Author Topic: How not to run a global enterprise  (Read 2069 times)

Hawkmoon

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How not to run a global enterprise
« on: May 20, 2008, 03:06:37 PM »
I am not a happy camper. AT&T has outdone itself in corporate idiocy.

My first and only Internet service provider, for nearly 20 years, was AT&T. I finally succumbed to the siren song of being able to upload and download photos without having to leave my computer running and logged onto a dial-up connection all night, so I stopped by an AT&T storefront to inquire about upgrading my AT&T dial-up service to AT&T DSL. The sales dweeb assured me there would be no problem, and that he could even save me some money. Cool. I told him to go ahead. I also explained to him that I have a 2-line system in my house, that there are three wall phones, and six desk sets. The standard DSL kit only included one wall filter and four desk set filters. He assured me that it was all taken care of, that he would have the additional filters sent right to my house. I also mentioned that, as a result of buyouts and mergers, I was getting both local and long distance service for both lines from AT&T but they were all being billed separately. I asked if he could arrange to have it all consolidated into one bill, and gain he said it was all taken care of.

LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!

Months later, I was still getting multiple bills. I had my wife's computer running on the DSL but, due to a vague feeling of dread, I held off doing my own until last week. Last week I took the plunge -- and immediately found that I have NO e-mail for two different accounts. I have one e-mail account on a private server provided by an Internet forum I'm a moderator for. That account runs on Outlook Express, and I was able to receive but not send. My AT&T account (my primary account for both personal and business e-mail) used to run on Thunderbird, but that's academic because the account has simply vanished.

Calls to tech support, of course, went to New Delhi or Islamabad. The people on the other end can barely read their scripts, and when that doesn't work they are WORSE than clueless. After an hour of "helping," the young lady had managed to muck up the settings on the forum e-mail so that it wouldn't either send OR receive. She thereupon fell back on "It's not our problem, you have to ask the server what to use for settings." Never mind that it was functioning flawlessly for two years until the switch to DSL, she insisted the problem was on the server's end.

For the AT&T account? Oh, that's an OLD account. Yeah, I know. In fact, it's like 15 or 20 years old, so what? Well, it seems I had to call a different support number for that. So I did. And the support person on that line suggested that they could "reactivate" my e-mail for $7.95 per month. Huh? Reactivate? And then he said I owe $60 on the account and he needed a credit card number to pay the past due amount.

That was news to me, since my Internet service is included on my phone bill and I haven't missed any phone bill payments for awhile.

What I finally figured out is that AT&T is not AT&T. Yes, I knew that the baby swallowed the mama and that SBC had bought AT&T and then adopted the AT&T name. But -- my Internet service has always been with AT&T. I signed up with AT&T. The bills have always come from AT&T. AT&T sent me offers to "upgrade" my AT&T dial-up service to AT&T DSL service. And yet -- it seems the various entities within AT&T are so divorced that they don't regard my "upgrade" as an upgrade at all. They are treating me just as if I was a new customer migrating over from Sprint or some cable Internet provider, so even though my e-mail address has ended with "@ATT.NET" for 15 or more years -- they expect me to pay a surcharge for the privilege of keeping the same e-mail address.

Oh, yeah -- and the new e-mail ID they assigned me, in order to get my "new" AT&T e-mail up and running? It doesn't work. It seems that before it can be activated it needs to send a code to my old e-mail address for me to enter in the configuration setup routine. But, of course, they've terminated the old account and it doesn't exist, so I can't receive the activation code for the new e-mail ID. Catch-22!

Oh, yeah -- the phones. Naturally, the additional filters never showed up. Which is probably a good thing, since the ones in the kit were all single line filters with only two contacts in the housing, and the 2-line phone system needs four conductors. Had to buy filters for the desk phones at Lowe's. And the filter for the wall phone? The AT&T provided wall phone filter would not work with an AT&T wall phone, so I had to buy a cheapie replacement at Staples. And then I had to buy two additional wall phone filters at Radio Shack for the other two wall phones.

Is this any way to run an airline?
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xavier fremboe

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Re: How not to run a global enterprise
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2008, 03:12:50 PM »
I've had similar experiences with Verizon and Sprint in the past.  Whenever I come up against monstrous incompetence (particularly with a telecom), I draw comfort from this letter.  You've probably seen it, but it never gets old:

http://www.geofftech.co.uk/rants/telewest/ntl_letter.htm
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Hawkmoon

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Re: How not to run a global enterprise
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2008, 03:29:09 PM »
I had NOT seen that, but I confess that it bears a striking resemblance to the first draft of the letter I will be sending to the CEO of AT&T, Inc. I wonder if the original author would mind if I "borrowed" a few lines ...
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K Frame

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Re: How not to run a global enterprise
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2008, 03:32:29 PM »
Verizon has been absolutely stone cold flawless for me.

I started out with just phone service, then went to phone and DSL after I got really ferociously mad at my cable ISP, and last September I switched to FIOS.

