What it Takes to Get a Phone Line

What does it take to get a phone line in Costa Rica?

You don’t want to know the whole story. Blog entries shouldn’t be that long!

Let me relate to you just a couple of the chapters.

Remember that I was called by the phone company and told to stay home all day on Friday, November 4th? When they didn’t show up, I called them back and was told to stay home all day the next Monday so they could install our phone line. When they didn’t show again, I called and called and called on Tuesday, only to be reprimanded; saying they never intended to come any of those days.

I’ll skip a few interesting chapters and say that we finally learned that a technician would call sometime this week, telling me what day to stay home again, awaiting their visit. On Tuesday afternoon, since I’d not received a call, I went to run errands. Of course, they came unannounced while I was absent. They told a neighbor they’d be back first thing the next morning.

The next morning I waited on them again, but by mid-morning they hadn’t showed up. Most phone company workers had taken the day off to protest the free trade agreement (20,000 protestors!), so I decided to run to the office. I left my cell phone number with a workman across the road, in case he saw them.

Sure enough, they showed up! I ran down to the house from the office and watched them connect the lines. They took two bare wires just inside the house and connected them to a trial phone, and it worked! Then, they left those two lines hanging and said I needed to connect that somehow to the jacks in the house. I had no clue! (That’s another chapter I’ll skip.)

I thanked the workmen, but also asked them why they never called me to tell me what day to expect them. They replied, “We have no obligation to call the customer. If we are supposed to come a certain week, you just need to be home.”

“So, I must sit home all week and wait, hoping someone will come?”

“Yes.”

“And if I work, I either will not get a phone line or I must take an unspecified leave of absence from my job until the phone company shows?”

“Yes, that is correct.”

I couldn’t resist one jab.

“While your companions are out protesting the Free Trade Agreement, you are proving exactly why it is necessary. The government monopoly phone business makes your work convenient at the expense of providing a service for the client.”

Give them credit. They seemed to happily agree that their job is very convenient and they intend to keep it that way!