Large Scale Central

Crap

General Discussion
#1

With a period.

I had arranged a smooth, seamless changeover to internet phone service.
Reading horror stories in the past, when my server came up with it, I asked all the questions, even have it in print that it won’t change until they are ready to basically “throw the switch”.

Last night, last incoming call was 1854 hours.
From that time until 2013 tonight, I spent more hours than I want to think of on the phone with India and Pakistan, and on chat with their menu-reading service folks.
I had NO incoming calls for over 25 hours.

Works now, but the server gets a personal call tomorrow.

#2
Curmudgeon said:
With a period.

I had arranged a smooth, seamless changeover to internet phone service.
Reading horror stories in the past, when my server came up with it, I asked all the questions, even have it in print that it won’t change until they are ready to basically “throw the switch”.

Last night, last incoming call was 1854 hours.
From that time until 2013 tonight, I spent more hours than I want to think of on the phone with India and Pakistan, and on chat with their menu-reading service folks.
I had NO incoming calls for over 25 hours.

Works now, but the server gets a personal call tomorrow.


Well remember Dave that customer service was moved to India and Pakistan solely to “serve you better”. Bet you thought it was money motivated didn’t you? :wink: Dell computer is the same way I understand. I hope I never have a problem with this computer and Carroll’s Web (our local smoke signal ISP) doesn’t have internet phone service. How lucky we are to have people watching over us!

#3

Does this mean we’re gonna see DAve featured in a Vonage Commercial?

Guy hops out of his car excalims…“Look Honey a CUTE GArden railroad!” And commences to plunk down some Eurotrash on the CC Rys…DAve hops out of an Orange Van and Pummles him to death with a Vonage box…

Hoo hoo …hoo hoo hoo…hoo hoo…hoo hooo hoooo

#4

If it is Vonage you’ve got, remember that “Vonage 911 does not work like traditional 911.”

Which means your 911 calls can go to Pakistan too, and a very helpful sort attempts to connect you to your local agency.

Look up the 7 digit number for your local police (and fire, and ems centers if they’re different) and post them by the phone. You’ll need them if something happens. Also keep a cell phone handy for power failures, etc. You’ve already discovered how much fun customer service is if there’s a problem. (If you’re using an internet phone by a “backbone” company like Time Warner or Comcast it’s a bit better… but Vonage in particular has some issues.)

Matthew (OV)

#5

We experimented with Vonage at work a little over a year ago. We added one vonage line to our phone system. It was connected to the Internet through a dedicated cable modem connection. It sucked. Call quality was less than half of a wired line, calls often did not go through, usually the person being called complained that they couldn’t hear us.

Internet Phone is not ready for prime time - period.

Like Matthew says, 911 can be a problem. Power outages are a definite problem even if you have local back-up power, it’s likely a switch or two you need to get through doesn’t. If your Internet connection is cable (rather than DSL) then it’s unlikely that they have any backup power in the hundreds of amplifiers in the path from your house to the net.

At home my cable Internet service is down quite often and my cell phone is very spotty from home. No IP phone for me.

JR

#6

And Matthew has posted my Opinion of Vonage from the point of view of a Public Saftey Telecommunications Professional…not to mention THEY DON’T PAY!!! Your local 911 service is for the most part paid for by a surcharge on the Land Line and Cellphones. Vonage doesn;t want to do the same to help support the local system and make the world a little better place…“One smart decision in a world of stupid ones”

#7
Matthew (OV) said:
Which means your 911 calls can go to Pakistan too, and a very helpful sort attempts to connect you to your local agency.
Of course, I may get better response from Pakistan than Aurora's 911 dispatch. "Oh, someone's trying to pick the lock of the house next door at 10 pm? Maybe he's supposed to be there." Then, with a tone reserved for the most mangy of dogs, "Oh, you're in[i] Centennial.[/i] Let me transfer you." *click* Very friendly, concerned voice: "Arapahoe County 911..." A deputy arrived on scene within a minute of hanging up. We call Arapahoe County directly now. When I have a heart attack, I really don't want the dispatcher to say "well, maybe it's just 'your time.'"
#8

If you’re in Centennial, in Arapahoe county’s PSA, and your 911 calls are being mis-routed to Aurora, you ought to look into having someone (presumably at county) do a 911 inquiry, and ensure that future 911 calls are correctly routed to the agency that dispatches the responders who serve you.

As Bart says, I’m approaching this from the perspective of a PROFESSIONAL Emergency Telecommunicator. Stories of encounters like yours with Aurora make us all look bad, and contributes to the same kind of nonsense that makes the general public believe that all police are inherently corrupt or violent, all volunteer firemen are drunkards, and all “ambulance drivers” (since apparently everyone’s stuck in the 60’s) are insane, addicted to recreational drugs, or both. Every time I hear something like that, it’s embarassing, because most of the time, in most places it’s simply not like that.

