Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 12:22:02 -0500 From: Bill Moran <wmoran@mail.iowna.com> To: Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com> Cc: tresstatus@bsdpunk.com, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: bellsouth dsl? Message-ID: <3A6C6C3A.EAFAE1F1@mail.iowna.com> References: <011f01c0845e$13598500$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com>
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Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > > Speaking as the admin of an ISP that deploys DSL I can't > disagree more! I WANT stone-dumb support techs at the > Telco, because I want to discourage people from calling > the Telco if there's a problem! > > I DO NOT WANT end users like this to be calling the > Telco DSL tech support!! I want them to be calling MY tech > support, BEFORE they call the phone company, so that we > can key the order for their circuit into the phone company's > system so that it's delivered properly, with all the > hardware that they need. DON'T call the phone company, > they don't know anything about DSL or how to order > it, all they know is how to put a DSL CPE into a shipping > box and mail it somewhere, then how to go to the switchroom > and crossconnect your phone line to a DSLAM port. Beyond > that 95% of the Telco techs employed by the phone company > couldn't tell a DSL circuit from a hole in the ground, > and the 5% that know what they are doing are kept busy > running around and fixing all the mistakes that the other > 95% make. I can understand exactly where you're coming from. I've got lots of clients who will try to fix things they have no understanding of and they by the time they call me the problem is 5x worse. Hmmm ... but if the telco people weren't "stone-dumb" they would know when they were in over their head and transfer the call to you. I have to disagree with you 100% on this point. I've been on the phone for an entire 8 hour day with Verizon because they're level 1 tech support people could not recognize that it was time to pass the problem on to level 2. Even after we requested to talk to level 2, they insisted that the problem was our fault. The result when we finally got to level 2: Verizon fixed their mistake. This has actually happened on 2 seperate occasions now. If the tech had been smart enough to know when it was over his/her head, he would have sent us to level 2 tech support sooner, and saved us a bunch of time, him a bunch of time and the level 2 tech (who had to undo the level 1 tech's mistakes) a lot of time. So, personally, I don't think that "stone-dumb" is ever an asset in any way. I can understand that it's difficult to get another company to do their job correctly (trust me ... I understand!) but you simply have to push and keep pushing. Every time they screw something up worse that ends up taking your time, send them a bill. Push hard that they should pay for the time they caused. You may never get your $$$, but perhaps they'll eventually learn to turn things over at the right time. Welcome to hell. > Telco DSL tech support is to be used for ONE thing only - > you call them if the DSL modem cannot train to the DSLAM, > nothing else. PLEASE DO NOT ask them ANYTHING else - because > I guarentee that what's going to happen is that your > slightly broken system is going to end up being completely hosed. > Then, after completely screwing you the Telco is going > to start blaming the ISP saying it's their fault. > Then when you call the ISP in desperation, you have > made my job 1000% times harder because the system by > then is so completely hosed that my support techs can't > make head or tail out of it, and I get sucked into fixing > it, or I have to have you yard damn the thing into our > office and burn up an hour of support time unscrewing it. So why not make it policy within Telco support that anything outside what they can legitamately fix is to be referred to you? > We do FreeBSD, Linux, MacOS, OS/2, Winders, NT, 2K support > all for DSL. Cheers! Honestly, I think that is fantastic! Are you available in Columbus, OH? I would give up my Time Warner cable (which is good, actually) in a second for someone who really understood networks. > Our job is getting the Internet to your system. > The Telco's job is delivering some circuit that they don't > know what the hell is running on it and they could care less. Agreed, unfortunately, the advertising that is being pushed on people in large quantities doesn't explain that, and the bullshit that people get from companies like Micros~1 is that "they shouldn't have to understand the system" > Remember they don't get paid for the Internet service ON the > DSL circuit, the get paid for the circuit itself. Call the people > that do give a rat's ass about the Internet service on the DSL > circuit for help - the ISP. Keep in mind that quite often the ISP and the Telco are the same thing. Which makes it even worse, because you call telco support, get the wrong department and that department tries to fix it. Often the communication barriers between departments is just as bad (or worse) than it is between companies. Just wanted to chime in. Hope this doesn't start a flame war. -Bill To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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