Cell Service Outage Affects Realtors’ Work Day

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — Thousands of people woke up without cell phone service this morning, but AT&T says service has now been restored to all customers; AT&T says they believe the outage was caused by the application of an incorrect process used as they were expanding their network.

I spoke with several realtors who says they were confined to their offices if they wanted to ensure they didn’t miss clients’ calls. Some took the leap and ventured out to showings with the hopes that their cell service would start working somewhere in the trek between the office and someone’s forever home.

“I think it’s definitely opened your eyes to what you will you may need to adapt to on the fly,” says Lacey Lee, an Evansville realtor.

Those who work in realty say no phone connection means no house showings. One Evansville realtor says your phone is often the key to what could be your client’s future home.

“Nowadays all of most listings are with an e box and to open that key box system by bluetooth. So, you have to have cell service to be able to open it. So I wasn’t able to open the box,” says Lee.

Lee says she had to think fast and agents worked together to fight the challenge of the nationwide service outage. “I would screenshot all the GPS locations so I could know exactly what road to turn on to get me to exactly where I needed to be,” says the realtor.

At Curran Miller Auction and Realty, Wendy Miller says the connectivity issues nearly cost her and her father a real estate deal. They have AT&T phone service and Miller’s father was forced to make an unusual trip to the office.

“Obviously he couldn’t reach me on my cell phone. So, he came to the office…not being able to reach each other to make modifications and make changes to terms, that’s a big deal,” says Miller.

Miller says because of the outage, they will be changing a mobile-bidding auction to paper just in case there are interruptions.

Although it required a lot of leg work, Lee says it’s taught her to be prepared for anything. “I don’t want them to miss out on their forever home just because my phone’s not working,” says Lee.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW).