I got an early call from Jim. The phone lines were down and so was the ability to use the credit card machine. I recently changed to the Bend Broadband system so I called that all familiar number. I went through their extensive menu only to find dead ends. I could not find anyone. I started just bouncing around until I finally was able to speak to an operator.
She informed me that the offices were closed and that no one was available. I told her that I was a business and that my service was down. "You might try rebooting your modem.", she stated. "Isn't there a 24 hour line for businesses?", I asked. "No", she said, "You will just have to wait until the office opens at 9."
I drove down to the diner and reset the modem thus bringing everything up. It seems that the company had upgraded which caught some modems off guard including mine. I then had a thought. Why didn't the alarm company alert me? I walked out into a nearly full diner. We had quite a few hunters in on their way to camp. After helping out, I called the alarm company and asked them if they knew my status. "You are alarmed. The alarms were set last evening around 9PM.", came the answer. "That's funny.", I said, "I am up and running with a full house.".
The one problem had brought to light another. Without the phones, there was no security.
I was at the office of Bend Broadband at 9. While I waited for my rep, I sat and talked with a sweet little lady who was in with her husband. They were confused over how to operate their system. I felt for her as she stated, "I wish I could still use my old crystal set.". My business rep came out to see me, apologising, with a 24 hour hot line number. I shared with him my discovery and he agreed to get together with the alarm company if it had anything to do with his system.
I then called the local office of the alarm company and discovered something that I did not know. Most every alarm is via phone lines and they have no way of knowing that the lines are down. "I don't like that at all.", I said, "Do I have any options?". They said that I could go cellular and that after the cost of the box, it was $10 more a month which covered the cost of the cell service. That was a no brainer to me and I immediately ordered up my upgraded security.
It was only 10AM and I had already solved two fairly big problems. Now, if I can just find that just right waffle recipe.
2 comments:
If the is a power outage that affects the cell service not only will you be down but you won't know about it as easily.
Actually, if there is a power outage and cell service is down, I will be contacted by security. There is some sort of constant bounce signal that is monitored.
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