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Comment by yaky | Hacker News Reader

Not as catastrophic, but during power outages in my neighborhood, I am usually left with a poor cell signal (no backups on cable internet boxes). Electric utility's outage map is hidden behind a login (!) and is rendered with fancy clustering and other UI features that are already slow even with a decent connection. So it takes quite a while to check the status or even report an outage.

I could call the utlity company, but for some reason, they chose voice navigation (instead of keypad tones) for their menu, and it is not good at recognizing distorted voice (over bad 4G or 2G connection).

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The electric utility in my area is this bad and worse. I once reported a power outage when the power wasn’t actually out (explanation follows) and they had no way for me to cancel the report when I realized everything was fine. I tried calling but couldn’t get past an automated “we received your report and are working on it” message.

(Why would I report an outage when the power wasn’t out? Our lights blipped and my whole-home battery backup system kicked into action and showed a “grid outage” message. I checked it a few minutes later and it still showed the same status, so wanting to be a helpful neighbor, I reported it. I found out later that the battery backup system stays off-grid for five minutes following an outage of any length, even just a blip, I think as a debounce protection. When the utility trucks showed up, I told them what had happened and that their system wouldn’t let me cancel the report, but they were just glad to have a break from running around dealing with outages nearby, so they stayed and talked for a few minutes, curious about the battery system. Nice guys.)

Heh, similar issue once, only no battery backup and the main breaker would trip instantly. So, we had power, but it wasn't coming back up. After an expensive discovery that the issue wasn't on our side, the power company had to get into the junction box and discover that the wire had melted to the metal. We were 'this close' to losing everything due to a fire. Especially because once the metal cooled down enough, the power could come back on for a few hours.

> they chose voice navigation (instead of keypad tones) for their menu

Most voice menus have hidden, 1-indexed touchtone mappings.

The only time I've had an issue with using the keypad is during the prompt that goes something like, "In a few words, tell me what you're calling about."

Hitting zero repeatedly at that point is usually the only way through.

I was at the T-Mobile internet trucks in Asheville and the woman next to me was obviously stuck in some automated voice menu hell — you know when some one is sitting on the phone quietly listening to whatever the question “What can I help you with?” and then answering with one clear word. I saw her sitting there like that waiting, then respond clearly, “Disaster!” I’m going to guess the system didn’t have a way of handling that answer.

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