TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Local Exchange Not Local in Sylva, NC

Local Exchange Not Local in Sylva, NC

Fred Atkinson (fatkinson@mishmash.com)
Fri, 19 Aug 2005 18:23:19 -0400

I recently moved to Sylva, NC to work in nearby Cullowhee, NC (it's
about a fifteen minute drive (tops) between the two places).

Our local calling area is between three small cities, Sylva,
Cullowhee, and Cashiers. Anything outside that zone is long distance
for us.

I acquired Voicepulse VOIP service when I moved here. They offered
Sylva and Cashiers, NC telephone exchanges. I got a Sylva number on
the 534 exchange. It's been working fine.

Today, I tried to dial into my home number from work so I could check my
voicemail. I dialed 9 and then 53 and got no farther. It retuned a busy
signal. We tried it from several different phones and got the same results.

I called the telecom guys and told them of this dilemna. Despite the
fact that I had explained about it being from a VOIP provider, he
asked me several times if it was a Verizon exchange. I told him no,
it wasn't. It was a special services exchange in the Sylva, NC area.

He told me he couldn't get it added to the switch without going
through a bunch of hoops (a number of people had to sign off on it).
I couldn't believe it. All he should have to do is call their
provider and confirm that it is a local exchange.

Meantime, my colleagues cannot call me at home (from work) when a need
arises.

Bureaucracy at its best.

Regards,

Fred

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You should have just told him "yes, it
is a local number; a new exchange just opened in the past year or so."
As soon as you got into the discussion about it being VOIP and a
'special services exchange' you probably shorted out his little
one-volt brain.

I had an _identical_ situation several years ago. A place where I was
working had a Rolm PBX. A new exchange was started in Chicago and I
had a phone on it. The PBX guy was a real bureaucrat also and knew
little or nothing about the repair/maintainence/programming of it.
Naturally he assumed everyone else in the office was too dumb to know
anything about it also. I told him three or four times that particular
exchange (312-836) should be added, but of course he knew so much
better than me. I had various phone numbers I could use, but I decided
one day the only one I would put on company records was that 312-836
number. I knew it would only be a matter of time until _someone_ in
authority around there needed to reach me, and _they_ would be the
one to come down hard on this idiot -- which I had no authority to
do. Sure enough, it took two or three weeks, but one day I got a
phone call from the office manager asking if I could come in that
evening and do a special job for him. And he was calling me, with an
angry tone of voice from a payphone down the street somewhere when he
could not get through on his office phone. A couple days later, the
Rolm PBX had been reprogrammed to dial 312-836 numbers.

So Fred, why don't you consider making that VOIP number the _only_
number on file for you with the company. Back them into a corner and
_someone_ will get the bureaucatic nonsense eliminated there. Give
them no alternate numbers, no easy way to ignore the problem. PAT]

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