I recently moved to Sylva, NC to work in nearby Cullowhee, NC (it's about a fifteen minute drive (tops) between the two places).
Our local calling area is between three small cities, Sylva, Cullowhee, and Cashiers. Anything outside that zone is long distance for us.
I acquired Voicepulse VOIP service when I moved here. They offered Sylva and Cashiers, NC telephone exchanges. I got a Sylva number on the 534 exchange. It's been working fine.
Today, I tried to dial into my home number from work so I could check my voicemail. I dialed 9 and then 53 and got no farther. It retuned a busy signal. We tried it from several different phones and got the same results.
I called the telecom guys and told them of this dilemna. Despite the fact that I had explained about it being from a VOIP provider, he asked me several times if it was a Verizon exchange. I told him no, it wasn't. It was a special services exchange in the Sylva, NC area.
He told me he couldn't get it added to the switch without going through a bunch of hoops (a number of people had to sign off on it). I couldn't believe it. All he should have to do is call their provider and confirm that it is a local exchange.
Meantime, my colleagues cannot call me at home (from work) when a need arises.
Bureaucracy at its best.
Regards,
Fred
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You should have just told him "yes, it is a local number; a new exchange just opened in the past year or so." As soon as you got into the discussion about it being VOIP and a 'special services exchange' you probably shorted out his little one-volt brain.I had an _identical_ situation several years ago. A place where I was working had a Rolm PBX. A new exchange was started in Chicago and I had a phone on it. The PBX guy was a real bureaucrat also and knew little or nothing about the repair/maintainence/programming of it. Naturally he assumed everyone else in the office was too dumb to know anything about it also. I told him three or four times that particular exchange (312-836) should be added, but of course he knew so much better than me. I had various phone numbers I could use, but I decided one day the only one I would put on company records was that 312-836 number. I knew it would only be a matter of time until _someone_ in authority around there needed to reach me, and _they_ would be the one to come down hard on this idiot -- which I had no authority to do. Sure enough, it took two or three weeks, but one day I got a phone call from the office manager asking if I could come in that evening and do a special job for him. And he was calling me, with an angry tone of voice from a payphone down the street somewhere when he could not get through on his office phone. A couple days later, the Rolm PBX had been reprogrammed to dial 312-836 numbers.
So Fred, why don't you consider making that VOIP number the _only_ number on file for you with the company. Back them into a corner and _someone_ will get the bureaucatic nonsense eliminated there. Give them no alternate numbers, no easy way to ignore the problem. PAT]