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 he
1. Assumption, the mother of all screwups.
2. That which is assumed to be correct, usually isn't.
3. Three experts are no better than one.
4. Hidden switches might need an on-screen status indicator.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558