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Telco Problems
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Author | Message |
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Richard Haselgrove Send message Joined: 4 Jul 99 Posts: 14653 Credit: 200,643,578 RAC: 874 |
There were big problems earlier today with BT Internet in the UK, but they seem to have been fixed now. We will see ..... I could reach UK websites, plus Arizona and Switzerland. Fault seems to have been in the Telehouse switching centre in London. Likewise, all clearing now. |
anniet Send message Joined: 2 Feb 14 Posts: 7105 Credit: 1,577,368 RAC: 75 |
There were big problems earlier today with BT Internet in the UK, but they seem to have been fixed now. We will see ..... Yes! I will be keeping TWO beady eyes on them Chris... though... that might wreak havoc with my posts :) We're back we're back we're back!!! :) |
anniet Send message Joined: 2 Feb 14 Posts: 7105 Credit: 1,577,368 RAC: 75 |
I'm so sorry Richard, didn't spot you down there :) Nice to see you! |
Richard Haselgrove Send message Joined: 4 Jul 99 Posts: 14653 Credit: 200,643,578 RAC: 874 |
I'm so sorry Richard, didn't spot you down there :) Nice to see you! That's all right - I'm usually to be found lurking in the corner, only emerging to make the occasional gnomic comment ;) |
kittyman Send message Joined: 9 Jul 00 Posts: 51468 Credit: 1,018,363,574 RAC: 1,004 |
BT has nothing on ATT....LOL. I spent many hours on the phone in foreign lands and languages trying to get my modem working last week. "We want you to see internet. You have lights on modem, yes?" It was quite cosmic. "You push button on modem now...It work?" It's a good thing I kept my sense of humour through it all.......... "Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster |
kittyman Send message Joined: 9 Jul 00 Posts: 51468 Credit: 1,018,363,574 RAC: 1,004 |
Corporate bean counters that outsource IT support to save a few dollars, (whilst peeing off the customers) should all be dropped of in mid Atlantic without a lifejacket. Closely followed in the ship behind, by the Directors that allowed them to get away with it, because the shareholders demanded their dividend from the dwindling profits. Without a lifejacket? No, Chris, with a lead jacket. During the conversations, if you could call them that, I could virtually read their screens. Customer say this, hit this button. Customer say that, hit this button. All freaking scripted, not an intelligent thought involved. "You see light now?" Yeah, it's freakin' 9am here...I see sunlight. What planet are YOU on? "Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster |
kittyman Send message Joined: 9 Jul 00 Posts: 51468 Credit: 1,018,363,574 RAC: 1,004 |
OK I'll play devils advocate. To be fair Mark, the script system does prove the concept, that you CAN run a remote call centre with basically non IT skilled people. Provided that they can be trained to follow a tested procedure. For most of the cases it works and costs in. Where it falls down badly is when people like you and me call in. That's the whole point, Chris. I came from a point of being there, done that, rebooted everything twice including the kitties, and I could not get a person on the phone intelligent enough to listen to that fact. Days later, I was actually able to somehow contact a living breathing tech at ATT directly. And she apologized more than once. She reiterated what you have expressed. They cannot afford to have real people on the line 24/7, so they have the telecenters where some sub level of support will work for some people. And I suppose for some minor problems with passwords and such, it works. In my position, I know darn well how everything works, or should work, and when I do make that call, I need somebody on the line with their brain attached and networking skills available. In their defense, once I got through to the right person, as I said, she was VERY intelligent and cut through the bull very quickly. "Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster |
anniet Send message Joined: 2 Feb 14 Posts: 7105 Credit: 1,577,368 RAC: 75 |
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kittyman Send message Joined: 9 Jul 00 Posts: 51468 Credit: 1,018,363,574 RAC: 1,004 |
BT apologises. That would have been the response I got...LOL. "Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster |
Dr. C.E.T.I. Send message Joined: 29 Feb 00 Posts: 16019 Credit: 794,685 RAC: 0 |
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Julie Send message Joined: 28 Oct 09 Posts: 34053 Credit: 18,883,157 RAC: 18 |
I would pay for a copy of their call centre idiot script :-) Never used a script in my life myself! It all comes from the heart over here:) I wished I could see doctors or CEO's doing what we do. Multitasking as hell, the 'face' of the company which customers can piss against (and still remain friendly), we have to know the complete darn systems, yes more than one, the complete story and happenings on the energy market, we have to know a hell of a lot of psychology (so we can 'work' on the customer) etc... You need a darn University degree to be able to work in a call center I say! rOZZ Music Pictures |
Julie Send message Joined: 28 Oct 09 Posts: 34053 Credit: 18,883,157 RAC: 18 |
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David S Send message Joined: 4 Oct 99 Posts: 18352 Credit: 27,761,924 RAC: 12 |
Several years ago, our phone line was bad. Static to the point of not being able to talk (conventional analog POTS service) and DSL nearly useless. Every time I called for service, they started me off with an automated computer script. One of the questions was "Are you having trouble with internet?" If I said yes, the computer would immediately send me off to the internet division. I had to say no to get connected to a telephone service rep. "Yes, computer, my telephone is practically unusable, but the internet on the line is just fine." Great logic there. Then to get the person on the phone to believe that it was their problem and not my house wiring or my phone, I had to go outside and plug a phone directly into the connection box on the back of the house and tell them "You hear all this static on the line? You think maybe I have a problem???" It took two or three different service calls and replacement of the line from the pole to the house until a repair tech finally found a bad connection in a junction box a block away. David Sitting on my butt while others boldly go, Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri. |
anniet Send message Joined: 2 Feb 14 Posts: 7105 Credit: 1,577,368 RAC: 75 |
