Sonic.net

Hi ezekielk,

Per my email earlier, we have a dispatch for you between 12pm and 4pm today. it is strongly recommended you don't leave the property during the dispatch time. Our techs in the field do not have access to email so I asked that they call me when when they are inbound and then I will email you to let you know when they are on the way. But our techs will only wait up till 15 minutes if the customer is not on site. So it is fairly critical to be there during the dispatch window. Regardless, we got them on their way today and it shouldn't be too hard to thread the proverbial dispatch timing needle.

Fantastic, thank you! I WILL be on site (a.k.a. "home")...and if you really do follow up with an email as to a more specific time slot, I WILL be at the front gate, awaiting their arrival. And if the doggies' need to poop'n'pee is urgent at that time, I will only walk them three or four doors from my residence, in either direction, keeping an eye out for a Sonic vehicle.

Please realize I've been making a big stink because not only am I in the middle of making my climb towards popularity of my tales via cyberspace and seeking a top notch agent...but also because I've become embroiled with a serious matter in my apartment building, where I MUST have a phone to find an attorney and keep in touch, as well as contact various legal and gov't agencies in order to build my case, and protect my own person along with my two lovely rescue dogs. This is clearly laid out in my blog entry called "Letter to the Landlord:"

https://zekeblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/ ... -landlord/

IOW: access to both the Internet and a telephone are tantamount to not just achieving success as an author and activist, but to my very well-being and even survival. I APOLOGIZE if this has caused some Chronic nerves to jangle, but I'm sure now you understand my desperate pleas. Thank you for your kind attention and patience...and taking action.

UPDATE

Okay, Jonathan from Sonic came out today, did a great job of looking into the matter...but it looks like AT&T will have to come out again, , because the Internet connection remains flaky. So he's gonna try to arrange showing up WITH them, this Thursday, the 21st at 1 PM. He tested out the dial tone, it's working, so I'll need to see if a new extension cord will to the trick...if not that, then a new analog phone which I can order from Amazon for under 13 bucks. I will get the cord thing done later today, keeping my fingers crossed that it will work.

I'm guessing when both Internet and DSL went down, a short damaged either the cord or the phone itself. Thanks for your attention, again. Problem is, w/o phone access over the next few days, I may be up shit creek, due to harassment of certain residents' visitors in this building, who aimlessly wander my hallways, and whom the manager is doing NOTHING to stop it.

UPDATE

DSL phone line works again. Turns out I needed a new extension cord...I guess because when the Internet and phone lines went down, it shorted out the telephone cord. Dumb thing is, I DID try another cord, but no cigar. I have three spare cords stashed away, but I only tried one. So a few moments ago I tried yet another cord, and now it's fine. Chronic techs still need to get my Internet connection back up to snuff, and they'll probably return with an ATT tech this coming Thursday. Hopefully, my Internet access will remain workable till then...it's down to 2.7 Mbps, which is fine with me and what I do online: Youtube Studio Creator, Worpress blogging, Facebook and Twitter posting...and tons of email and listserve participation.

But I AM particularly relieved to have phone access again, due to a conflict in my apartment building with another resident's loitering-in-the-hallway-right-in-front-of-my-door visitors, and the manager, who chooses to do nothing about it. My line needs to stay open, so I can begin documenting the offenses against me (including risk of exposure to COVID-19 by not one, but several, people who don't even live in my building). by contacting various agencies, including the health department, police department, etc. As well as finding, and staying in contact with, an attorney.

This is peculiar. Since installing a working phone cable, my Internet download speed is now a whopping 6.78 Mbps…so, back to normal. Are you telling me that a thwarted connection to the landline phone can mess with my Interwebs speed? I need my coffee.

Yup--anything that interferes with the line's operation can affect your speeds. A short that affects the voice line very likely will affect Internet throughput.

Well, this is the first time anyone informed me about that. Sonic never did, including the worker who came out to do "repairs." So the cord was old, shorted out, causing my Internet download speed to plummet, after being out for almost an hour...while the land line stayed out. A simple cord replacement was all that was needed. If they told me to try a new cord in the first place, I wouldn't have had to go through all this anxiety and waste of my, and their, time! Well that was quite a scary ride...like when I was a kid getting on a roller coaster for the first time.

Thank you for your insight, Virtual Mike.

It's tricky to diagnose, Zeke. The Sonic equipment often can detect the location of a short that's outside the home, but the equipment has challenges troubleshooting when the issue is within the home. Phone cords don't fail that often, and usually, the Sonic folks work from most likely suspect to least likely.

Of course phone cords don't fail that often...that's why it happened to me! Shit always happens to me, but not to anyone else. I feel like the world's sin eater.

Thanks for your reply.

virtualmike wrote:It's tricky to diagnose.

I'm sorry, but that just doesn't make sense. The FIRST thing Sonic should do is tell the DSL customer something like:

"This is rare, but it happens. So the first thing you should do is replace your telephone cord, because sometimes that's all that needs to be done."

Look at all the time and work wasted because that simple instruction was never given! My impression is that since DSL is going the way of the dailup modem, technicians are losing basic knowledge around DSL. Furthermore, I'd say that a sudden drop of both Internet and phone is a sign that, yes, replace the phone line and see what happens next. For that WOULD be the "most likely suspect." Sounds to me like you're just making excuses. What, in my case, after hearing my original complaint, would YOU say is the most likely suspect?

I have a hunch there is NO need to send a technician out to my place again, including AT&T. I'm guessing there IS no more of my line being "a lot slower and all over the place," as Jacob stated early in this thread, now that I have installed a new phone line. Shouldn't that be checked now, before going through the motions of another visit? I mean, you'd THINK that, after I reported everything's working fine again, someone at Sonic would do another remote check, to see if everything's all cleared up. So why hasn't that happened? It would save your company both money and time.