What Not To Do If Your Telephone Stops Working


My home telephone stopped working back in May.  It was strange because there was no dial tone and I couldn't make calls, but for some reason I could still receive them.  I found the MOC telephone complaint number here to file a complaint, but of course it went unanswered every time and after a few days of trying to get through, I decided to just visit the MOC Exchange in my area.  

I was a big apprehensive about going by myself as I don't speak either of the two languages you need to get anything done here in Kuwait, Arabic or Hindi, but was surprised to see signs in English at the front door.  The employee at the counter also spoke in perfect English (very friendly too!) and after taking down my details, told me that she would send a technician around to have a look.  I was asked to either call the complaint number or come back to the office the next day to follow up.  There's no parking available at the exchange in Salmiya by the way and everyone just bravely parks right in front of the No Parking signs alongside the exterior fence. 

Now, having lived in Kuwait for a while, I don't have much faith in our Government offices.  We had the number of one of the technicians at the MOC and decided to give him a call.  The technician called my husband back a little later and said that he'd looked at the junction box in our area and it had been hit by a car.  He said that a lot of residents in our area would also be having phone problems because of this and to sit tight in the meantime as it would take time for the parts to be ordered in.  We were advised not to follow up with the complaint at the MOC as they would just come and cut all our lines (including our internet) while waiting for the parts.  We had no reason to not believe him and decided to just wait, after all, we hardly used the telephone anyway and not having any internet connectivity would be horrible.  

Weeks passed and the technician kept giving us different reasons regarding the delay each time we called.  A month and a half later, I decided to just go ahead and follow up on my original complaint.  If I was going to have to go without my internet connectivity for some time, so be it.  

I got to the exchange around 10:45am and spoke to the staff there.  I mentioned that I'd made a complaint back in May, but couldn't follow up for various reasons.  The staff again took down my details and asked me to call or come by the next morning.  I really didn't have much hope in the system, but less than 30 minutes later, my landline was up and running and I received a call confirming that it was fine.  

Wow!  Though, I'm not sure why they waited to fix the line.  I mean, if a technician had gone around the first time and found a problem, shouldn't they have sorted it out instead of waiting for me to follow up?  Nevertheless, it just shows what a crook the technician we had called was.  He was betting on the fact that we'd get frustrated while waiting for the MOC to fix a problem they probably didn't know about and we'd end up paying him to make things move quicker.  

If your telephone stops working, don't do what we did and just go straight to the exchange office to file a complaint, do follow up and don't fluff around with any of the technicians.  You'll end up waiting and paying from your pocket for no reason.  

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