Several years ago, our phone line was bad. Static to the point of not being able to talk (conventional analog POTS service) and DSL nearly useless. Every time I called for service, they started me off with an automated computer script. One of the questions was "Are you having trouble with internet?" If I said yes, the computer would immediately send me off to the internet division. I had to say no to get connected to a telephone service rep. "Yes, computer, my telephone is practically unusable, but the internet on the line is just fine." Great logic there. Then to get the person on the phone to believe that it was their problem and not my house wiring or my phone, I had to go outside and plug a phone directly into the connection box on the back of the house and tell them "You hear all this static on the line? You think maybe I have a problem???" Y-e-e-s I know the feeling David... :/ I spent six months of denials and threats of massive call out charges with a mostly off but occasionally on broadband service... The fault was eventually found... my service depended on which way the wind was blowing through the junction box. I think things were complicated a tad by my phone provider thinking I, my family, two dogs, a rabbit and two guinea pigs lived in the phone box on the corner outside my house. I'd always thought my billing address started oddly... but as the bills arrived okay, I never queried it. Found out I should've done when they gave my details to the police so that I could be prosecuted for making prank emergency service calls from it. Must've been a slow crime night for them... or maybe news had got out I was dangerous :) because I got to meet six very nice policemen... :) |
Gary Charpentier Send message Joined: 25 Dec 00 Posts: 30683 Credit: 53,134,872 RAC: 32 |
Several years ago, our phone line was bad. Static to the point of not being able to talk (conventional analog POTS service) and DSL nearly useless. Every time I called for service, they started me off with an automated computer script. One of the questions was "Are you having trouble with internet?" If I said yes, the computer would immediately send me off to the internet division. I had to say no to get connected to a telephone service rep. "Yes, computer, my telephone is practically unusable, but the internet on the line is just fine." Great logic there. Then to get the person on the phone to believe that it was their problem and not my house wiring or my phone, I had to go outside and plug a phone directly into the connection box on the back of the house and tell them "You hear all this static on the line? You think maybe I have a problem???" Oh, got lucky did you. Got flat told by the tech, we have no more pairs in the cable. I've got the best set I can for you. Live with it. Oh and they will not replace the cable, and they decided not to bring fiber into you area despite there being one on the pole 100 feet in the other direction. When you know the junction box number where your line goes ....... Well my neighbor a couple doors down finally cut down a cypress that was hiding the telephone pole. Things have been better since then. Wonder why?! Tree trimmers are expensive and linemen are cheap? Oh, and if I was 3000 feet west of where I am, I have a different telco, one that has deployed fiber and their rates are 1/2 the one I'm stuck with. I'd name that garbage telephone company but for two reasons. One being I own some of their stock via a spin off. IIRC someone here may work for them and I don't need billing errors on top of garbage telephone and internet. |
David S Send message Joined: 4 Oct 99 Posts: 18352 Credit: 27,761,924 RAC: 12 |
Oh, got lucky did you. Got flat told by the tech, we have no more pairs in the cable. I've got the best set I can for you. Live with it. Oh and they will not replace the cable, and they decided not to bring fiber into you area despite there being one on the pole 100 feet in the other direction. When you know the junction box number where your line goes ....... A friend of mine is a retired repair tech. In his last few years, he worked exclusively on old-school high-quality lines, such as those used for lottery machines. He told a story once of going out to fix a line. He found it had a bad pair, and there were no more pairs in the box. But there was a pair assigned to a non-existent pay phone. He contacted the pay phone owner to see if he would give it up. The guy flat refused. He was somehow making money on it, even thought it didn't exist. So what did my friend do? He used the pay phone pair to fix the line he was out there to fix. Never heard a word about the pay phone, even though it now not only didn't exist but didn't have a line either. I inherited some AT&T stock from my grandmother, who inherited it from an old friend of hers. I can't remember if my landline at the time of my trouble was them or if it was Ameritech or SBC. David Sitting on my butt while others boldly go, Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri. |
anniet Send message Joined: 2 Feb 14 Posts: 7105 Credit: 1,577,368 RAC: 75 |
Not Telco - BT :( Apparently our current hot weather is to blame for a recurring major broadband fault in our area... every time it's "fixed" within a few hours, it isn't :/ Oh - and while I'm here - just a warning to anyone who IS a BT customer... Received a very disturbing call today from someone claiming to be from BT. They were not. They slipped up by assuming I shop online. I don't. They were very convincing and if I was an online shopper I would have been very very worried by what they were saying... and could have got badly burned. Be careful everyone... :( Edit: The call may not have originated in the UK. With phone companies selling our data to marketing organisations worldwide - many of whom pay their call-centre staff poorly - the opportunity/incentive for our personal information to fall into the wrong hands is growing daily. Customers of other telephone and broadband service providers could potentially also be at risk. I'm not generally paranoid but... :/ |
Dena Wiltsie Send message Joined: 19 Apr 01 Posts: 1628 Credit: 24,230,968 RAC: 26 |
Not Telco - BT :( You need some better hardware. It was 109F here today and everything was fine. This summer we have been up to 115F without problems. |
Wiggo Send message Joined: 24 Jan 00 Posts: 34871 Credit: 261,360,520 RAC: 489 |
Not Telco - BT :( Did you have this problem before you blew your monitor and the roadway up and singed your hair Annie? :-D Cheers. |
Darth Beaver Send message Joined: 20 Aug 99 Posts: 6728 Credit: 21,443,075 RAC: 3 |
"You see light now?" lolololololololo you got more patients than me soon as i hear the indian or phillino acsent i can't help myself "oh F%^k a bloody Indian i can't understand " "that not nice sir you swear again i will have to hang up " "F^&king i'm a Australian we all ways swear so don't get ya F&^king knickers in a not."... click ops i peed them off |
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