Gotta love the phone company

[Don P]

Last month the phone went dead, we called it in repeatedly and they got around to repairing it 2 weeks later. We're at the very end of the longest line in the county, not a high priority to them but it ticks me off, people think I'm ignoring their calls. My wife is off at a forestry conference in TN and tried to call last night, yup I got a single ring twice and then an email from her, out again >:(. Finally talked over a crackling line for a few minutes this morning. We can send a man to the moon... but Miss Lilly is still using Dixie cups and string :D

[Sixacresand]

That;s the reason we went wireless   I made one of our cell phones the same phone number as our old home phone.  That way I didn't have to notify everybody that we had our number changed.  We have to go outside to get a good signal to use the phone, but that is ok.

[maple flats]

We also went wireless. Our home phone has a base station with an antenna. If signal strength is poor you can also get a better antenna on a pole outside or on the roof.

[gspren]

We did the same as Maple and our WIFI comes off the same home base station.

[Don P]

I've debated but the signal is about 600 vertical feet above us, I guess it would take some kind of solar powered repeater.

[DanG]

Don P, you must utter the 3 magic words in a case like this:

PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

Upper management really hates to hear from those people!  ;)

[Hilltop366]

I always get a refund ( I have to ask for it) for the time of no service.

[Larry]

Don P, you must utter the 3 magic words in a case like this:

PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

Upper management really hates to hear from those people!  ;)

I started my career with the phone company working in rural exchanges. Later was promoted to management and had a whole bunch of rural exchanges. Its normal for the cable plant to be old and junk. Long loops such as yours, were the worst. Outages were common. Normal repair time would range from 1 to 3 days. By the time I retired normal repair time was less than 24 hours. A two week outage would only be in times of a natural disaster.

Having handled 100's of PSC complaints I can tell you written complaints with times, dates, names and whatever else you can think of get far better results than verbal complaints. A few written complaints might convince the phone company to turn loose some cash and replace the outdated plant that is causing your problems.

Do not settle for poor service.  You pay the same cost as the folks in town do and generally they have excellent service.

[LeeB]

Excellent point Larry. I'll have to remember that. our phone service isn't too bad now that we have moved to another service provider area but before it was atrocious. We were near the end of the line in area with limited lines to begin with. There was one line they new was bad and whoever complained the least would get that line until they complained enough then someone else would get it for a while. Been going on like that for years. Don't know if you have Natco in your part of the state but they are horrible.