Is there any business with the continuity of their service or products ?

Release

I was going to make a phone call this evening through our land line ( land line ? you asked , why, I still have the land line service ) and found the "check phone line" message . The phone line was dead.

Kind of angry at the time because the only reason I had kept the land line is to safe guard the communication should something happened with power outage and the cell-towers down. We started decades ago with AT&T, changed to QWest then it turned into Century Link which was trying to switch us to use their internet, TV and Telephone package. Service were okay through the decades until tonight when I called for service and repair. I got this rep. on the other side sounded like from somewhere outside of the Country, Oh no, another case of outsourcing . I thought the outsourcing craze was over because of the general survey of unhappy customer. She went on reading through the script and asked all those obvious questions........which should be all right in front of her on her monitor. Went through the testing and then was going to set up a service call.

"Sir, I want you to agree that there could be a charge for service call of MINIMUM $89.99 plus tax should the source of the problem started from inside of the walls of your property. Should the problem started from outside the walls of your property then there would be no charge for service call....."

WTF, I don't think we have rats or mouse or any other kind of critters that will chew on the telephone wires.
Because she want me to verbally agree to the condition, which I was not willing to give a go, finally I asked to speak to another rep. took a few minutes for her to say okay then put me on hold on the dead line.

Really steamed up now. First thing tomorrow I will check with the other carrier to have the line switch to digital.

No sense spend more money to get bad service.

No one stays in their original service or product these days. Names and service kept going through the revolving doors. Book store sells coffee, Bagel shop sells breakfast sandwich, Pizza joint sells buffalo wings......Maybe be if everyone stays with the best of what they do, instead trying to do everything else, will have a better result at the end.

Bankshot

I have a box on the outside of the house that is the interface between inside and outside systems. I can plug a standard phone cord in that box that is in front of my internal system. If I have service there, I know the problem is inside. If no service then it's outside. Very simple to check.

Rickochet

Bankshot I have a box on the outside of the house that is the interface between inside and outside systems. I can plug a standard phone cord in that box that is in front of my internal system. If I have service there, I know the problem is inside. If no service then it's outside. Very simple to check.

I have one like that also. Mine takes a security bit to open which is a star or hex bit with a hollow center. These are available everywhere. Mine has four RJ jacks that you can plug a standard phone into. There are also terminals that connect the wire running into the house. Mine has red, green, black and yellow wires. Only the red and green are active in my house.

Rickochet

The $89 possible charge is standard. I have an ATT land line and have had a few issues. When I call they tell me the same thing. After a period of time the line is fixed and I have never been charged. What they said was they will fix it free to get signal to your house. If the problem is inside your house and you want them to fix it is when they will charge. You are not obligated to have to pay them to fix issues inside your house. Trouble shooting phone lines insider your house is pretty simple. You are only dealing with two wires. I have 8 wired phones in my house. If I have an issue I unplug all of the phones and start plugging them in one at a time. Usually it is one of my cordless phones that has the system jacked. If after checking all of the phones no change I call ATT. Often it is caused by a squirrel chew through along an outside line.

Release

Had checked with all the possible carriers in my area.
Cellular will meet all my needs for family and business, and it's extra $15 per line per month with overseas service ( with the exception of to Canada and Mexico which are free minutes ) each oversea;s minutes is 20 cents from anywhere of the 127 countries they have with the plan.
Meaning if I make a call from say, Hong King, or Tokyo, to home, then the 20 cents/min. apply. I don't travel much so it's no big deal.
Comcast will add the phone service for additional $19.99 per month without contract plus the calling plan which is another $9.99 with 300 free minutes and additional 7 cents per min. to landline and 15 cent per min to a mobile line. Here is the kicker, If I let my current contract runs out next month, my bill will jump another $29 withOUT the phone service, but if I sign up with another plan for 2 years, it'll be just $15 more per month WITH the phone service..... Duh.
And I asked if the rate will be higher after the first of the two year contract and the reply is no, the rate will stay the same for the contractual period ( guess the TV advertising for attacking the rate hike for cable service really worked ).

I don't know. where is the time when no one has a phone. Bet there would be more savings in the bank, right ?

sdandrea1

My bubble popped when PING started sending their work to Chinese foundries and adding ferrules. Is nothing sacred?

Release

sdandrea1

Sorry !

But seriously, any good sized business ( 200 employees or more ) could stick to tradition and survive through the years ?
I started laughing when Starbucks started carrying tea and sandwich ( not just a coffee snack........but a mini deli ).

There is a new bakery in Seattle and we love their sourdough, a very simple business, and I hope they won't turn into a restaurant in the future. http://www.seawolfbakers.com/

FauxAmish

Yes.

There are many.

How about LLBean. They EXCEL in Their Community. They understand the following:

Ma and Pa's neighborhood deli, the gasoline station, dry-cleaner, Joe's Liquor store, Bill's Drive-In on the corner.

The Pizza place that delivers to YOU and doesn't question You, other than to ask are you two or one door down from the Smith's.

Each and Every business that Makes and Builds a Community, builds the thoughts that have resulted from a gathering of People and then becomes a place where People want to Live.

Why do You and People with such comments want to condemn THE HEART of AMERICA?

How about the small businesses in EVERY City, Town, Burg, Community that exists and strives throughout this Un-obvious to You WORLD that the rest of us deal with every single day.

We Are Communities.

WE Are People who support OUR small communities.

WE don't gripe about insignificant trivialities.

WE get up each and every day.

WE go to work.

WE Love doing things that can HELP our communities, We do NOT b****. WE HELP and Contribute.

I'm done espousing ...

WE ARE ... the

US.

Release

LL Bean may have more than 200 employees, full time employees ? Not sure.

Does Mom and Pops store have more than 200 employees ? Must be a very big Mom and Pops store......

I understand the need to evolve to stay competitive, while they evolve they had forgot the root of their oiriginal success story. Noah's Bagel was a traditional New York Style bagel shop, sold to another franchise, the Einstein Brother's bagel was trying to keep things the way it was, selling good hearty bagel......... then the owner changed ... they are promoting bagel sandwich, breakfast bagel with egg and lox. egg and sausage......upward to $6 a bagel.
I believe any business could survive and thrive if, they are good at what they do. If any business could grow to have more than 200 full time employees, it had already found the formula for success. Greed is another motivation to abandon the original success story by trying to be the next McDonald. Greed could also sank the ship which should be afloat for ages.

FauxAmish

Release

Nowhere in your OP was there any mention of the amount of employees. BUT ... every response that you come back with talks about 200 employees or more.

Let's See If You Now Change the Title of The Thread or just STFU.

Release

FauxAmish

You know, go have another drink, or take the whole bottle.....

letthebigdogshunt

Release just walk away from this as it is not worth the effort. It is nice to have a discussion, but not when the poster gets upset and rude during it.

Sneakylong

I guess you could blame Charlie Brown (head of AT&T) who on a golf course back in the early 80's agreed to break up AT&T into 7 RBOC's (regional bell operating companies). When it was a monopoly they'd fix anything for free. If you remember you never had a problem with your phone and if you did it was fixed for nothing. Most likely got a new phone for free.

But there's a trade off. If they stayed a monopoly you may not have seen HD TV with hundreds of channels or smart cell phones etc., as soon as we did. In other words breaking up the monopoly spurred innovation and with that innovation comes a price.

I worked for AT&T back in the day before and after the breakup and our facility worked along with Zenith to develop 720p resolution (TV's). Pretty cool for the people assigned to that project, they got to watch TV all day long and get paid.