Their Problems Run Deeper Than We Thought
Client: “Help! My phones aren’t working!”
Me: “Is the Internet working?”
Client: “No.”
Me: “Are there any lights on the modem?”
Client: “There’s no light under the Internet slot, no.”
Me: “Have you tried restarting the router by unplugging it and plugging it back in?”
Client: “Yes, it didn’t do anything.”
Me: “Let me check the access point.” *Does so* “It appears that our access point is offline, so there’s definitely a problem.”
Client: “Would that have anything with us turning the power off on the tower?”
Me: “You mean the tower with all the ISP equipment?”
Client: “Yeah. Is that a problem?”
Me: “Well, yes. If you turned off the power to the tower, that would explain why you don’t have Internet or phone access.”
Client: “How soon can you fix everything?”
Me: “How soon can you turn the tower back on?”
Client: “Well, that might be a problem. We didn’t turn it ‘off’. We stopped paying the electrical bill for that because we didn’t think it was doing anything.”
Me: “You cut off the power to all of your ISP equipment, and now you want me to fix it from my end?”
Client: “Yes! Please hurry.”
I hope he found a full minute of awkward silence helpful because that’s all he was going to get from me.
