Got phone line problems

You got any pine-type trees near your phone line? I had hemlocks on top of mine and the branches/needles literally cut into the lines to the house and the phone company had to replace them (the lines, not the trees :-) and cut back the trees so they couldn't "saw" threw the lines anymore when the wind blew them.

I live in the middle of nowhere and the phone people are forever having to fix the lines. Trouble is that they say they can't repair the line unless the line goes completely dead. Where as my line goes dead and then comes back again. Strange but true!

I added a line to my house and they put a special box on and checked out the line(s) already going in, etc. But then I could at least argue with them if there was a problem as I could take a handset outside and test the lines, make sure it was the lines that had a problem. Our phone company charges a whole lot extra if it's inside the house, the wiring in the walls or something that's wrong. We were lucky because our house was custom built for its owner from the ground up and they did things well and right (except the finishing which they did themselves, it had a really ugly kitchen the father-in-law did out of not very high grade plywood but we eventually replaced the kitchen completely :-)

Oh! I have had many battles with the phone-people and infact (last year) they had to compensate me for all the times I had to ring back when the phone went dead. It was all supposed to be hunky- dory now, and trying to explain what is happening to some indian lady is a nightmare and then getting cut off in the middle of the call. Not only that, but you have to press 1 for this and press 2 for that and so it goes until you get to press 9 and by that time the line goes dead again and I end up wanting to tell these people to stick something right up their you-know-what!

"ring back" ... = ... Australia??

Mmm...... India, I think! I have nothing against Indian people but I just can't understand what they are saying... and then when I ask for them to speak slower, they get offended, that puts my back-up even more. I don't know... it shouldn't be such a problem to have a phone line that actually works!

I agree. Im just off the telephone to an indian line and the guy got annoid that I didnt understand what he said.

Not only that but I rely on PC heavily and if I can't get on here I'm completely %#@&#!!

Yes, it was nice having 3 lines and a cell phone so at least something was working and one could get through but it got confusing too sometimes, "No, no, the other line!" :-)

I've always had trouble with the plain American English in the phone book asking me to call either "repair" or "service". Don't I obviously need service, my phone doesn't work?

hehe No, I meant where you live.

Speaking with East Indians that have a heavy accent is the doing of the companies who "outsource" all their business.

Two accents I just cannot understand are the East Indian and the Asian! GGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRr I'd rather suffer than speak to these people! Rude! Rude!

love thy neighbor?

I should have known! It's not the neighbor I don't like, it's their ACCENT! I don't understand what they are saying. ggrrr

patience?

nowheretorun, I love most people apart from peadophiles. Now,we were talking about my phone line problem and trying to get it fixed. The call-centres in the UK have been out-sourced to India where I presume the people are paid less.

The trouble *I* have been having is trying to understand an Indian accent. You would think a communication phone company would employ people who speak clear English.

Now then, I ask POLITELY for the person to speak slowly and clearly so that I can understand what they are saying, and the person on the other end of the phone who is supposed to be providing me with a service gets annoyed with me for asking them to slow down and speak clearly. It's not about not loving thy neighbour, it's about trying to get a phone line that actually works!

Rant over!

AHA!!!!! You ARE in the UK!!! GOTCHA!!!

Pegasus, I would like to know how they think you should ring them to tell them your line is down. I do hope you have a cell phone!

I usually have to tell the operators that I have a hearing impairment and can't understand them. Sometimes if you tell the person that you know it's not his/her fault but you just can't understand, he or she will let you talk to someone else. If that doesn't work, you can say, "I'm sorry but I just can't talk to you anymore.", hang up and dial back and see if you can get a different person.

I admit, it's most frustrating.

The state I live in has three distinct areas that have different accents. I'm in the central part of the state. The people at the very northen tip of the state can't understand me, even if I totally slow down and e-n-u-n-c-i-a-t-e! My friend used to get me to go with her to the deli at the store and ask me to order what she wanted.

The deli person would invariably give me this totally puzzled look, then look over at my friend and say, "What did she say?" My friend would say, "Tell her again, Jan." I never got anyone to be able to understand me, even when I tried hard!

I want to take someone from the southern part of my state up there to see what reaction they have to that accent! Whew, talk about southern!

Jan, I do have a cell phone but if I use that to call the phone people it would be real expensive!

I have also politely asked to speak to someone else but they have said they all have the same accent but then it might be that someone else may have more of an understanding of my problems of not always being able to understand especially when I'm in a state of panic.

The thing is it took 5 months or so to sort it out last time, and now it seems it wasn't sorted out at all!

Anyway, I'm going to have to be real brave and try and sort this out again, and take lots of deep breaths before I do it.

Nah! I'm at Psych Central Septy!

Oh Pegasus, I'm so sorry. If I lived near you, I would do it for you.

((((((((((((( Pegasus )))))))))))))))

Oh (((((((( Jan )))))))) Wish I could fly you over here.

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January said:
My friend used to get me to go with her to the deli at the store and ask me to order what she wanted.

The deli person would invariably give me this totally puzzled look, then look over at my friend and say, "What did she say?" My friend would say, "Tell her again, Jan." I never got anyone to be able to understand me, even when I tried hard!

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I will never forget when I was at the deli near work in Baltimore getting breakfast and had to "interpret" between the African American with a heavy southern, black accent and the Vietnamese owner who was relatively new to the country, me being lily white but a "traveler" so I had heard a lot more accents than either of them.

Uh Huh!

sept,

you have made me lol1 In this thread about phone lines you have had a sub thread trying to find out where pegs comes from! Glad you got there in the end.

we have all of the problems mentioned above and they keep you wating anything up to an hour & 1/2 to talk to the people we can't understand (out sourced of course)
we are also in a zone where mobile phones (cell phones?) do not get reception.

we understand your worries (((((pegasus))))), we have to wait for the line to go down completely before they'll do anything. Then when it does it takes ages to fix..... last year we had one outage that lasted 16 days & one that lasted 6 days, as well as the short ones.

We get that prob where the line drops out too, & we think it is caused by tree branches touching the lines. They won't do anything about that.

Good luck, everyone, hope all our phone lines stay up

{{{{{{{{{Jan}}}}}}}}} I would love nothing better than to hear you talk!!