Question: I’m having trouble with my phone lines. I called Hawaiian Telcom and was told that the earliest a technician could be at my house is Feb. 14! I’m not satisfied with the answer that technicians are busy until them. The longest I’ve had to wait in the past was two days. Why do I have to wait almost six weeks? I am able to call out, but when someone calls me, the phone rings not even half a ring before it hangs up. No one can call me.
Answer: You shouldn’t have had to wait that long.
A “number of factors” led to a misscheduled appointment, but Hawaiian Telcom said your problem has since been resolved. It was traced to a faulty phone cord and not related to service, said Hawaiian Telcom spokeswoman Ann Nishida Fry.
In general, because of the holidays and rainy season, there tends to be a higher than average volume of repairs during the winter months, she said.
Technicians have been working overtime, including weekends, to expedite assistance to customers, she said.
However, when you called Jan. 3, she said the automated repair scheduling system “excluded some of our technicians’ extended availability.”
Also, your problem was incorrectly categorized a “Non Out of Service” condition, which generally refers to problems such as static, with the customer still able make calls.
A “Non Out of Service” repair is dispatched at a lower priority than an “Out of Service” repair, which covers such situations as having no dial tone or not being able to make or receive calls.
“This combination of factors resulted in (the customer) receiving a commitment date that was later than it should have been, and we apologize for that aberration,” Nishida Fry said. “We are currently going through our record of work appointments to ensure that no additional customers were similarly affected.”
She said any Hawaiian Telcom customers with repair appointments longer than two weeks should call its 24-Hour Service Center at 611 (or 643-6111 from a non-Hawaiian Telcom phone) to be given an earlier date.
Question: Where can we recycle our telephone books this year? Can we just toss them into the blue recycling bin?
Answer: You can recycle the Hawaiian Telcom, or any other, telephone directory in The Berry Co.’s Think Yellow, Go Green Recycling Program that will run for five consecutive weekends beginning Friday.
Or the city Department of Environmental Services says you can toss them out in the regular trash bin — not blue recycling bin — where it will be taken to the HPOWER plant and burned to generate electricity.
You can drop off directories from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 20-22 and 27-29, and Feb. 3-5, 10-12 and 17-19 at Kahala Mall, next to the Trolley Stop on Kilauea Avenue; Town Center of Mililani, behind Consolidated Theatres next to Tesoro Gas Express; Ward Centers, next to the Trolley Stop on Auahi Street; and Windward Mall, on Haiku Road near the Kamehameha Highway intersection.
Bulk drop-offs can be made at the Hawaiian Telcom Yellow Pages delivery warehouse in Mapunapuna. Call 833-2018.
Go to www.thinkyellowgogreen.com/locations.aspx?region=3.
Mahalo
To a kind gentleman. My husband got a flat tire while driving on Kamehameha Highway, so he pulled into Pearl Highlands. It was a hot day. While he was in the process of changing the tire, a gentleman, with his wife and two children, pulled up in a Chevy Tahoe and completed the installation.
— Grateful Seniors
Auwe
To thieves who stole a large areca palm and variegated potted plants that decorated my front door entry in Ocean Pointe in Ewa Beach early Christmas Eve morning. I hope you needed it desperately, because you ruined my Christmas spirit. — Anonymous
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