broken phone-tree message

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

to whoever is responsible for the City of Somerville phone tree today: the latest message about downed powerlines is looping the first 30 seconds or so of the message. i don't know how bad the loop is; i hung up after 3 repeats. it may be filling up people's voicemails even now.

i tried calling 311 to report it, and got some woman whose only response was "it's not my job to fix it". so much for last-minute call center replacements...

Comments

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

it's not my job to fix it

Whoa. Good answer to have on hand when you're working the 311 line-- that must serve her pretty well for damn near any phone call. >:-(

BTW I don't know if you follow City of Somerville on Facebook or Twitter, but whoever posts for that seems to be on line and active today. Plus public shaming FTW on that one.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Obviously, we must turn it into a dance mix.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

do it!

[ilai]

When I answered the phone the message seemed to have played fine. I wonder if the playback is randomly buggy.

[ron_newman]

It was in my voicemail just fine, just once.

GoogleVoice...less than useful.

[anu3bis.livejournal.com]

Hello. This is Jackie Birthday from the city of Somerville with important storm related information. We have received reports of any downed power lines and branches and uprooted trees. Dude I went. Cruiser respond immediately to these reports. However, we want to reiterate that residents should remain in your home high winds are expected to continue throughout the afternoon, and live wires and was treason branches can be dangerous any situation. If you experience any wind related damage in your neighborhood. Please reported to 311 and cruise will be dispatched immediately, number to call 911 with any emergencies. Thank you for your continued cooperation.

Re: GoogleVoice...less than useful.

[ron_newman]

This is Jackie Birthday

Dude I went

LOL

Re: GoogleVoice...less than useful.

[ron_newman]

I get these alerts in e-mail too. Here's what she actually said:


Hello, this is Jackie Rossetti from the City of Somerville with important storm-related information.

We have received reports of many downed power lines and branches, and uprooted trees due to the high winds. Crews are responding immediately to these reports, however we want to reiterate that residents should remain in your homes. High winds are expected to continue throughout the afternoon, and live wires and loose trees and branches can be dangerous in these situations.

If you experience any wind-related damage in your neighborhood, please report it to 311 and crews will be dispatched immediately. Remember to call 911 with any emergencies.

Thank you for your continued cooperation.

Re: GoogleVoice...less than useful.

[teko.livejournal.com]

Treason branches indeed! *shakes fist*

Re: GoogleVoice...less than useful.

[larksdream]

Curse their sudden but inevitable betrayal!

Laddle rat rotten hut

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, worth getting a google voice number just for things like this.

Re: GoogleVoice...less than useful.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

you win one (1) internet. :D

Re: GoogleVoice...less than useful.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

Here's a Google Voice version on Mayor Joe's message, posted from Universal Hub:

is.gd/B01AHz is.gd/B01AHz

Re: GoogleVoice...less than useful.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

is.gd/B01AHz

Re: GoogleVoice...less than useful.

[ron_newman]

I think you need the http:// part for LJ to turn it into a live link. http://is.gd/B01AHz

Re: GoogleVoice...less than useful.

[zdenka]

*laughs* Excellent.

Sometimes it's the Connect CTY technology . . .

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it's simply inexplicable. When I made these calls, I used to encounter situations in which only one or two recipients got looped, truncated messages -- and on other occasions I'd get dozens of complaints. Blackboard-Connect is a national company that provides a hosted service for thousands of government, corporate and academic clients. I expect they've been operating at or beyond capacity all day along, so some of their servers may have been wonky. One city-wide call into Somerville can originate from up to ten different servers (although typically it's more like four), and from locations all over the country.
In the case of Jackie's most recent call, I got a glitch-free phone and email message, although I'm not surprised to hear that someone got a looped message.
I also imagine that things are a little hectic at the Emergency Operations Center, which would account for the fact that the City's emergency info hotline is playing an earlier message rather than the most recent one. In general, however, whenever there's anything wrong with a Connect CTY message on your phone or voicemail, you can listen to the same message by calling 617-628-SNOW (7669). That's also the number that shows up in Caller ID for Connect CTY calls.
I got no excuses for the 311 operator. On weekends the calls are usually taken by cross-trained civilian receptionists at the Police Station. When things get really busy there, QoS can slip. It's just one of those things.

Re: Sometimes it's the Connect CTY technology . . .

[ron_newman]

QoS ? (not even sure how to pronounce that word)

I have often called that 617-628-7669 number only to hear a very obsolete months-old message.

Re: Sometimes it's the Connect CTY technology . . .

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

"Quality of service." I apologize: it's one of those business acronyms, like SLA or CSR, that abound in the communications industry but actually get in the way of effective communication.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_service

Re: Sometimes it's the Connect CTY technology . . .

[ron_newman]

SLA to me are still the folks who kidnapped Patty Hearst.

Re: Sometimes it's the Connect CTY technology . . .

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

I think he means Quality of Service.