Unexpected encounters in the field: Part 5
Filed under: community, customers, infrastructure, remote, wildlife
In Part 1 of this series, we told you about the birds and now it is time you heard about the bees – Dave versus the bees that is.
The customer was located on a remote farming property, a couple of hours drive West of Esperance. Two CTs had been to the property previously. However, on each of their visits the customer was not at home. Whilst there, the CTs proved that the fault was in or near the house, but were unable to get close to the fix the issue due to a large number of very active bees around the house. The CTs left cards saying access was required to the house but the owners would need to do something about their bee problem.
When Dave arrived the customer was at home at last and very keen to get the service restored due to their isolation – but the bees were also still very much at home.
When Dave asked why the bees hadn’t been removed the customer replied that they had hives on the property that they use to produce their own honey and they very much valued their bees.
Unfortunately quite a few had left their hives and were in the process of setting up new hives around the house, one being right next to a junction box which was suspected to contain the actual fault.
Dave explained the situation to the customer and pointed out that he wasn’t keen on being attacked by bees while he checked the junction box. The lady at the house said her husband had a full bee suit he used for collecting the honey. She said her husband was a big man so the suit would be a bit large for Dave, but he was welcome to use it.
Dave wasn’t too keen at first, but didn’t want to leave the people without a service so he decided to use the protective head gear and gloves from the customer and his own overalls. Black tape was applied at any spot a bee might be able to gain access such as around ankles, wrists and neck.
And then in Dave went. He was able to access the junction box and pinpoint the fault while bees walked all over him and buzzed around his head. Successful repairs were finally made and Dave was able to extract himself from the situation and remove all the gear without any harm coming to him or any of the bees.
The customer was extremely grateful for the effort Dave went to in restoring their service and Dave left the property satisfied he had overcome one of the more challenging situations he had encountered in a while.
When was the last time you stepped out of your comfort zone to assist a customer or friend?
Bee photo (top): bcjordan on Flickr (royalty free). Inpost photo (right): Dave Taylor, communication technician (CT), from Esperance in WA told of how he required the use of some rather unusual Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to resolve a customer’s problem just a few years ago.
Check out the previous blogs in this series:
- Unexpected encounters in the field: Part 1
- Unexpected encounters in the field: Part 2
- Unexpected encounters in the field: Part 3
- Unexpected encounters in the field: Part 4
Once again, interesting how Telstra shows that problems can be overcome with protection.
However when I had an issue it took Telstra 8 separate tech guys (8 visits), 2 supervisors and a cherry picker to fix a cable on a condemned power pole. For my cable to be repaired.
So for every good story there are many bad ones your customers have.
Why do we out up with them? Because sadly not even Optus has the service or speed that Telstra has.
Russell, a condemned pole is a safety issue, I’m glad that Telstra follows excellent HS&E practices to keep its staff (and customers) safe when repairing its network.
What a cool story to stumble across on Linkedin! Long ago it seems now at Telstra I once had to manage an issue whereby an old lady called into residential faults and reported that our technician was lovely, had wiped his dirty boots, said please and thank you, helped her lift some heavy shopping, fixed a wonky door for her and then as he drove away, ran over her dog.
We bought her a new dog!