One of my customers bribed me into doing a service call on a weekend. The main task was to deal with a rather creative U-verse installation, which only took three times as long as originally anticipated. It is customary during such service calls for the client to unload every possible repair, failure, annoyance, and question on me on the assumption that I can fix anything. This was no exception.
Among the numerous problems was an iPhone 4S that would buzz but not ring. I verified that this was the case by calling the iPhone and then preceded to check the settings. Everything looked normal. After
30 minutes of trial and error with the various sound and ringer settings, I gave up and suggested she take the phone to Verizon and ask the experts.
On Monday, she arrived at the Verizon store and described the problem. Three experts, one firmware reinstall, plenty of tinkering, and three hours later, the phone would still not ring, only buzz. However, just as everyone was ready to give up, a bystander in the store fixed the problem in about 5 seconds.
What happened was the three experts made the same assumption that I had made. The iPhone was covered with one of those rubber bumper case and screen protector contrivances. This particular model was gray, with 4 white clips holding the rubber bumper in place. It was a model that was difficult to install and almost impossible to remove without breaking something or cutting it apart. Nobody, including me, wanted to take it apart just to check the position of the ring/silent switch. We all just assumed it was in the ring position. One of the 4 white clips covered this switch. In its normal position, which was the same as the other 3 clips, the switch was set to silent. In the ring position, it looked odd, so the natural thing to do was move it to the silent position. Change the iPhone settings any way you want, but the switch takes priority. What the bystander did was just flip the switch, which he knew about because his iPhone had the same style cover.
Lots of lessons here:
- Assumption, the mother of all screwups.
- That which is assumed to be correct, usually isn't.
- Three experts are no better than one.
- Hidden switches might need an on-screen status indicator.