Cam I Am

This past week proved to be a frustrating one at work.. 

On Monday, I had a call to install digital phone service for a customer.  Ordinarily, this is relatively easy to do for most customers, but this was no ordinary case.

Without getting too technical about the details, this customer had Telus ADSL, and a Roger’s phone number that he was porting (transferring) to Shaw.  In addition, the building that he lives in has an intercom system that runs through the phone lines..  Usually, this is a workable circumstance, but in this case, the wiring in the building made this difficult.  I presented a couple options to the customer, and he picked one that wouldn’t have been my first choice.  I did the wiring required (but it looked awful because of the layout of the apartment and the option that the customer took), but I thought that I had the whole thing figured out. 

Once I did the wiring and had everything set up, I tested everything.  Phone, check! Enterphone/door entry system, check!   ADSL internet?  Not so much..

I spent just over 3 hours (until 10:45pm), trying to figure out what was wrong.  The customer was an IT tech, so he was very interested in what I was doing and tried to suggest things, but nothing worked. He called Telus to troubleshoot the problem, but nothing worked. Eventually, I set him up with Internet service through Shaw, just to get him up and running.  After running out of ideas and reassuring him that this wasn’t a ploy to get him to switch his internet over to us.  I left my number with him just in case he needed to contact me.

Now, I think I do a pretty good job with my work..  I take pride in what I do, and I like to have things look neat/presentable, especially with wiring, and I like the customer to be happy when I leave.  This customer seemed to understand about the situation.

On Thursday, the customer calls me saying that he has a tech from Telus there to look at the problem, but doesn’t know what I’ve done (presumably because he hasn’t seen the type of equipment/set up that we do).  I explain to the tech what I did, how I wired it, and even how an ideal situation should go.  I thought that I was very clear what what I tried and how it should work..

Well..  this guy was one of these know-it-all types..  He instantly starts shooting his mouth off about how I shouldn’t have done what I did, and how “if he sees a situation that he can’t hook up he just walks away”.  Then he said that he was going to “report this to his manager” about how we/I knocked his internet offline. 

This went on for 15 minutes of us going back and forth.  I stood by what I did and thought that, technically, it should have worked.  The tech said that as soon as he took our equipment out of the equation, the customers ADSL works again..

After this phone call, I was pissed.  During the call, I remained professional, but did make my point known.  I even tried to ask him a technical question, one that may have even helped in solving the problem, but all he said was “I’m here to get this customer’s internet working, not to educate you (me)”. 

Afterwards, I made a couple calls, one to a supervisor, and another to one of our service techs who seems to know everything about everything when it comes to digital phone installations..

And then I find out..

I was wrong about one technical detail. 

Well..  not so much wrong as unaware of an interference issue that does occur in a situation such as the one I found myself in.  Fortunately, there is a solution that simply involves one of our service techs to go out and do what sounds to be about a quick 20 minute fix.

I call the customer and tell him that it can be fixed so that everything works the way he wants.  He tells me that the Telus tech is still there trying to patch things up and that he’ll get back to me about what he wants me/Shaw to do.

I haven’t heard back yet, but I’m half expecting this guy to say take it all away..  He was very understanding and even helpful while I was there, but this has been an inconvenience to him. 

Overall, this wasn’t the greatest install I’ve done.  The wiring was not that great (due to the circumstances), and the outcome was less desirable.  The worst part was dealing with that Telus tech.  I think he was more interested in arguing and making derogatory comments about my work, my training, and my ethics.

I don’t like to make mistakes at work, but I can take constructive criticism on how to improve. If this tech truly was interested in making the customer happy, I would think that he would he tried to work with me to have the best outcome for the customer…not himself.

It’s over for now.. Hopefully I don’t have to run into that tech again.

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