Were you a Michigan Bell or ATT employee before 1984? Share your stories here!
Hello DYers!
I have a great interest in knowing more about the history of the telephone system in Michigan. Primarily interested in information about pre 1984 ATT practices and procedures under the Bell System. If you worked for the telephone company or have knowledge of it please post stories and pictures here, thank you!
MBT Service Order Typist from 1967-1969
I worked at the MBT office at 105 East Bethune and also at the office on Kelly Rd. near State Fair from '67-69 as a Service Order Typist.
When a customer called in for phone service, the service rep would take their order and write it on a form, which went to the order reviewer who checked it for accuracy in relation to equipment type, rates, etc. It then came into the room where the SOT's sat at teletype machines. We'd transfer the info from the form to a hard card [[from a large box of perforated continuous feed cards) and at the same time the machine was punching holes into a yellow tape. Each order went to the proofreader to check for typos [[especially phone number errors), and then the tape was put on a little gadget that loaded it into another teletype machine that went to the central processing area for completion.
Once, I transposed a couple phone number digits, and the proofreader didn't catch it. A day or two later we were called into the service superisor's office...we had disconnected the main phone line of a large company and they were not too pleased with us.