Action Line #100102– Phone Service

  • Published
  • By 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Complaint:

During the holiday break my phone service was not operating. I placed several calls Dec. 31, 2009, Jan. 1, 2010 and Jan. 3, 2010 to no available. On Jan. 4, 2010 my call was answered and a trouble ticket was issued. I returned home at the end of my work day to find my phone service the same, out of service. The following day I called to check the status of my ticket and inquire why no repair had been performed. I spoke with an Airman and was briefed that residential phones are low priority and they have up to three days to repair the problem. I informed the Airman that my phone has been out of service for a week. I was given the same response "residential phones are a low priority." I asked the Airman how I was to be reached if there was a recall? The agent responded "your squadron has a COMM Out procedure and they have your address, a runner will be sent to knock on the door. I replied, "Why then are home phones required?" I was transferred to the supervisors who told me the same thing and then I was given the number to the flight chief who was unavailable at that time.

Question:

I would like to know when the three days take effect. After being notified, when the phone system becomes unserviceable, or when the servicing section decides to answer the call? Also will the phone bill be prorated for the time it is out of service?

Solution:

I tried tracking the ticket number and it was inadequate. There is no earliest/no later than date to repair the line. Consider adding this to the ticket so those without service can let their leadership know and can plan accordingly until the situation is resolved.


Response:

Thank you for the question, because it's a great one. In fact, your question has led to some process improvements within the communication squadron, increasing manpower utilization. You asked several questions, so I will try to provide answers in the order they were asked:

First, your calls on Dec. 31 2009, Jan. 1, 2010 and Jan. 3, 2010 should have been answered, and I apologize that it took you four attempts to get someone on the phone. That problem has been fixed. From now on, telephone trouble calls ring to the Ramstein Consolidated Helpdesk, who can initiate a trouble ticket for you 24 hours a day. Not only will this save you from the frustration of unanswered calls to the helpdesk, it is actually going to increase manpower availability to close tickets during the duty day. We will no longer require a technician to answer the phones, and we can put him/her back to work closing tickets.

Regarding the response time to your outage, it's probably not what you want to hear, but residential phone service is indeed a "low priority" ticket. The priority matrix was established based on criticality (i.e. mission impact) of the outage. The 39th Communications Squadron is manned based on that priority matrix. Manning for "low priority" tickets is calculated based on a three-day response time where trouble tickets are worked during duty hours Monday through Friday. The clock starts ticking as soon as you create the trouble ticket. The bottom line: 39th CS is manned to respond to "low priority" trouble calls within three duty days (Monday-Friday excluding holidays).

Lastly, your phone bill was not pro-rated for the time it was out of service. Only service outages impacting 25 or more users are evaluated for possible recoupment. We are one of only two bases in the entire Air Force that provides residential phone service (all other bases contract with a commercial off-base provider). Because residential telephone service is so unique, we are not equipped to pro-rate individual outages.

Thank you again for the feedback.