There are a number of completely adequate and understandable reactions to have when your fast food doesn’t arrive, well, fast: ask for a refund, talk to a manager, or wait patiently. One thing that’s not acceptable? Calling 9-1-1 to complain. Yet, that’s exactly what a Texas woman recently did at McDonald’s. [More]
9/11
Apple Update Fixes Flaw That Caused 911 Cyberattack
By 3.31.17
Last fall, 911 emergency-response service centers in a dozen states were the victims of a massive cyberattack that resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of iPhones repeatedly calling 911 without the knowledge or direction of owners. Nearly five months later, Apple say it has fixed the apparent flaw that made the attack possible. [More]
Drug Dealer Hiking The Price Of Pot? Don’t Call The Police
By 1.31.17
“Is your drug dealer ripping you off?” That’s a question police in Australia jokingly posed this week, after a woman called authorities to complain about a recent “outrageous” price hike on marijuana in her neighborhood. [More]
Mattress Store Apologizes For Ad Parodying Twin Towers Falling On 9/11
By 9.9.16
A San Antonio mattress store is apologizing after posting a video on Facebook advertising a “Twin Towers Sale” that parodies the World Trade Center towers collapsing. [More]
Local Governments Say AT&T, Verizon Aren’t Paying 911 Fees
By 8.9.16
In much of the country, local 911 call centers are funded from mandatory fees of around $1/line placed on phone bills. However, recently filed lawsuits allege that AT&T, Verizon and others are slashing the 911 fees they charge business customers, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars uncollected. [More]
The Police & Fire Departments Would Appreciate It If You Didn’t Call 911 About Pokémon Go
By 7.15.16
Typically, most people try to avoid a trip to the local police or fire station, except apparently Pokémon Go players. [More]
T-Mobile On The Hook For $17.5M After Nationwide 9-1-1 Outage
By 7.17.15
How important is it that telephone companies provide constant access to 9-1-1 service? Americans make an average of more than 27,000 of these emergency calls an hour, so when a nationwide wireless provider is unable to connect its users to 9-1-1 for even a few hours, they can be on the hook for millions of dollars. [More]
Woman Held Hostage Uses Online Pizza Hut Order To Send Messages Asking For Help
By 5.6.15
A woman who police say was being held hostage by her knife-wielding boyfriend, along with her three children, used the only method of communication she had available to ask for help: She added “911hostage help!” and “Please Help. Get 911 to me” to her online Pizza Hut order. [More]
FCC Fines CenturyLink $16M, Intrado Communications $1.4M For Actions During Massive 911 Outage
By 4.6.15
Last month the Federal Communications Commission ordered Verizon to pay $3.4 million for failing to alert authorities of a preventable programming error that left nearly 11 million people in seven states without access to emergency services for six hours in 2014. While Verizon’s fine was decidedly hefty, it pales in comparison to the $16 million penalty the agency just levied against CenturyLink for the same 911 outage. [More]
Verizon To Pay $3.4 Million For Not Notifying Officials Of Massive 911 Service Outage
By 3.18.15
In April 2014 nearly 11 million people in seven states lost access to emergency services when a software programming error resulted a six-hour long 911 outage. The Federal Communications Commission determined in October that the lengthy outage could have easily been prevented, and today the agency began placing the blame by fining Verizon $3.4 million for failing to alert authorities. [More]
FCC: 911 Outage Affected 11 Million People, Could Have Been Prevented
By 10.20.14
In the software used in a call routing center in Englewood, Colorado, there was a programming error in a single piece of software. Sounds minor, but this error could have had horrible implications: it knocked out 911 service to 11 million people in Washington state, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, California, Minnesota, and Florida for six hours in April. More than 5,600 calls in affected areas didn’t go through. How did this happen, and can we prevent it from happening again? [More]
Phone Company Routed 911 Calls To Automated Recording Telling Callers To Dial 911
By 8.5.14
Although consumers in some areas of the United States can now text message 911 in the event of an emergency, it’s always nice to know that calling a real, live human is still an option. Unless of course it isn’t, which was the case for residents of Caddo County, OK, for several months in 2013. [More]
Do Not Call 9-1-1 When Subway Puts The Wrong Sauce On Your Flatizza
By 5.13.14
If a restaurant makes your pizza–or, in the case of Subway, your Flatizza–incorrectly, you’re entitled to a refund. You should not, however, try to enlist the help of local law enforcement by calling 9-1-1 to report a crime against pizza. When a South Carolina woman did exactly that last week, she was sent to jail and released on bond, charged with misuse of the 9-1-1 system. [More]
Woman Calls Cops On Herself To Defend Claim Of Raw Waffles
By 2.26.14
When you might be in trouble, it’s good to get ahead of the story. We’re not sure whether that’s what led a woman in Tampa, Florida to contact the authorities when a restaurant allegedly served her an uncooked waffle. Did she call the health department, or the Board of Breakfast Foods (which should be a thing)? Nope. She dialed 9-1-1. [More]
FCC Wants First-Responders To Know Exactly Where 911 Calls Are Coming From
By 2.21.14
No one wants to be in a position where calling 911 is necessary, but if the situation does occur we’d all like to think first-responders could easily find us. But that’s just not the case now that more consumers are using cell phones to make emergency calls. Especially when those calls are being made indoors, out of the view of GPS satellites. [More]
Mass. Governor Calls Timing Of Flaming, Smoky Fire Drills At Logan Airport On 9/11 “Just Dumb”
By 9.12.13
Bone-headed marketing promotions tying in 9/11 are one kind of insensitivity, and then there’s another kind of palm-to-head move by officials who really should know better. Massachusetts’ Governor Deval Patrick is calling the timing of a fire training exercise full of flames and smoke at Boston’s Logan Airport on yesterday’s anniversary of the attacks “just dumb.” [More]
Oh Lovely, It Seems We Need To Do A Round-Up Of 9/11 Promotions
By 9.11.13
We’ve barely seen any tacky 9/11 promotions over the years but this year… [head shake] there’s something about this year’s anniversary of the attacks that has companies and businesses climbing all over themselves to prove they, too, can push out a tone deaf promo in the name of patriotism and respect. We’ve seen a golf course do it, AT&T did it, and now we’ve got enough additional examples today that we have to do a round-up of the awful things. [More]
AT&T Apologizes For Reminding Customers It Sells Smartphones On 9/11
By 9.11.13
Sigh. Just… sigh. Why can’t companies just refrain from hitching their apple wagons to tragic stars? Following yesterday’s story about a golf course offering a $9.11 special in honor of 9/11, AT&T is apologizing for using 9/11 memorial imagery to remind everyone on Twitter that it sells cell phones. [More]
