[TheForge] Phone & electrical problems

[Carl Tappan]

Aliens? :)

On Thu, 2004-07-08 at 14:25, Ron Childers wrote:
> I've had electrical and phone problems for a couple of weeks since a tree
> fell on the power line across the road. The transformers sounded like
> cannons. Now my Miller 185 MIG doesn't work right. Just deposits the wire in
> a molten blob on top of the work. It was working fine 2 weeks before that.
> Also, when the AC turns on, the lights get brighter; then they flicker &
> dim. Also, when I turn on the belt grinder the TV goes haywire. The phones
> just quit when they feel like it and the cordless phone gives all sorts of
> weird signals and gave up the ghost. I tried to call my neighbor on my cell
> phone and the recording said To roam on Verizon, dial 1, & the area code. I
> have Alltel, not Verison. The power company says there is nothing wrong
> with the power but it worries me - something isn't right. Do any of you have
> any ideas?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Ron C 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Bruce Freeman
> Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 12:35 PM
> To: theforge at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [TheForge] [YAK -- really] Re: Disgusting Ironwork
> 
> It's worse than that, even.  I've had noise on my line for years now, to
> such an extent that for the last few months using the internet from home
> has been tedious - 960 Baud rather than 9600 baud (wherease 5X THAT
> should be possible).
> 
> So I phone Verizon for a repair.  THEY plan to charge ME $91 to come
> out to check THEIR line - THEIR side of the connection.  Oh, if they
> find a problem there will be no charge, but if they DON'T, I have to eat
> their $91 charge.  (They assume the problem is on my end, NOT that it
> may only occur evenings or weekends when I'm actually using the phone
> line.)  Their test - they connect a telephone to the box and listen for
> noise.  No electronic test.  No linking to the exchange.  Nothing.  Just
> listen for noise.  
> 
> I plan to listen for noise myself.  Then, whether I hear any or not,
> I'm going to write to the board of public utility commissioners and let
> THEM communicate my dissatisfaction to Verizon.
> 
> Bruce
> NJ
> 
> ===============
> 
> 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.
> 
> >>> Mike Spencer <mspencer at tallships.ca> 7/7/2004 7:31:05 PM >>>
> 
> 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]
> 
> 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. 
> 
> 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.
> 
> You should see what the NS telco hands out now if you want them to
> supply a low-end phone instead of going to the nice phone store and
> shelling out for a piece of telephonic decorator doo-dah in your
> choice of styles and colors. Gak! [2]
> 
> - Mike
> 
> [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.
> 
> [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.  And also a "fake" 2500 set, made by Lucent, that isn't
>     indestructo like the "real" ones but is tone/pulse
>     switchable. Total cost circa $15.  So we were all set when they
>     switched us over without notice.  It's going to be fun when I take
>     the dial phones (for which we've been more or less stupidly paying
>     rent) back and have the conversation with whoever is manning the
>     telco counter.  I anticipate a 20-year-old who has never seen a
>     dial phone and doesn't believe these are real phones.
> 
> -- 
> Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
>                                                            /V\ 
> mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
> http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^