Field service pilot fish spends most of his time fixing phones, networks, computers and point-of-sale systems for retailers, so this complaint from a grocery store chain doesn’t sound too unusual — except that the site is a two-hours-plus drive each way.

“The customer reported that the fuel center phone could receive calls, but could not originate them,” says fish. “They had buried fiber between the main store and the fuel center and installed an IP phone in the fuel center kiosk. The phone was more expensive, but it saved them the service calls that used to be required after an electrical storm when they used buried copper.

“When I got there and tried the phone myself, I noticed that an additional digit appeared on the phone’s display after I dialed the first digit. The phone’s keypad was so crufty with spilled drinks and whatever else had landed on it that one of the keys had stuck in the depressed position.

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