As promised in this earlier post, we’re all about sharing here at Buzzblog — specifically, sharing the soapbox. This morning you get to hear from Janet Ley, a reader and telecom manager who has a tale to tell about the impact of mega-mergers. It’s amusing, in a maddening sort of way:
By Janet Ley
Those of us who consider ourselves telecommunications “old timers” have seen a lot of change in this industry.
In fact, I always say if you can’t deal with change, you are in the wrong business. We’ve seen the RBOC’s taken apart. And recently, with the merger of SBC and AT&T, as well as Verizon and MCI, we are now watching them come back together.
Working with the telco’s has always been a challenge. Another of my favorite sayings is “if the telco’s did their jobs, my company wouldn’t need half of the telecom staff it has.” It keeps me in a job, so why am I complaining?
Well, when I heard that these companies were about to combine forces, it made my blood run cold. How would they be able to take, in each case, two companies with already broken processes and mediocre customer support and successfully merge them? How could they continue to provide me with the support I need to keep my company’s networks functioning as they need to in this age of the bandwidth junkie? The answer … at this moment, is they can’t!
This is an example of an actual conversation between myself and my AT&T representatives (now my local representatives) in the last week:
Me:
“I placed an order for a new T1 with an extended D-Marc.
The technician left and didn’t extend the circuit.
Can you please send him back to finish the work?”
AT&T:
“We don’t do inside wiring.”
Me:
“I’m not asking you to do inside wiring, I’m asking you to extend a D-Marc.”
AT&T:
“That’s inside wiring. We don’t do that.”
Me:
“I’ve been ordering circuits with extended D-Marcs for the last 20 years.
How can you tell me you don’t do that?”
AT&T:
“All we can do is place the order with the local provider and ask them for an extension.
They don’t have to do it, and we can’t force them.”
Me:
“I placed the order with you.
You ARE my local provider now.”
AT&T:
“But I can’t order inside wiring for you.”
Me: “I’m not ordering inside wiring, I’m ordering an extension of a D-Marc, which you have been doing for us for years.”
AT&T:
“We don’t do that.
Only the local provider can do that.”
Me:
“YOU ARE MY LOCAL PROVIDER. You won’t let me call my old account rep to place the order, so who do I talk to, to order an extended D-Marc?”
AT&T:
“I don’t know.
FCC regulations prohibit me from ordering inside wiring.”
Me:
“How can that be when you are now the local provider?”
AT&T:
“I don’t know. But I can’t order that.”
Me:
“Can I call my old SBC account rep and order the extension?”
AT&T:
“No.
All of your local service orders now have to come through AT&T.”
Me:
“Well, thanks for nothing.
I guess I’ll call an electrician.”
This is example number two of a conversation with Verizon Business just a few days later:
Me (to Verizon LEC):
“I need to order an ISDN BRI for videoconferencing.”
Verizon LEC:
“You have to call your Verizon Business Account Manager for that.”
Me:
“OK”
Me: (to Verizon Business):
“I need to order and ISDN BRI for videoconferencing.”
Verizon Business:
“You can’t order that from me.
That’s a local service.”
Me:
“You are my local service provider.”
Verizon Business:
“Well, I know but I can’t take an order for that yet.”
Me:
“Can I call my former Verizon LEC representative to place the order? (I already know that Verizon LEC rep told me no to this, but I’m just double checking).”
Verizon Business:
“No, you can’t.”
Me:
“So how do I place this order?”
Verizon Business:
“I don’t know.”
I find this a frightening situation to be in.
It’s one thing to try to steer me toward my global AT&T or legacy MCI account manager for all of my local and LD orders day one if they can take my order. But if they can’t, and I’m left hanging in limbo, what kind of solution is this? I’m glad the marketing folks have their ducks in a row. When will the underlying support processes follow? How long will I be unable to get orders or support for local services under these conditions.
When I think of how dependent this country is on the constant availability of high speed bandwidth with 24/7 availability to run commerce, health care, emergency services, etc., responses like this leave me feeling slightly sick to my stomach.
What are these new combined businesses doing to quickly relieve this situation? How long will it take? Is the FCC involved? Are they changing the regulations so I CAN order a local service from AT&T and/or Verizon Business?
This is exactly what I expected … my worst nightmare come true. Can our telecom careers get any more challenging (don’t answer that question)?
Janet L. Ley is manager of voice networks for Wolters Kluwer, a Dutch publishing company with offices worldwide.
