phone troubles

Woke up to a blinking red light on the DSL modem and no dial-tone on any phone. After trying to call SBC/AT&T's outage line (thankfully I have a mobile) and failing because it wouldn't take my phone number (grr), I navigate the general number and quickly get frustrated with the voice response system ("I'm sorry, I didn't get that. Did you say 'yes' or'no'?"), I got forwarded to...

...the same outage number that didn't like me before.

So I call back, finally get a human (who thanks me for being "a loyal AT&T customer"), and find out that there is indeed a problem with my line, and a technician will be sent out as early as possible. Unfortunately, "early" to them is (wait for it)...Wednesday the 29th.

I say that isn't acceptable, that I can't be without phone and internet for four days, especially as my job requires me to access internet from home, and tell the woman that I have had nothing but disappointment with SBC/AT&T,and that I'm very frustrated.

She was very helpful, I will say. She immediately called repair herself to see if they could get to me earlier, and kept coming back on line to let me know she was still trying and that she hadn't forgotten me. Repair told her to ask me if I used a cordless phone, and if so, to unplug both power and phone for *everything* that is attached to phone line, wait 3-5 minutes, then try again. She then gave me the direct toll-free number to Repair so I didn't have to fight the system again. Angela, you gave good customer service, and I thank you.

So I'm sitting for 3-5 minutes...we'll see if it works. I really hope it does...and if so, then I've got a new trick in my arsenal if I lose dial-tone again.

Cross your fingers...