How times change.
Two weeks ago, with North Texas soaked thoroughly to the bone, our telephone service went out. We were scrambling to get James to the airport and off to another year of school in Wisconsin, so there was little we could do when it expired.
Later that Saturday, on a cell phone with a different carrier, I got through to a machine at AT&T that promised someone would come check the problem on the following Tuesday. Tuesday afternoon at just after 4:00 p.m. we got a note on our door that phone service was restored — and it was for about an hour.
Then it went out again. And it’s been out since.
After several days of unsatisfying robot answers, I found another number and got to a human who referred me to another human who said they were completely flattened by phone outages in the Dallas area after the recent spate of Noachic storms (we had something over 11 inches in a week — the rain gauge kept topping out). No, they said, it does not good to call again to complain — they’re working as fast as they can.
To AT&T’s credit, the internet service is fine. We have alternative telephones to use, though many of our family and friends don’t know the numbers.
But, two weeks in America without telephones? That could be a problem for many people, still, couldn’t it?
Or is AT&T becoming increasingly irrelevant in their own business?
Who else is having similar problems?
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 