Phil Major

We’re calling it the communications trifecta from hell.

In about a 24-hour period we experienced no telephone service, no email and no website.

It all started innocently enough, or so we thought, when we signed up for phone service with the company we were already using for internet. Not to name any names, but think “rapid connection.”

It was going to save us significant money so we made the switch. We were mildly concerned that the install date was more than a few days away. We became more concerned when that 11-2 time table on a Friday came and went followed by a call that service would be delayed, then another call to reschedule. Our only service windows were Wednesday or the next Friday, 11-2.

Since Wednesday coincides with midweek newspaper delivery, we opted again for Friday. Could have been a mistake.

Again, no technician. Then a call to support was not much help. We wanted to be sure when we rescheduled again that we were first on the list the next available date, but we could get no guarantee.

Then, after we went home at 7 I received an email that the work order had been completed after 8 and we had new service. Since there was no way a technician installed modems inside our locked building, we knew it was a problem.

We just didn’t know how big until Monday morning.

In the mean time, with the fourth anniversary of the founding of the Wood County Monitor approaching (from the merger of the Wood County Democrat and the Mineola Monitor), it was also time to renew the domain name for our website, so we switched to a different provider to align with our email service.

Two problems. The switchover went much faster than anticipated, and the company failed to alert us that the switch had been made.

We started to get a hint of the problem with social media posts that our links weren’t working. The issue was immediately recognized, and once a call went in to tech support for our website service, the correct information was entered, and problem solved. It might have been done a little quicker had it not happened over the weekend.

Unfortunately this issue was also linked with some of our emails, so I was without that for awhile, though everyone else’s was working. That lasted only until midday Monday.

But in the mean time, after the phones worked earlier in the day, they stopped. That was not discovered until a customer came by who said he had been calling and getting a message that the number was not in service.

Turns out that work order had caused a switch to be flipped, turning our phones over to the new company. But with no modem to connect to, there were no phones.

This is when the real nightmare began.

I don’t care what their name implies, there was nothing quick about what unfolded over the coming days.

I did get to interact with some very knowledgeable and helpful and friendly people who were easily aware of my growing frustration. But not one got us back in business or seemed to know how.

People were involved at many levels, but it was not until after 8 p.m. Monday that we got a technician onsite who installed modems. It would just be a simple task for “Voice Operations” the next morning to restore our service.

No such luck. The day before, we had dial tones, but even those were gone on Tuesday.

I can’t even tell you how many emails my sales rep received and how many times I dialed the support line. Once we got someone who could trouble shoot the problem, it ballooned into an all out fiasco. Not only would it take another technician visit, it might take one with a bucket truck, and most of the techs don’t drive around in those.

A tech showed late Tuesday afternoon, no bucket truck, but the issue was inside the building. He told us we would need a third party vendor to address our switch which was not compatible.

At this point the salesman got a text that we needed our old service back. Fortunately he and the tech were able to get us up and running although not at full speed.

So we went through the two most important days of the business week with no telephones.

The upside, well no one called to complain those two days, and we may save even more money than expected.

And I am now experienced at both soft and hard reboots of modems (neither of which helped).

And I completely understand why the Mineola Economic Development Corp. is pursuing another internet option for the community, to try and bring better service and better products, because reliable communications is a development issue of growing importance.