In the end, a phone is just a phone
Heard in the hallway this morning: “How’s the new phone system working out?”
The only reasonable answer is “OK, I guess…”. After all, it IS a phone system. Is it the same as the old one? Not at all, completely new? Then how can you use it? Well, it does have a handset, and a number pad, and it does ring (seven different tones, so far) at the most inopportune of times. So, it is the same as the old one!
We’re two weeks into the new world of VOIP, and because the user difficulties stop in our office, I hear more than ring tones. Today, a call placed to another city wouldn’t go through. A repeatable error, hence one we are expected to fix. The “voice” kept repeating (!!!) “That president is not valid for your call. Please choose another president and try again”.
Homonyms; the bane of humans that interact with machines. I offered to pretend: “I’ll be the president..” What was really meant, we found out, is that our “precedent is not valid”. This is a new system. We have no stinkin’ precedents.
I received a call meant for a co-worker, and (ever efficient) I offered to transfer the call. Except that my fat finger hit the button beside the correct button, and off went my call into that space reserved for “your call cannot be completed as dialed”. I’m sorry!
Out of sixty phones, only one wire has fallen out. Mea culpa. The usual “your phone is bigger than my phone!”, with the response, “My phone is bigger than your phone!!” call and response song is fading away. In another week or two, we’ll be back to a state of perfect harmony.
