The Phone Company

We have voicemail that comes with our home phone. Not surprisingly, we haven't been able to access it due to the fact that we don't speak Dutch, and it doesn't speak anything else.

The phone company was only recently (in the last 5 years) made to cede its monopoly status. But, we use the national company anyway, much like we might have used AT&T in the States.

Like AT&T, KPN (as it is known) has a cell phone component, complete with cell phone stores. I spent Saturday night searching web sites trying to find out how to set up our voicemail and was surprised to discover a set of key strokes for setting up the cell phone mailbox that turned the instructions to English. Didn't work for the home phone.

Dutifully, Monday Eileen and I trekked over to the KPN mobile store to ask for help with our voicemail. A kind young employee told me that of course there was no English for the voicemail on our home phone - KPN is the national Netherlands phone company. When I pointed out that there as on the cell phone, he responded that home phone is a utility.

Funny distinction, since the instructions and everything else should be the same - isn't voicemail voicemail?

When I called Eric to report my findings, he said that it would be much the same in a Verizon store if we wanted the instructions in Hungarian. I pointed out that Spanish was the English equivalent in the States (second most prevalent language, necessary for at least some business, etc.) and that in fact, most phone companies published a handy guide in Spanish.