This Is our Village

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Phone in Guests without land line

Hi,  I just moved into a Luddite building - folks too afraid of technology to move forward and permit owners without land lines to use cell phones for informing the gate of expected guests.

Since most Century Village buildings are now "cell phone capable", there is no longer a security issue when prohibiting cell phone call-ins, just an inconvenience to newer, and likely, younger owners.

We were pleased to see the guard gate numbers and call in procedures published for use when the automated system is not working.  Since the automated system never works for us, we felt the procedure solved our call-in problem until we tried it the first time.

Turns out, no one had informed the guards of the new procedure.  We have no desire to disrupt the guard procedures so we walked to the gate, presented our cards, and registered our guest.

We are told by the neighbors this is a "hit and miss" procedure and the only sure way to admit guests is to walk to the gate and meet the guests, entering with them.

Is there an official procedure for non-land line owners to admit guests?  The guards told us unofficially the automated system will permit UCO to provide a list of owners who may phone in guests via the existing voice system.

Thank you - our guests are waiting at the gate.  :-)

6 comments:

  1. Hi Capt. Stu,
    Well over 200 Associations have voted to be Cell Phone friendly.

    So, raise the issue at a Boardmeetng and make it happen for your Association.

    Dave Israel

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  2. The board declined to discuss the cell phone issue at a board meeting - saying it had been discussed and rejected previously and they were concerned about security.

    I don't want to make a board battle, thus I'm looking for the correct procedure to be used by residents of a Luddite building with no land line.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Capt. Stu,
    February 10, 2013 at 10:18 PM,

    Unfortunately, there are no acceptable options in such a case.

    1) Install a landline at the lowest cost available.

    2) Continue going to the gate to register your guests.

    3) For regular guests, get them long term gate passes, which may be purchased at UCO. (up to 1 year)!

    It must be understood, that UCO cannot wave a magic wand and accept cell phone registration against the wishes of the Association.

    UCO takes their direction from the Association, and has no authority to demand that they accept cell phone guest call-in.

    Dave Israel

    ReplyDelete
  4. CaptStu go to skype, buy a phone number $30.00 yr then buy skype credits for $3.99 then you are good to go

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ken, Thank you for your suggestion about SKYPE. I thought the "landline" rule depended on a unique calling part ID registered at the address trying to call the person in -- I also thought SKYPE had a "shared" calling part ID not unique to the owner.

    Have you tried SKYPE at CV? I know Magic Jack doesn't work for the reason noted above.

    I actually enjoy walking up to visit the guards, just thought it wasn't completely reliable.

    /Stu

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stu I have been using Skype for a few years in cv

      Delete

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