evildave
Unregistered
E
I dialed 911 on monday at a real-life emergency and received the following crystal clear message:
"The number you have dialed has been disconnected."
The 911 "emergency mode" menu was on the phone (Verizon Wireless), and all. I had crystal clear service, and even could have ordered pizza if I wanted, but couldn't get emergency help in the manner I expected. I was able to call from right there ten minutes later to get a ride home, after all.
Important safety tip: Have the highway patrol (or equivalent) direct emergency number stored on your phone. If 911 doesn't work (as it failed for me), you have a next step ready to go. It's distracting when (for some inexplicable and absurd reason), your call for help doesn't work, and that's the last thing you want in a real emergency. To be distracted from things that need doing.
As it turns out (back to the drama), an off-duty CHP guy got the call through to local people already, and the ambulance pulled up while I was staring at my phone like an idiot; the CHP guy was parked just out of view past the brightly burning car at a safe distance minding his own family (the driver of the flaming car was the only one involved, and very, very dead (and on fire), brush and forest catching fire, car was still making "bang" sounds, and I had eyes only for the telephone and the nearby stinking fire at that moment).
Apparently, avoiding driving 90 MPH on a mountain road in the dark (perhaps while intoxicated) is a good idea, too. That's what Mr. Crispy Critter On-Fire Dead Guy was allegedly doing before I got there.
The next day I called Verizon. They blamed the local police. I called the sherrif. They gave me the number for CHP, who takes the cellular calls. I called them, and they directed me to the local CHP substation, and got a machine, because they don't expect to take emergency calls right there - it's just an office, not the dispatch. I got the royal bureaucratic run-around, and all I really wanted was to make sure the problem got fixed.
So far, since then, I've called Verizon again and managed to get through to a second tier of customer support (who took down some information and never called back). I've written a registered letter letting Verizon know that I'm making it their problem, and that I'd be happy to testify against them if someone gets around to suing them over a preventable death, since they will have been notified of the problem and done NOTHING about it. Negligent homicide, is my take. I told them I hoped they would at least come up with the appropriate paper trail for their own protection. I also filed a complaint with the FCC, who takes these complaints.
It's illegal to call 911 "just testing", so you can't legally find out if their service works at any given location. So have some local and state emergency numbers ready as backup. There's also 411, I suppose, or calling someone and having them play "emergency relay" for you. None of these options were occurring to me, as I was frankly frozen in some mode of indecision and incredulity over the silliness of the message I received, with the crackle and popping of the car and body nearby. When the ambulance showed up, maybe a minute later, I was still staring at the phone. I was pretty much in "Yessir" mode at that point. Do whatever they tell me. Help poke around in the bushes for bodies thrown out of the vehicle. Offer up my perfectly good fire extinguisher that sat in my truck while I stared at the phone. Feel like a useless moron.
"The number you have dialed has been disconnected."
The 911 "emergency mode" menu was on the phone (Verizon Wireless), and all. I had crystal clear service, and even could have ordered pizza if I wanted, but couldn't get emergency help in the manner I expected. I was able to call from right there ten minutes later to get a ride home, after all.
Important safety tip: Have the highway patrol (or equivalent) direct emergency number stored on your phone. If 911 doesn't work (as it failed for me), you have a next step ready to go. It's distracting when (for some inexplicable and absurd reason), your call for help doesn't work, and that's the last thing you want in a real emergency. To be distracted from things that need doing.
As it turns out (back to the drama), an off-duty CHP guy got the call through to local people already, and the ambulance pulled up while I was staring at my phone like an idiot; the CHP guy was parked just out of view past the brightly burning car at a safe distance minding his own family (the driver of the flaming car was the only one involved, and very, very dead (and on fire), brush and forest catching fire, car was still making "bang" sounds, and I had eyes only for the telephone and the nearby stinking fire at that moment).
Apparently, avoiding driving 90 MPH on a mountain road in the dark (perhaps while intoxicated) is a good idea, too. That's what Mr. Crispy Critter On-Fire Dead Guy was allegedly doing before I got there.
The next day I called Verizon. They blamed the local police. I called the sherrif. They gave me the number for CHP, who takes the cellular calls. I called them, and they directed me to the local CHP substation, and got a machine, because they don't expect to take emergency calls right there - it's just an office, not the dispatch. I got the royal bureaucratic run-around, and all I really wanted was to make sure the problem got fixed.
So far, since then, I've called Verizon again and managed to get through to a second tier of customer support (who took down some information and never called back). I've written a registered letter letting Verizon know that I'm making it their problem, and that I'd be happy to testify against them if someone gets around to suing them over a preventable death, since they will have been notified of the problem and done NOTHING about it. Negligent homicide, is my take. I told them I hoped they would at least come up with the appropriate paper trail for their own protection. I also filed a complaint with the FCC, who takes these complaints.
It's illegal to call 911 "just testing", so you can't legally find out if their service works at any given location. So have some local and state emergency numbers ready as backup. There's also 411, I suppose, or calling someone and having them play "emergency relay" for you. None of these options were occurring to me, as I was frankly frozen in some mode of indecision and incredulity over the silliness of the message I received, with the crackle and popping of the car and body nearby. When the ambulance showed up, maybe a minute later, I was still staring at the phone. I was pretty much in "Yessir" mode at that point. Do whatever they tell me. Help poke around in the bushes for bodies thrown out of the vehicle. Offer up my perfectly good fire extinguisher that sat in my truck while I stared at the phone. Feel like a useless moron.
