Report a power outage



  • On the home page of a large local utility company:

    Power out? Report and view your outage status online

     
    It's not entirely useless; you might have gone somewhere else to wait until things are fixed.   But it's still kinda funny.



  • The cable modem and the WiFi router are plugged into a UPS the laptop has batteries...



  • Its not such a wtf, now that cell phones can access the internet!



  • @plazmo said:

    Its not such a wtf, now that cell phones can access the internet!

    ... connecting to which cell phone base station again?



  • @dzimm said:

    The cable modem and the WiFi router are plugged into a UPS the laptop has batteries...

    "But once the batteries run out, how will I be able to check if the power is back on?" 

     



  • @PSWorx said:

    @plazmo said:

    Its not such a wtf, now that cell phones can access the internet!

    ... connecting to which cell phone base station again?


    The one with the generator.  Most cell towers have battery banks or generators to keep them running when the power goes out.



  • Jed:  Where is all this dripping water coming from?

    Jethro:  It's raining and the roof leaks.

    Jed:  Well, why don't you go fix it?

    Jethro:  Can't fix it now.  It's raining.

    Jed:  Why don't you fix it sometime when it's not raining?

    Jethro:  It don't leak then.

     



  • In retrospect, it's not really that bad.  They probably already have an automated phone system, and the work required to create a web page that ties in to the same database would be minimal.  You promote it on the front page because otherwise people would assume that you can't do it that way.



  • Sort of like the days (before cell phones) when the phone company would tell you to call them if your phone service was out.



  • @snoofle said:

    Sort of like the days (before cell phones) when the phone company would tell you to call them if your phone service was out.

    I've called my ISP to report problems and got told "you can report problems to us by emailing us from the website..."

    Me: "Except that your connection is down and I can't get to the internet.  Please explain to me how I'm supposed to email you about my tech problem?"

    ...

    I have empathy for tech support... really I do.  Dealing with screaming idiots on the phone can't be good for the stress levels.  But why do companies hire such dummies for first tier? 

    -- Seejay



  • It also reminds me of the days when, if you had trouble installing a modem into your computer, you were supposed to email tech support and alert them to the issue.



  • My favourite is manuals which have a section telling you how to open the box and find the manual.



  • I've come in a bit late -- been stockpiling the Sidebar WTFs -- but ... what's so funny about a woman (?) in a hammock? Maybe it's a bloke with shaved legs. I don't know.

    Seriously, you hotlinked an image with a URL indicating mutable content and expected it not to change, ever?



  • @Daniel Beardsmore said:

    I've come in a bit late -- been stockpiling the Sidebar WTFs -- but ... what's so funny about a woman (?) in a hammock? Maybe it's a bloke with shaved legs. I don't know.

    Seriously, you hotlinked an image with a URL indicating mutable content and expected it not to change, ever?

    The url for that image is http://www.alliantenergy.com/docs/groups/public/documents/image/home_main_image.jpg obviously since this was origianlly they have changed the main image, not by leaving the original image as it is and uploading a new image, but overwriting the original image so no html needs to be changed. lazyness at its best. So the image the OP was originally talking about is no longer visable



  • @seejay said:

    @snoofle said:

    Sort of like the days (before cell phones) when the phone company would tell you to call them if your phone service was out.

    I've called my ISP to report problems and got told "you can report problems to us by emailing us from the website..."

    Me: "Except that your connection is down and I can't get to the internet.  Please explain to me how I'm supposed to email you about my tech problem?"

    ...

    I have empathy for tech support... really I do.  Dealing with screaming idiots on the phone can't be good for the stress levels.  But why do companies hire such dummies for first tier? 

    -- Seejay

    This sort of thing is funny, but how many people have never tried to turn a light on when their power is off?  You get used to things being available, somtimes you forget that they aren't ALWAYS there.



  • Wanna see stupid tech support at its finest?

     http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/cs_stuptech.shtml 



  • My ISP still says on its website that "If you experience connection problems, please check the "Network Status" page to check for planned maintenance before contacting us."


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