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Comment by mhurron | Hacker News Reader

> So in all fairness if I ever get my account locked for whatever reason, I need to make noise on reddit and yc news to get it resolved?

That is beginning to be increasingly required for everything. We had an issue with our land line when it would rain. Called the phone company, was 'fixed' every time, until it rained again. This went on for 12 months or so. Suggested to my wife she complain on their Facebook page. They called us, there was a truck out the next day, found the issue and actually fixed it. Never would have happened without the public complaint.

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I had the same problem. Verizon's solution was to install FIOS. They didn't want to spend the time or money to fix the underground copper.

I had a similar issue, except after some asking around it turned out that the entire street's internet would go down when it rained heavily (in England, so this is pretty often). It still took around a year to get fixed.

The problem with this kind of thing is this...

If its going out when it rains, its likely wiring on your house, not plant. Its probably past the point of demarkation (where you become liable for the line) ... 99% of the time this is the case (ex phone field tech)

You just raised enough attention to make it worthwhile to soak up the cost of replacing YOUR line for you...

Congratulations, you may have joined the ranks of entitled people who use public pressure to whine their way into getting what they want...

I don't think this is really justified, given the story presented. If the problem with GP's line was on their own property and not the responsibility of the phone company, the phone company has some responsibility to say so and not do some quick non-permanent fix every time they call.

We can't all be ex phone field techs. When we call a company providing us a service for support with that service, we expect them to do what they can and inform us of what they can't and what we can do about it. That's not unreasonable or entitled.

If it is my responsibility to pay for something, then just say so. Happy to fix my own messes. But don't tell me it's fixed 12 times over the course of a year and then complain when I demand it be fixed for real.

Even though the people on the other end of that line aren't always technically savvy individuals or generally in a good mood, they are adults and should be told the truth so they have a fair shot at solving their problem and moving on with their lives.

> If its going out when it rains, its likely wiring on your house, not plant

Ya, it wasn't and they knew it wasn't, they had already admitted that point. The phone company can actually tell when there is an issue on their end you know.

The issue was some of there equipment was missing a lid. So when it rained, it filled up faster than it drained and shorted the circuit. The solution was put the lid on that should be there.

But please, don't let facts (that you didn't know) get in the way of you continuing to rant as a previous field tech get in the way of telling people to suck things up because for some reason you still don't feel like doing that job.

Oh and I am fully aware of the difference in responsibility at the NID.

Phone company techs are extremely defensive. (This is often the case with cable company techs, too). Source: I used to regular DSLReports. Holy crap. XD

Where do you draw the line between "public pressure" and "whining" and "working around shit customer service?"

I think it's ridiculous that you have to make a fuss on Twitter to get anything fixed these days, but that's a failing of the 'normal' customer service channels most of the time.

Not even true. I have had this problem and had it traced to water ingress in a junction box some distance away.

Not sure where it is in the US / rest if world, but in Australia the point of demarcation for residential houses is the 1st phone point, so any issues in the line are almost certainly the telco's problem.

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