Off the Grid!

I'm back!

We had no phone or Internet service for 3 days.

Last Thursday I had some calls to make. It was some time in the afternoon when I realized we had a problem. Each number I called rang busy, like calling overseas, a fast busy signal. When I tried to call our home number with our cell phone all I heard was constant ringing, no answering machine. I used my cell to contact our phone provider and they could not detect a problem from their end, however, they would send a technician out in the morning to check.


The next morning as I was walking the dog, I happened upon the technician at the junction box. I inquired if he was their on our behalf. He thought it was funny that I found him. I knew there would be a technician there, there always is! He assured us the problem was not originating from our home. It seems some water infiltrated a trunk line a few streets away and had caused our line to cross. They had to change our phone number to a new trunk line. I was advised that this would take a few hours.


All day Friday, whenever we picked up one of our phones, we heard silence, not even a dial tone.

Finally, Friday evening I once again used my cell phone to contact the phone providers customer service department. They advised me that the issue had been resolved and it was up to us to reset the phones. Reset the phones? What is that all about? How are we supposed to know this? All we have is dead air! She advised it is up to us to disconnect all phones and Internet and then we are to go around with one phone and plug it into each line, one at a time and then we should have dial tone! I thought she was nuts, however, we disconnected all our phones and Internet and reconnected.... to silence once again!


Now, I am starting to get angry. I once again called customer service and they said they would send out a technician the next day, Saturday (today). The time frame they gave me was anywhere from 8am until 5pm! I told them that that was highly unacceptable and they should have someone to our home by 8am, sharp!


I woke up at 8am to a beautiful Saturday morning and promptly contacted customer service, (on my cell which is now down to a few minutes). The gentleman I spoke with, (here in Canada), gave me the direct number to the repair office here in our city. The gentleman I reached checked and confirmed that the problem was their's. He said someone had already been out to the junction box that morning and found our line physically disconnected. They reconnected and closed the job ticket without confirming that we had service! Well, we didn't! The gentleman advised he would send someone out immediately to check and fix. He also confirmed that said technician would speak with us directly to make sure all was ok.


Thirty minutes later the technician was at our home telling us he had fixed the problem. We had dial tone and he was able to call our home. The Internet was also now working, (the kids are very happy). He also told us that there was no need to 'reset' the phones. He confirmed what I had thought, when the line was fixed we would have dial tone. As I am writing this I just received an automated phone call from the service provider advising us the problem was with them and has now been fixed.


It feels great to be back, although, my husband and I did admit that the silence was very relaxing. It was almost similar to the big power outage of a few years back. As we had no phone or Internet, we filled our time with other pursuits!