Rich221976 My other favorite was working with a customer, that had a slow a** computer. She called in saying that her speeds were slow. It was the computer. Tried to explain to her that clicking on the start menu should not take 10 minutes for it to come up. She knew we had the ability to remote into her computer to check. I refused to install the software on there.
A few months after DOT.net went to self installs the DSL side of the house was so overwhelmed with tickets some of us in SSI&M where loaned over to DSL.
I didn't like it but it what it was, well I picked up a ticket in Davie Florida, trouble computer running slow, I grabbed it because it would be an easy one and billable, we don't repair PC's, after knocking on the door this rather scruffy somewhat foul smelling guy answers the door and starts ranting ever since he installed the DSL kit his PC has been running slow, "here I'll show you " he barked, I followed him into what I assume was a bedroom, he hit the space bar on the keyboard the screen woke up and on it a number of images of naked young boys, he quickly hit the power button on the monitor and led me back to the door stating "it seems to be working fine now," it must have been something you guys fixed outside.
Uh ha.
I drove over to one of our maxi-huts where I could sit in the AC and called my manager and explained to him what I saw, his answer was you know how it is supposed to go, meaning we are not supposed to see too much in a subs home, just do our job, he followed that with "so do what you think is necessary."
I called the non-emergency number for the Davie PD and explained to the call taker who I am and what I saw, she advised me a unit would be on the way.
Two patrol cars showed up, then a UC, after explaining to them what happened the UC commented to me they would try to keep me out of it, but I may have to go to court, I told him I didn't because I wanted the guy busted plus would get paid by the company for going to court.
A week or so later my wife showed me a article in the local newspaper and asked if that might have been the house I was at, it was, the PD served a search warrant on it at something like 4:00 AM, what a great way to wake up, and it was noted in the article the police found thousands of photographs similar to what I described to the officers on his PC's. Oh well at least I didn't have to be concerned with that sub dinging my numbers with a revisit for a "slow computer" anymore.
Another mess we got into was SLC 5 upgrades, our side of the company was upgrading the SLC systems using a new control card and a new common card, one of which was connected to a DS3, this allowed the use of a special line card to serve a DSL sub without using a DSLAM, our testing indicated all was well with good sync, at the same time the company was moving to self installs to cut back on truck rolls, that created problems the Alcatel Stingray modems which where crap to begin with where not compatible with the newer modulation used by the DSL line cards, an older Alcatel 1000 would work as did the more expensive but real nice DSL modems that where being installed in business's, but not the Stingrays.
Well it didn't take long before the lines at TS where burning up with equally hot subs who wanted working DSL not a cardboard box and a USB modem, then once the DSL techs figured out they could swap the Stingray with the upgrade business modem the DSL side began running out of those modems.
Now for those who don't understand phone that companies operate in silo's and the silos don't normally communicate with each other until a problem bubbles up to Atlanta and the combination of self install kits resulting in truck rolls being one to one, combined with thousands of business class modems being installed in residences caused the silos to begin bickering with each other combined with a lot of finger pointing, the phone company has a statement "first we fix blame then we fix the problem.
The solution was simple thousands of self install kits that had not yet been shipped where sent back to Alcatel with a memo "fix the problem or you will get the blame," so Alcatel solved the problem by releasing another USB modem with a newer chipset in it that would work properly with the modulation used by the SLC DSL line cards.
At the time we had a part of TS that mostly worked with techs and I got to know a few of them and found out they where being forced to work 12 hours a day just to keep up with what that combination of technologies caused.
After hearing that I thought to myself wouldn't it had been better to test these technologies before rolling them out and wasting thousands of man hours while PO'ing even more subs, then I reminded myself no we are the phone company we do what we think will work and afterwards try to figure out why it didn't.
So while I worked in SSI&M, I self studied ADSL with as much material I could find from within and outside the company, and I got really good at solving really weird ADSL problem which tended to increase my value within the company to the point I became known to the CEO of AT&T, who was instrumental in having me sent to a number of ADSL and cable repair related class's at various Telco related trade shows around the SE US.
I also wrote a number of company approved articles for trade magazines such as Security Distributing and Marketing who published one of mine on how to interface alarm systems with ADSL over POTS lines, articles I where paid for as well and corporate would get additional free copies to be distributed to various ADSL managers through out the company.
Then once in Wireless I got into understand and designing grounding and bonding systems for communications sites which turned into a side business that I am still running to this day.
It's been a lot of fun and made me a little extra cash now then then and a bit of free all expense paid travel as well.
