TELEPHONE PROBLEMS: CONSUMERS' BEST FRIEND

The following exchange was excerpted from a conversation between this author and friend, Jan Greenberg. Ive taken a snippet for this article because it illustrates the typical reaction of many of my readers. -- C. Jonathan Lewis

Jan -- Can I ask you a question?" ... asked a perplexed Jan Greenberg after reading The Telephone Troubleshooting Desk Reference. What in the world possessed you to write a book like this? Where did you get the idea from?" ... I couldve lived my whole life out without ever knowing that I needed something like this!" After having read this I can see that we definitely need it. But I didnt know I needed it," she exclaimed! I think the phone company should have provided its customers with something like this years ago... and why didnt they? How did you find this niche?"

CJL -- After countless hours working the help desk handling customer trouble reports in Manhattan, NY, it became glaringly apparent that an expert system" like The Telephone Troubleshooting Desk Reference was needed. From that perspective, answering the same questions day in and day out, it was a no brainer." If one hammers away doing the same thing all the time, youll eventually gain insight and become good at it.

I agree that the phone company should provide a resource like this to their customers. It would reduce the amount of frivolous trouble reports and save tons of man-hours.

Jan -- What do you mean by frivolous trouble reports?" ... she interjected. Do people intentionally give in 'bad or false trouble reports?"

CJL -- No... Most customers do not intentionally give in bad trouble reports. They do however give in erroneous reports, sometimes due to customer misunderstanding of how their service works. Remember, it is not the customers responsibility to be versed in the science of telephony... Thats why we technicians have jobs.

The following is an example: A customer has Centrex features. These features are usually activated by dialed access codes or the '* or '# key or sometimes a combination of these. The customer goes out and buys a new phone or phone system. It has all the latest bells and whistles. The customer cannot wait to get back to their office and plug in their new toy. They plug it in and try to make a call and the call doesnt fly. What happens next is that they call telephone repair service and complain. When the smoke clears, Ive usually had to walk" this customer through the use of the new phone or systems incompatibility with the service theyve purchased from us. Often, the customer has bought a smart phone," which has its own internal menu of features that are activated and or programmed by the '* and '# key. This can create a conflict with the local Telco switching system which also depends on the '* and '#. So, as you can see from this example, this customer did not have a phone company problem. Had a telephone repair tech been dispatched to the customer site for this trouble, it could have generated a site visit charge... adding insult to injury!

Jan -- Okay, continue."

CJL -- When I approached my boss on the need for something like this, I couldnt get a hearing. So after I retired I wrote it myself.

The great news is that the book brings consumers and telecom pros onto the same page -- the nexus that smoothes out those annoying, time consuming speed bumps. That makes The Telephone Troubleshooting Desk Reference the best friend that consumers didnt know they had! By design its utilization of cool money saving tips, flow charts, and various tricks of the trade," save the reader time and frustration. Thats a win-win in my book!

You can make it yours too at Amazon.com. Or for more information including consumer and editorial reviews, visit my website at:
http://www.C-JonathanLewisAssoc.com/... Also available at Amazon.com