Unfortunately there isn’t much of a market for good news, and one “uh oh” is worth 1,000 “attaboys” so the liklihood of hearing from the folks we do actually manage to help between abuses of the system and vitriolic diatribes is pretty slim, particularly since William Shatner’s stopped throwing picnics for such folks and spends his time pitching Priceline, dot com.

As to Vonage … well, like they say…(cue music: woo hoo, woo hoo hoo…) Some people… well, you know.

#9

And incidentally I just happen to be the Kentucky Telecommunicator of the Year for 2006-2007…I have been doing this since 1994. I take “horror stories” like that PERSONALLY. We have a neighboring county that is a regular Den of Iniquity, since the local cell tower is within our jurisdiction we regularly get 911 calls for them…the stuff you hear on a transfer… We’ve com a long ways. Back in the day We were a Foot inthe Door to becoming a cop, and that pretty well tells ya the type of people we seemed to recruit. We were just people who answered the phone…anyone can do that…in the last 10 years we have become a career not just a job. To be emplyed for a 911 agency that dispatches law inforcement you are required by LAW to pass a pre hire test that includes backround checks, drug testing, and a polygraph test as well a pshcological profiling, then you are required to attend a 6 week long Academy at the Police Academy. There are also no Professional Development Standards mandated by the state and annual inservice requirements. All this just to answer the phone and tell the cops where to go…

#10

Earthlink MyVoice.

Clarity seems fine, in fact, for the first time ever I had to turn DOWN the volume on my phone last night.

They tell me the 911 works direct, but I’ll ask (rather than try it too see).

#11

Well if you can find an admin number for your local Shop…give them a calland explain what you wouldlike to do…we arrange test calls all the time…I would rather spend 5 minutes making sure that have to play catchup later when someone’s life may depend on it…

#12

Earthlink’s broadband phone is a “backbone” carrier as described above… they actually make it work the right way as far as 911 goes (well, at least the parts that use things like Comcast and Time Warner do) though there are different configurations for the power supply depending on where you are, so you may have different things happen during a power outage than other folks you meet who use the same type of system.

No cuckoo birds involved.

#13
Matthew (OV) said:
No cuckoo birds involved.
You ain't answering the phone HERE today obviously!

ACTUAL QUESTION ON A 911 LINE:“Is it illegal to take a picture of someone’s poop?”

#14

I checked. The 911 cals go direct to the local 911 center.

Only took 64 minutes on the second call to get this all sorted out.
Actually found the phone for Earhlink in Atlanta on the ARIN listing and called.

So far, all is functional.

TOC

#15

Dave,

That’s what you get for tempting the “Gods of the Bits”! :wink: :slight_smile:

#16

When it comes to solving technical problems, theres alway’s MY way…

#17

The best laid schemes of mice and men…

#18

I have been using a VOIP telephone service with Firefly since late June.
There is an ATA plugged directly into my router.
I have a set of four Panasonic 5.8 Ghz walkaround house phones plugged into the ATA.
Generally the clarity is just fine although occasionally the voice quality does drift a bit.
The Panasonics are giving me a bit of grief.
The base unit seems to forget what the time and date is as a call comes in.
Panasonic have agreed to replace the particular base unit.

The potential cost reduction was a big factor in my decision to abandon my old Telstra landline. So far the actual costs have have been about what I expected.

As it is always with me, I have kept my cell phone as the primary point of contact for RCS.

#19

Sorry, Bart and Matt. Don’t mean to disparage 911 operators. In my experience from dealing with your colleagues and other emergency personnel via the various stories I’ve covered, 95% of y’all epitomize the unsung hero. Unfortunately in your line of work, when things go wrong, it is often a life-or-death situation, and that makes headlines. By the same token, we frequently cover stories when things go right, such as when a dispatcher talks a 5-year-old through giving CPR to his collapsed mother or a campus cop who is flagged down in a parking lot to deliver a baby.

Alas, there are certain districts (Aurora being one) that are under-funded, under-staffed, and overworked. I don’t envy those operators one bit. What’s sadder is that as much as the constituents complain about slow response times, surly operators, and too few cops on the street, they rarely will approve tax increases to remedy the situation. You get what you pay for.

Later,

K

#20

Or, when I had a couple of prowlers in the yard looking to steal my 57-year-old car in the driveway…

And they sat on the call for 27 minutes, then dispatched it as a “drive-by security check, no contact”.

To get them to do THAT, I was in the upstairs window, ,45ACP in hand, called for the sixth time and stated:

“You have 10 secons to get an officer here. If he is not, please cancel the call and place a call for the coroner” and hung up.

Took about 20 seconds.