Page 76 - The Voice of Authority

from their supervisor to see if he was going to give approval
to replace the lines out here tonight or if they were going
to wait until tomorrow. I wanted to know what the status
is.”
“Okay, let me check.” Silence. He comes back on the
line. “No, everything’s working fine here. Your computer
should be working fine.”
“Sir, maybe you didn’t hear me. My Internet connec-
tion is completely down. I have no service at all. Your ca-
ble truck is parked down the street now, and the two ser-
vicemen say there’s trouble with the lines in the
neighborhood.”
“We have no report of that. Let’s do a step-by-step
check. First, would you check the lights on your modem
and tell me if the top light is blinking green?”
“Sir, NO lights are blinking. There seems to be an out-
age in the whole neighborhood.”
“I have no report of that.”
“I am telling you that now. Your cable truck is parked
outside my house, and that’s what your service agents just
told me. There is trouble in the neighborhood, and I’m
asking if you will check with a service supervisor to see
when they intend to install a new line—tonight, tomor-
row, or later this week.”
“Would you just look at the modem and tell me if the
top light is blinking green?”
“Sir, the top light is NOT blinking. I have NO connec-
tion at all. Cable service is down in our neighborhood.
Your service people are working about 200 yards from my
house. They say they are waiting for approval to install a
new line. I just want to know if the line will be installed
tonight so I can get some work done here.”
“From here, it seems that your connection is working
properly. Let’s do a step-by-step check, please. Would you

64 The Voice of Authority