Called the hospital to see how my Mom was doing. She's 89.975 years old and had a flu and a few other minor things go wrong. Called the main listed number, and then tried to key-in the choice for "Patient Information" but it kept taking me back to the main greeting. Couldn't get through to any extension except "0". She took about 3 minutes to answer. Just sales pitch-on-hold, no call-progress tones.

"O" tried to connect me, but couldn't. I listened to a sales pitch about how great the hospital is for a total of 8 more minutes while waiting for her to to tell me that the extension I want is 5154 (room 154) but it's busy.

She also says that I can call the room directly by dialing 477 + the 4-digit extension. That advice smells, because I happen to know that the GReenport7 wire center does NOT have DID capability, and that in the event that a large subscriber changes over to DID, and needs to have a large block of DID numbers, the BOC almost always has to create a new NNX to accommodate the block, since there is a high probability that most of the 4D are already in use throughout the community.

I hang up and try Method #1 (call the MLN and try to key-in the extension, 5154). The auto-attendant says "If you know your party's extension, please dial '5' plus the THREE DIGIT EXTENSION."

Hmmm...the three digit extension must be...154...so, I dial "5" + "154". As soon as I dial "51..." I get a recording that is unintelligible, but seems to sound like an internal intercept message.

I hang up and try method #2: Call 477+5154. I get a ring trip, and "unable to complete" intercept.

I hang up, put on my coat, get in my truck, go get on line at the ferry, wait a few minutes, a boat arrives, and I go to Greenport. I drive to the hospital, park in the lot, and go inside.

I go upstairs to see Mom, who is doing great. On the elevator ride, I mention to a handsome older woman in a business suit that I just spent six bucks for a ferry ride, to go 2 miles from home, and a half hour of my time, to talk to my Mom, when a simple phone call would have sufficed.

She rolls her eyes, and says "Yes, we've been having a lot of trouble with our new phone system. For one thing, the computer installation company who put it in forgot to correct the main greeting. I'll bet you dialed "5" and then a three-digit extension, right? You should have dialed "4" and the extension. We've been trying to get them to come back and correct the message. They also told us that callers could just dial "477" + the extension numbers, but that's not working, either."

I handed her my business card, and asked her to get it to the president's office. We shall see what happens next. Stay tuned.

This must have been a Cisco system

I'd have to guess that your mom was probably quite pleased that the phones weren't working as planned and she got to see her beautiful offspring in person. I'm sure you gave her a kiss and a big hug along with best wishes for the new year that she couldn't have gotten via a "RJ-11 crystal"

Nothing. Because they won't want to even talk to anybody that hasn't got a college IT degree and certificates hanging on their cubicle wall to show how smart they are. We're those evil guys from the past with no education, a white truck who took all their money. Mere trades people after all, who they said good riddance to when the wonderful technology of VoIP put their complicated phone systems in the hands of their own IT geniuses.

-Hal

Hal, you're a hopeless romantic.

Well on a good note glad to hear Mom is doing good

V (Very) O (Objectionable) I (Inept) P (Phones) are all the rage because some propeller head IT person said "this is the future." After replacing the third Cisco VOIP system with a conventional ESI system, I remarked to the business owner that sometimes "Bleeding Edge" is not the best. His reply: "When a computer equipment company produces a new piece of equipment and tells you it's the best, you know, right away, they're lying through their teeth and you have just become their Beta test site."

Funny, though....when the propeller heads can't get the junk to work, they call us back and beg us to bail them out. Amazing!

Rcaman

Yes, she was glad to see her "little boy." I am 14 inches taller and a hundred pounds heavier, but she stills calls me that.

She's home now, and back to her old tricks, including driving her Toyota with a 5-speed stick shift.

For anyone with an elder parent who is supposed to take blood pressure (or any) medicine daily, be sure to watch them if they catch a cold or the flu. The inability to keep food and fluids down also means that they stop taking their meds. In this case the patient had a blood pressure of 228/130 when admitted.

She complained of being a bit confused and had a severe headache, but "didn't want to bother those nice people at the ambulance corps." I'm a member of the squad, and I called 911 against her instructions. Bad boy!

The Doc in the ER said that's the highest he's ever seen, and she's lucky she didn't have a stroke.

Arthur, I too am very glad that everything is okay!!

Thanks, Jeff.

What amazes me is the lack of service that is accepted because it is a new VoIP system. I would have my *** handed to me if I had an implementation go as stated above.

It is amusing to have one of our nmore difficult customers brag about how great the new phones will be and they won't have to deal with us anymore. Then we get a winback and nothing is said, lol...

On a more personal note, Arthur, my prayers are with your mom and I hope she fully recovers. I'm glad you got to spend some time with your mom. I sure miss my own mom.

Rcaman

Arthur I am happy that your mom is doing better and that you are close enough to assist her.

As far as VOIP goes, I am surprised that there is such a difference in quality of VOIP service. In the past couple of years, I have had customers migrate to VOIP hosted services and am still in contact with them. They have no complaints about their new service.

Just surprised there is not a little more urgency in getting this resolved with the potential of lawsuits because Dr. Feelgood could not contact the ward about a patient of his/hers before they died.

Depending on the contract I would also not be surprised if there may be lawsuit for damages regarding installation / performance of the system by the installer.

What gets me is the Hospital Admin staff/IT dept let the installers go home. To me that issue is more then a punch list item.