[TheForge] [YAK -- really] Re: Disgusting Ironwork

[Andy Vida]

Mike Spencer wrote:
> 
> Andy wrote:
> 
>     I asked one of the old timers what was up with that.  He told me
>     that AT&T had spent millions of dollars on a marketing study to
>     determine customer expectations on phone quality.  Apparently they
>     found that most customers expected their phones to break at about
>     two years and need replacement.  With this information they
>     engineered their phones to last almost precisely that long....
> 
> There's something whrong with that.  Perhaps only with the words your
> or your informant chose.  But don't you remember?  Before divestiture,
> phones *didn't break*.  Kick it down stairs and it's fine.  Smash the
> case and it still works. [1]

	Might be something wrong indeed, but it was AT&T's attitude.
> 
> So: People *didn't* expect their phones to quit in a couple of years.
> We expected them to last forever.  But before divestiture, if the
> phone *did* break, the telco had to fix it.  Ergo only indestructible
> phones were installed.

	Well, that's how it was explained to me, and knowing AT&T as
	well as I do, I believe this was a correct explanation.
> 
> After divestiture, if it did quit, if *anything* inboard of the demarc
> died, the customer had to eat it.  Ergo only crappy phones were made
> thereafter.

	That is correct.

> [1] Last month, we were switched from pulse to tone by accident and
>     ignorance of the marketing guy who was playing tech during the
>     strike.  Until then we were using old dial phones (1200 sets?)
>     installed in 1973.  Some years ago I slugged a hand hewn rafter
>     truss in an ill-conceived attempt to seat it better.  It came
>     un-pegged and popped clear out of its rebates.  Annnd the skis,
>     spare molding, kids' jr. high projects and pine boards stored up
>     there came down around my ears, missing me completely but smashing
>     several square inches out of the bedside phone case.  It' was
>     still working fine when they switched off pulse last month.

	The phone company HATES people like you.  Just thought you'd
	like to know that. :)
> 
> [2] I've had my son (who lives in Halifax) watching for 2500-sets for
>     a couple of years when he visits junk stores.  Those are the ones
>     that look more or less like an iconic dial phone but have a key
>     pad in place of the dial.  Last made circa 1986 I think.  We have
>     4, two of which work and two of which will probably make one good
>     one.  

	Those are great phones.  I used to have several of them that I,
	erm... "acquired" from AT&T.  I think they're gone now.  Shame.