Your Home Phone has No Dial Tone

 It is your day off from work. You want to rest, watch tv and avoiding cooking.  You want pizza delivered right at your doorstep. You feel frustrated picking up your phone and there is silence.  You frantically dialed your service provider from your pay as you go cell phone, only to hear recording saying all calls will be attended to shortly as they are getting volumes of calls.

Do try these simple trouble shooting steps and see it you can fix your phone. Unplug phone from phone jack. Plug in back after one minute. If your phone handset is wordless, unplug the base from the power source as well. If you have, fax machine and internet modem, unplug them too. If there is a phone cord plug in at the back of a satellite receiver unplug the phone cord at the back of the receiver. Soon as one minute is up, plug back in. If you are lucky, dial tone will kick in after you plug back in phone handset.

If you have several phone handsets, plug in first the basic non cordless handset. Every time you plug in a handset to the jack listen for dial tone.  If one has dial tone, and you plug in another phone handset and lose dial tone. Unplug again the last phone you plugged in. That particular phone handset is causing the trouble. If you only have one phone handset and there is spare jack. Try plugging in the phone handset to the spare jack. If it works on the spare jack, it means it is the first jack causing the trouble.  Normally service provider charges replacement of phone jack, you can do it yourself. Or ask a friend who can fix it for you.

When you get dial tone and soon as you plug in your fax machine, and lose dial tone. It is your fax machine causing the trouble. Call then the manufacturer of the fax machine. If you plug in modem, and lose dial tone. Call your internet service provider. Same thing if you have satellite tv and you plug in back the phone cord at the back of the satellite receiver. Call your satellite service provider. Satellite service provider must replace the satellite receiver.

Before you do the trouble shooting, try calling your home phone first. If recording says not in service at this time, no need to trouble shoot. Call your service provider, check with them if bills have been paid. If paid, chances are someone must have installed phone service in your area. The installed tech might have inadvertently disconnected your phone service.  

Language Barrier

The other day I had an old Japanese gentleman customer saying he cannot view his bill online. He has been at our website accordingly for several hours and he said the webpage is loading and loading.. and loading..  He has Windows 8 laptop connected to internet through WIFI. We were both struggling as he speaks little English. He agreed we do a screen sharing for me to know the cause of the trouble. 

OMG! I logged in to his computer and found out it was in Japanese language! I managed to explain we download Chrome as IE was causing the trouble. He struggled translating to me some of the dialog box on his computer from Japanese to English. True enough, after downloading Chrome, he was able to log in to our website and viewed his online bills.

He apologized for him not thinking straight as he had a bad day. I said not his fault but it was the browser, and that, he is smart as despite our language barrier he was able to guide me to resolve his trouble. I do hope I made him feel good by saying that, in addition to resolving the issue he called about.

We may have language barrier but the most important is we can communicate and be understood. If there is something I like in my job. Helping and sharing with customers what I knew. I may not see the happy expression on their faces. Yet the tone of the voice is enough to say I made a difference, even for just a brief moment in their lives. 

Hello WWW!

It has been almost a month I have not posted anything on my blog folks. I am okay,  just busy at work. My three in the morning schedule is also a bit of a challenge.

Few weeks after my internet and optic television training I mentioned to my team captain I am getting only few internet and optic television calls.  Internet covers broad range of issues. The two weeks training is not enough to be in the know of the intricacy of the job. Besides, I did not take computer course in my college years. Neither a computer subject was into my business course. I was under the old curriculum of the Philippine educational system when I was in college.

Thankful indeed, towards the end of July and the whole month of August I have been into internet and optic tv calls. I received few phone and satellite tv calls. It made me happy but into deep analysis on every call I get. I know it would take a while before I get familiarize with the internet issues. Optic tv is a bit easier than internet issues.  As mentioned in my previous post, my internet training was beginning of June for two weeks. Optic tv training was beginning of July for a week.

It would take at least six months or so of taking internet calls before I could adjust fully. No quitting, learning is fun, folks!

Optic Television Training

I survived a day shift that was from 8am to 5pm in view of our optic television training. For several years I have been on night shift or early morning shift at work.  Day shift to me is a bit of challenge. My place of work is not far from where I live but the traffic jam and the wait to get a ride is not easy. 

I take public transportation going to work, a jeep and a sixteen seater van.  I cannot afford a car which is good. I do not have to worry paying for a parking space where I live.  I do not have to worry about the car maintenance. Most of all I can take a nap on my way home on days when traffic jam is pretty bad.

Middle of June my team mates and I were on internet training. The optic tv training followed shortly. Optic tv training lasted for about a week the 6^th of July until the 10^th. It was classroom training, call listening, and we got to see some equipment like the set up box, gateway WIFI extenders, etc.  The most exciting part was passing the exam after the training. 

My Big Event for 2012

Folks I am excited to share with you,  I am the Agent of the Year for 2012 as tech support for Satellite TV and Phone Repair combined. I am elated! I thought my colleagues were just kidding when they congratulated me before the awarding ceremony. My team captain on purpose did not tell me at once as a surprise. It was a surprise indeed! I hugged my lady team captain.

I got the same award last Feb 2011. Another fellow got the award for Satellite TV.  I was awarded Agent of the Year for Phone Repair – 2011.  I thought it was just by chance I made it for 2011 award. Last third quarter of 2012, I was awarded - Top Agent of the Quarter. Last Feb 28, I was awarded Agent of the Year -2012! Now, you know what made me slackened from blog posting. I concentrated on my work to get a good score month by month. 

Looks like impossible is nothing if you believe in yourself and work hard!