Hello? Hello?

[chim]

We still have a land line. Recently the static / noise has become so bad that it's very difficult to converse. Yesterday Wifey asked me to fix it. I checked connections, swapped phones around and eventually went to the demark box or whatever they call it these days and connected right to the incoming wires. No good. The Brightspeed website describes the steps to check problems like this. After performing the checks that I did, it instructs you to contact them and a technician will come and fix it for free.

After not being able to contact them via the website, I called:

1350: Dialed and message declared they're busier than normal, conversation may be recorded, etc.

1408: First human - Jasper. Must be "J" day in India. Gave me kudos for being a valued customer since 1970. (In reality, my service did begin in 1970, but each of the 4 or 5 companies that kept buying each other out just passed me along) Provided him all the info on troubleshooting. Long-winded upsell. No thanks, just want the phone fixed. Round and round. Told me he scheduled a tech for 5/19 but continued upsell and needed my approval. Told him he doesn't need my approval to fix the phone. Please give me a supervisor

1428: Second human (with a "J") Jason. Same go-round as with Jasper. Nope don't want anything but a fixed phone. Jason again went over what I need to do to check out the line. Told him did that and already discussed with Jasper. Jason then said he needed to connect me with one of their top technicians. Okey dokey. (I'm retired, nobody is depending on me to do anything, and there's a storm brewing that prevents outdoor work.)

1452: Third human (Must be "M" day in Mexico) was Magalia. With the explanation of my troubleshooting that I already gave a few times, she gave me more canned upsell. I kept refusing and requesting a repair.

1503: Magalia informed me that she has "everything setted up" for a technician to be here between 0800 and 1700 on May 21st. I told her she should check because Jasper had it scheduled for 5/19. She checked and said there was nothing in their system from Jasper.

 

[re54drider]

We still have a land line. Recently the static / noise has become so bad that it's very difficult to converse. Yesterday Wifey asked me to fix it. I checked connections, swapped phones around and eventually went to the demark box or whatever they call it these days and connected right to the incoming wires. No good. The Brightspeed website describes the steps to check problems like this. After performing the checks that I did, it instructs you to contact them and a technician will come and fix it for free.

After not being able to contact them via the website, I called:

1350: Dialed and message declared they're busier than normal, conversation may be recorded, etc.

1408: First human - Jasper. Must be "J" day in India. Gave me kudos for being a valued customer since 1970. (In reality, my service did begin in 1970, but each of the 4 or 5 companies that kept buying each other out just passed me along) Provided him all the info on troubleshooting. Long-winded upsell. No thanks, just want the phone fixed. Round and round. Told me he scheduled a tech for 5/19 but continued upsell and needed my approval. Told him he doesn't need my approval to fix the phone. Please give me a supervisor

1428: Second human (with a "J") Jason. Same go-round as with Jasper. Nope don't want anything but a fixed phone. Jason again went over what I need to do to check out the line. Told him did that and already discussed with Jasper. Jason then said he needed to connect me with one of their top technicians. Okey dokey. (I'm retired, nobody is depending on me to do anything, and there's a storm brewing that prevents outdoor work.)

1452: Third human (Must be "M" day in Mexico) was Magalia. With the explanation of my troubleshooting that I already gave a few times, she gave me more canned upsell. I kept refusing and requesting a repair.

1503: Magalia informed me that she has "everything setted up" for a technician to be here between 0800 and 1700 on May 21st. I told her she should check because Jasper had it scheduled for 5/19. She checked and said there was nothing in their system from Jasper.

Good luck! I finally got myself shed of that outfit after 30 years, like you not originally but through mergers etc. I spent way too much time on the phone with them with no results. I suggest you look around for alternatives. I have not had a land line for 5 years and I don't miss it a bit.

David

 

[Hoserman]

I, along with several million other Americans can definitely attest to have experienced this exact same thing, and it NEVER gets any better. I think one time I got hold of Ralph (New Deli) who really had his head screwed on straight and fixed my issue in short order. I have absolutely nothing against people from India, but over the phone it sure is hard to talk to someone who don't have a mouthful of marbles. I feel your pain.

 

[Hugo Habicht]

I've been through that a few years back. Land line had died and after three weeks and three unsuccessful repair attempts I gave in to the mobile phone mafia. Never wanted to, to be honest. But after three weeks of no internet and phone for the business I had no choice.

Bought a 4G modem, got a pair of antennas, mounted it on the garage roof pointing to the best base station and I am enjoying 10 times as fast internet at a third of the price compared to before. As an added bonus the chinese GSM modem had an analogue phone socket (did not even mention that in the sales glossy) where I plugged in the old land line phone. Since then I ask myself why I stuck to the land line for so long ...

 

[armylifer]

If one reason for not wanting to switch from land line to mobile for you is that you don't want to lose your number, have the land line number ported over to the wireless carrier of your choice. I did that with my old land line number. I have had that number for over 30 years and did not want to change it. Having the number ported over to the mobile carrier allowed me to keep the same phone number and not have to inform everyone on my contact list about a new number.

 

[chim]

If one reason for not wanting to switch from land line to mobile for you is that you don't want to lose your number, have the land line number ported over to the wireless carrier of your choice. I did that with my old land line number. I have had that number for over 30 years and did not want to change it. Having the number ported over to the mobile carrier allowed me to keep the same phone number and not have to inform everyone on my contact list about a new number.

Disclaimer - I'm not well-versed in these things. Can I have my cell phone answer two numbers? Most of my communications are via cell, but it would be nice to not go through all the hassle of sending notifications to all the places that now use my land line number.

And an update: I received a text from Brightspeed last night that today's scheduled tech visit is now for next Wednesday. We would like to get set up with another internet provider, eliminate land line and tell Dimspeed to stuff their "service".

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

You can get a cell phone that will do mutiple lines but they are stupid expensive!
One other option is to forward your landline to your cell number.
I did that for years back when I had a landline.

 

[armylifer]

What NIW mentioned is correct on both points. However, if you check out Amazon you may be able to find a cell phone that has two SIM slots. A couple years ago I bought one for $119 that had two SIM slots. I have not shopped for one lately so I really do not know what is out there at present. It could be worth checking out though, if that really interests you. The other option is to buy a cheap cell phone for just home use and port your home number to it. Then forward your home number as NIW mentioned.