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| Bell Telephone | |
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| Topic Started: Jun 5 2012, 03:01 AM (303 Views) | |
| goldengal | Jun 5 2012, 03:01 AM Post #1 |
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Mistress, House of Dogs
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Once again our land lines are out - both my daughter's and mine. Tried calling them, and after pressing everything, they want to set up an appointment. However, this is the third time this has happened in the past year to both phones, and it can always be fixed from Bell's end. How to tell them that though when you cannot reach them????? You can chat with them online - that is if there was someone to chat with, but it says all their agents are busy, and it does not appear there is any queue. No wonder customers are not in a happy mood by the time they do get connected - IF! Take care, Pat |
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| margrace | Jun 5 2012, 03:05 AM Post #2 |
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Gold Star Member
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Our bell line went out several years ago and it turned out that there is a battery in the hook up just down the road from us. Bell told us they had no way of checking the batteries, go figure. |
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| Trotsky | Jun 5 2012, 03:28 AM Post #3 |
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Big City Boy
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What is your telephone company in Canada that you call "Bell?" Is it part of the old AT&T company that was busted up in the United States and cobbled together into Verizon (the old Bell Atlantic,) Sprint, all the cable TV companies and dozens of other provieders? Do you still have something called BELL CANADA that is a remnant of the old AT&T system as you major land-line provider? |
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| Delphi51 | Jun 5 2012, 03:29 AM Post #4 |
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Member title
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I hear this about rural lines in Alberta and Telus. It looks like they want to abandon those lines and get everyone on their cellular system. One family said yesterday they were told they could fix their line themselves if they wanted to but Telus would not. That is an interesting question, Trotsky. Wikipedia says
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System Bell is the main phoneco in central Canada. In the west each provincial government operated their own. Manitoba and Saskatchewan still do. Alberta and BC privatized theirs - now combined as Telus. Edited by Delphi51, Jun 5 2012, 03:56 AM.
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| goldengal | Jun 5 2012, 05:55 AM Post #5 |
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Mistress, House of Dogs
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Have been with Bell forever, but do I get exasperated. I know many like the automated system of dealing with companies, but put me down for a NO. Today was a perfect example of where I wanted a human to talk to, but was unable to reach one. Now if I was calling say about changing my long distance plan or whatever, I could hold on forever and get a real person, but not in this case. How surprised I was before I went out this morning to discover my line is now working. Haven't checked Kim's yet as her cleaning lady is here. I did see a Bell truck on the street south of us so perhaps there is a problem in the area. Keeping fingers crossed it continues to work. Take care, Pat |
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| FuzzyO | Jun 5 2012, 05:57 AM Post #6 |
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Hope so Pat! |
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| goldengal | Jun 5 2012, 06:08 AM Post #7 |
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Mistress, House of Dogs
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Well, I just checked Kim's and it is still not working. Guess I'll try what I did when I called 310-BELL this morning and went as far pressing buttons as to where I was to schedule an appointment for a technician and then hang up. It worked once so who knows ....... Just watch ... then mine will not work. I should have talked to the chap in the Bell truck when I was on my way out this morning. Talk care, Pat |
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| Delphi51 | Jun 5 2012, 12:13 PM Post #8 |
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Member title
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There are companies here that live on the fringe of Telus. I talked to one of them this morning, from a company called PhoneCo. They help businesses deal with Telus and do stuff like setting up networks for voice or data in businesses. This guy got hold of Telus tech support very quickly - he had a special number to call and a technician's ID. Alas, I suppose this is the expensive way to do it, worth the cost only for a business. No doubt you already know the trick of testing the line at the entrance to the residence. Here the phoneco puts a box on the outside of the house with two jacks in it. The lines in the house are connected to one of the jacks. You plug your phone right into that jack and if it works, you know the problem is inside your house and you are responsible. If it doesn't work, the phone company is responsible. The second jack is for a second phone number. |
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| wildie | Jun 5 2012, 01:45 PM Post #9 |
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Veteran Member
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When the CRTC deregulated telephone service, Bell decided to divest itself of all the teleco wiring in residences. Bell had millions of dollars worth of inside wire that they gave away to their customers, for free. At this time they embarked on a program of installing what was called 'demarkation' jacks. The intent being a customer could disconnect the wire inside his home and could simply plug in a telephone in order to ascertain whether a fault was in telco facilities or in their home. If it appeared that the fault was on the telco side, a call would be made to Bell repair. On the otherhand, if the trouble was in the home, the home owner could hire a private contractor to come and have a look! Or they could call Bell and they would send a technician, at the home owners expense. The third option was that the owner could repair the problem themselves. This procedure was initiated by Bell and then for some inexplicable reason, Bell quit installing demarkation jacks! I assume it was found that it required a major capital expense on the part of Bell. An expense that would have no profitable return, so my guess is that a business decision was made to quit doing this. The negative consequence for customer was that he would have no way of sectionalizing a fault, so would have to request that Bell would send a repair person. On arrival, the technician would make the necessary tests and if a fault appeared to be in the house, they would offer to make a repair, informing the customer of the service charge that would apply. This procedure virtually elliminated competition from private contractors. And of course gave Bell an additional source of revenue! |
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| Delphi51 | Jun 5 2012, 06:05 PM Post #10 |
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Member title
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Most unfortunate! I don't know if Telus is still installing the jacks here. Hope so. But easy enough for the homeowner to install a phone jack right beside the terminals and plug a phone in there to see if the problem is in the house or not. |
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| goldengal | Jun 5 2012, 11:33 PM Post #11 |
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Mistress, House of Dogs
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I went through the exact same steps by phone with Bell for Kim's phone. The automated system said "you are calling from --- --- ----. Is that the number you are calling about, and I then gave Kim's number, and miraculously it worked shortly after which makes me think the problem was either at their end or on the street. We'll see how long they are operational this time. Take care, Pat |
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| wildie | Jun 6 2012, 03:39 AM Post #12 |
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Veteran Member
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One thing that Bell did was to set up a webpage, outlining a fault clearing routine that a customer may follow, if they have phone problems. I read through this on one occasion and it seemed complete. However, if the customer is a DSL internet subscriber, the phone line fault may also impact the DSL service also! In that case, it would be difficult to access the phone repair instructions! |
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| Trotsky | Jun 18 2012, 03:39 AM Post #13 |
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Big City Boy
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A slightly different wrinkle for me. I have the Verizon FIOS system. This is underground fiber optic cable that comes into the house and enters a box called the ONT (optical network teminal.) From there it goes via ethernet to a router where it feeds my computer and back to the DVD player which decodes video streaming to the TV. Another output from the ONT goes to the cable box/DVR for regular TV service, and a third output is standard phone wire which goes, not surprisingly, to my phones. The old copper wiring coming into the basement and snaking though all the aparments is more and more becoming unused. I am SO happy that all my wiring, communications and electricity, since 1987 have neen underground with only ONE outage and that was when the Eastern Seaboard went dark in the Great Blackout. Before 1987 I lived in an old neighborhood with overhead wiring and every Friday when the drunks hit the roads after the bars we'd hear brakes screeching and POW...and off went the lights and most everything else. Edited by Trotsky, Jun 18 2012, 03:41 AM.
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| wildie | Jun 18 2012, 12:58 PM Post #14 |
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Veteran Member
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Your FIOS service seems to be akin to Bell's FIBE service! Its being offere in major cities such as Montreal and Toronto. We people in the nether regions, don't count in the scheme of things. By the way, when Bell fired people by the thousands back in the 90s, many of my friends found employment with Verizon! |
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