Art Alexion on 15 May 2006 18:22:14 -0000


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Re: [PLUG] was DCA now Speakeasy


On Sunday 14 May 2006 23:39, John Von Essen wrote:
> Like Jeff said, its not the outage - but how the company responds to  
> it. Whether its DSL, Voice, DS3, whatever, the problem is the telco  
> business is managed as a pure commodity based operation. As a result,  
> companies make money by being as cheap as humanly possible. And since  
> they ALL are cheap, everyone has to follow that example to stay  
> competitive. That means hiring idiot customer service and tech support  
> people, and keeping a skeleton crew of platform engineers.

Funny I just had to deal with Verizon on a connection problem this morning.  I 
have only had a known outage once in 22 months, and despite a bad reputation, 
I have always found the tech support to be willing to work with my Linux 
setup, even if they didn't know anything about it.  Some do know a bit of 
Linux, unofficially.

Anyway, my connection has been down since the weekend, but I was out and 
didn't need it til this AM anyway.  Called support.  Got the standard 3 menu 
options: "Windows, Mac, or 'another operating system'".  As usual, I pressed 
3.  This time, a guy gets on and asks me which version of Windows I am using.  
This is a Samba net, so I can always hop on the w2k machine, but I prefer to 
troubleshoot via Linux because I use IPMasq and the Linux machine is the 
'router'; if it has a problem, it doesn't matter what I do on the Windows 
machine.  

I tell the guy I pressed option 3 -- another operating system.  He just keeps 
repeating that he won't support Linux.  I finally get him to admit that if my 
modem won't connect, it won't matter what is down the line.  We go through 
the usual stuff about rebooting the modem, trying different RJ-11 cables, 
different wall jacks, etc.  I tell him I have a spare modem around, and ask 
should I try it.  He says, no, can't be the modem.

He sets up a home visit for the wiring guys for Friday.  After we get off the 
line, I plug in the old modem, and it connects in about 10 seconds.

I call back to cancel the home visit and get a different tech.  This guy is 
fine with Linux, helpful and knowledgeable.  We cancel the visit and he 
transfers me to get a modem replacement for the broken one.

Moral: In the roulette wheel of tech support, it usually depends more on who 
you get in the cue, than who the company is.

BTW, I had the spare modem, because last year a tech didn't think I was 
getting enough speed, and sent me out a new one, free.  In case this one 
really is slower, I tried to get a replacement for the one that went bad.  
Couldn't because it was out of warranty, but they now sell a combo 
modem/wireless router to existing customers for $49 -- a good deal if anyone 
is a Verizon customer and needs one.
-- 

_____________________________________________________________
Art Alexion
Arthur S. Alexion LLC

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