the first 100 degree day. So far it’s been a mild summer.
July 8, 2015 at 12:37 am
Bob,
I have everything bundled with Comcast as my other choice is working with a phone company, a TV provider like Dish and an intenet provider. Having one is much easier.
The guy I spoke to was in Nebraska. He also wanted to check my modem though the phone and modem don’t ordinarily have ant contact. Ow they do as I connected the phone to the modem to fix the problem.
I don’t want to switch to Dish so Comcast it is. Verizon hasn’t made it down here yet.
We hit the high 70’s today. Too, too hot.
July 8, 2015 at 11:06 am
Competition doesn’t always improve the situation. My town has two (or maybe three, can’t remember if the third survives) cable companies. Nobody is happy with customer service in any of them.
July 8, 2015 at 11:29 am
Caryn,
Here it is Comcast or Dish. Verizon still hasn’t laid cable this far down Cape.
July 8, 2015 at 12:29 am
Coleen,
I got quite a chuckle from Birgit’s picture. It warns the world about the beasties.
I knew the Comcast man was reading a script from which he is not to deviate. That’s where I got frustrated. I had figured out the problem and found a solution, but he still wanted me to go through his process. I didn’t dare ask if I could keep it connected to the modem.
The tech guy who came today was great. I explained the problem and my solution. He understood my frustration as he hears about it often rom customers. He didn’t do anything additional to the phone but I did get anew remote. It doesn’t work well. Too funny and ironic.