I am loathe to commend VZ due to their corporate culture of never getting anything right, BUT, fair is fair, so here goes:
I was called to the home of a VIP in my town (a former NY big politician) whose #2 line was out of order. It is assigned to his fax, and alarm, so it was kind of urgent that we get the line back in service.
Them: "We can have someone there on the 16th."
Me: "No, this is the home of ( V I P ) and you'll have someone here by noon, today, and if you don't believe me, ask your supervisor to come on the line and she can talk to The Hon. Himself."
Two hours later, a VZ repairman shows up and we determine that the short circuit is in the F1.
At that point, I realized that this was not going to get repaired today, because VZ are going on strike at midnight tonight, and there was no frame man available in the CO to run in a new cross-connection, even if the repairman and I could find a spare pair.
Then (as a friend of mine says) "Wow and behold" the repairman whips out his cell phone, scrolls to an app that allows him access to cable records, downloads a list of about 5 or 6 spare pairs, and then goes to another app that allows him to test the pairs via the cell phone. He finds a good pair, and then I say "Well, I guess 'I'll be you', and you go back to the central office, and 'you be the frame man', and we'll get this line back in service."
He gives me the look that my kids give me when I can't figure out how to put the batteries in the remote, puts his buttset on the new pair, and presses some magical buttons on his cell phone.
He says "Haven't you heard of "cut-throughs"? I say, "Of course I've heard of them...they were made policy before you were born, but the program never worked because nobody kept the records straight."
Within TWO MINUTES, dial tone is heard in the buttset.
The bottom line: VZ has lost 40% of their market share to the competition, because along the way, they were using antiquated technology and failed to embrace the new way of doing things. Today's lesson was an eye-opener to an old guy like me, who signs his messages (30 years of service, 15 years on Hold) referring to his experience in doing cable transfers the old way.
Too little and too late, but at least they will go out with a bang. It almost makes me feel sorry for them.