No problems, few minor issues, and great service.
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xavier fremboe

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Re: How not to run a global enterprise
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2008, 04:03:48 PM »
Verizon has been absolutely stone cold flawless for me.

I started out with just phone service, then went to phone and DSL after I got really ferociously mad at my cable ISP, and last September I switched to FIOS.

No problems, few minor issues, and great service.
We were in the rollout/test group for FIOS, and aside from one persistent billing issue, the service has been outstanding.  I did have a previous nightmarish experience with Verizon trying to get DSL that ended with me telling them that if they wanted their modem back they needed to send me a pre-labeled UPS box for it as I wasn't going to waste another minute of time with them.
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GigaBuist

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Re: How not to run a global enterprise
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2008, 04:08:27 PM »
Quote
My first and only Internet service provider, for nearly 20 years, was AT&T.

Not to sound like a wanker, but if you were using the internet from home back in 1988 you should probably be able to configure your email client. Cheesy

Quote
even though my e-mail address has ended with "@ATT.NET" for 15 or more years -- they expect me to pay a surcharge for the privilege of keeping the same e-mail address.

According to records at Netsol att.net has only existed since Dec. 12, 1993.  I'd double check some dates before you include them in your letter to corporate.

Quote
After an hour of "helping," the young lady had managed to muck up the settings on the forum e-mail so that it wouldn't either send OR receive. She thereupon fell back on "It's not our problem, you have to ask the server what to use for settings." Never mind that it was functioning flawlessly for two years until the switch to DSL, she insisted the problem was on the server's end.

Sounds like they're filtering outgoing traffic on TCP port 25.  I ran into this with Mindspring back in 2000.  You just have to set your SMTP server to one run by your ISP.  It's probably mail.att.net  Try telnetting to mail.att.net on port 25 and see if you get a connection.  If you do send over "HELO localhost" and you should get some kind of response back.  If you do then that's probably the mail server you should use.  If not, well, tech support should be able to tell you what to use for outgoing mail.  It doesn't have to match what you use for incoming mail at all.

Tallpine

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Re: How not to run a global enterprise
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2008, 06:03:42 PM »
Our phone company is a co-op, and they give very good service for both telephone and DSL.  And their tech support folks are just a couple hundred miles away here in Montana. Smiley
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MechAg94

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Re: How not to run a global enterprise
« Reply #7 on: May 20, 2008, 06:10:05 PM »
It sounds to me like you need to cancel some of those extra services and restart with upgrading from one point.  You are asking them to combine and pull together 14 different accounts from what it sounds like. 

I signed up with SBC phone and internet almost 2 years ago.  The phone service includes free domestic long distance.  I didn't set up any long distance service and haven't in quite some time.  I guess my set up is a whole lot simpler than yours. 

You might also completely change to a different provider.  You can probably get some better deals by switching. 
“It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.”  ― Calvin Coolidge

MicroBalrog

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Re: How not to run a global enterprise
« Reply #8 on: May 21, 2008, 12:28:03 AM »
At least it's not Bezeq.

Bezeq used to be a state-owned company for a long while, and the employees still have the illusion they're public servants.
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Manedwolf

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Re: How not to run a global enterprise
« Reply #9 on: May 21, 2008, 03:56:35 AM »
I would like FIOS.

FairPoint recently took over the phones from Verizon here, and to show how advanced they are, they went back to paper billing and requiring checks to be mailed for their customers.

There will never be FIOS.

Hawkmoon

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Re: How not to run a global enterprise
« Reply #10 on: May 21, 2008, 08:15:03 PM »
You might also completely change to a different provider.  You can probably get some better deals by switching. 

AT&T has the only DSL service in the entire state ...
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Regolith

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Re: How not to run a global enterprise
« Reply #11 on: May 21, 2008, 08:26:23 PM »
Verizon has been absolutely stone cold flawless for me.

I started out with just phone service, then went to phone and DSL after I got really ferociously mad at my cable ISP, and last September I switched to FIOS.

No problems, few minor issues, and great service.

I've had Verizon DSL for a while.  My one major problem with them is that every once in a while, my internet connection will start dropping, at random, for random intervals of time.  This will go on for a week or two, until I'm pissed off and about to call them up, when it will stop happening.   Then a few months go by, and it starts again. 

The only reason I haven't called them up is I absolutely hate talking to people over the phone. The problem has to become seriously aggravating before I consider it as an option.
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MechAg94

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Re: How not to run a global enterprise
« Reply #12 on: May 22, 2008, 05:47:53 AM »
You might also completely change to a different provider.  You can probably get some better deals by switching. 

AT&T has the only DSL service in the entire state ...
Wow.  No cable at all?  I guess satellite is not good enough yet. 

I have SBC DSL which is now AT&T.  It has worked fine with me, but I never had trouble with SBC service.  Not sure how good the local service is there. 

I still think you should try to simply cancel some of the phone service that is not set up correctly and reset it through you regular account.  If they won't consolidate it properly, I don't see any other option.
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