Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 08:38:43 GMT
From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: InterOffice Trunk Help Needed
Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 867, Message 6 of 6

In article <telecom12.851.5@eecs.nwu.edu> bill.garfield@yob.sccsi.com
(Bill Garfield) writes:

[description of problem deleted]

> I strongly suspect inter-machine trunk trouble between the
> National and Clay central offices, but how do I prove this and how do
> I get through to the teledroid at repair service that we're
> experiencing this problem on ALL 216 DID trunks?  Profound thoughts
> and ideas are welcomed.

Last summer I was having a lot of problems with my home POTS service
from Pacific Bell.  Often when I would try to dial, I would get a
reorder.  Also, callers to me would report that my line had been busy
when I know it was not, and sometimes callers would get reorder when
calling me.  This was happening on all of my lines.  Since I was
served from a brand new 5ESS Remote that had been cut over just
recently, I suspected a lack of facilities problem between my CO and
the one that it was slaved off of.

My first call to Repair Service resulted in my cordless phone being to
blame, or perhaps my tone generator in my phone was broken, or perhaps
any number of causes that were not Pacific Bell's responsibility.
While I was on the line with Repair, they checked my line and reported
that it was fine (their line test of course would not show a lack of
inter-office facilities problem).  I went along with the program,
filed my trouble report, and was promised resolution by "5pm
tomorrow."  

When the same problem happened a few days later, I called back Repair,
and entered another report, since the first one had been cleared.
When it started happening again, I called Repair again, and this time
insisted to be allowed to talk to someone technical, since I had
followed all of their suggestions (such as unplugging my cordless
phone, using separate instruments, etc.), and they just kept clearing
out the tickets without fixing it.  I again posed the possibility of
inter-office lack of facilities, and asked the Repair operator if they
have access to reports that would indicate times when all facilities
were full.  She said "no," and I then said "Well you can't rule that
out then, can you, since you don't know!"  I was polite but firm, and
they finally agreed to have a technical person call me back.

The next day, I got a call from an obviously technical CO person, who
had obviously not been through the "telephone manners" training that
the normal reps go through.  Not that he was rude, but it was obvious
that this person's primary job was not to talk to customers on the
phone, which is exactly the kind of person I needed.  I could discuss
the technical details, and suggest what I thought the problem was, and
he understood and agreed with my suggestions.  He called back the next
day to tell me that this was exactly the problem -- my switch had way
too few trunks to the switch it was slaved off, and there were frequent 
times when no facilities were available.


He thanked my profusely, and said that by being persistant, "You have
saved Pacific Bell millions of dollars" in lost revenue and problems
in the future.  Perhaps a bit of overkill, but he could not thank me
enough, and within a week, the problem went away.

The moral to the story is to go with the regular Repair Service
program for a couple of cycles, and after the ticket gets cleared a
couple of times with no resolution, be polite but firm and insist that
your problem be escalated and that you be allowed to talk with the
level of person you need.


Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com