Omega Owners Forum

Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Gaffers on 17 January 2012, 16:35:33

Title: A major Telecoms Provider = Useless
Post by: Gaffers on 17 January 2012, 16:35:33
Having reported a major issue on Friday with our internal phone lines it turned out the local exchange was buggered affecting around 7 buildings.  Imagine my suprise on Monday when I came in to find the problem had not been resolved over the weekend.  I would have thought a problem this large would have warranted a high priority, it seems not.

On Monday the engineers wrote off the card in the exchange and ordered a new one - why dont they have spares?!  A temp fix was made on the faulty one which broke again today.  Finally the situation was escalated to a Major Incident 0- why was it not in the first place?! End result is a total of 2 of my days wasted sorting out problems with a product that they get paid millions to deliver when I need to be doing other important stuff for single mums and other family people who need to get ready to go away for 6 months.

Tossers  >:(

(Note: Company name removed so as to avoid any libel exposure to the forum or myself)
Title: Re: A major Telecoms Provider = Useless
Post by: Plomien on 17 January 2012, 16:52:20
shouldn't that read B loody T ossers :D
Title: Re: A major Telecoms Provider = Useless
Post by: Field Marshal Dr. Opti on 17 January 2012, 16:57:38
Having reported a major issue on Friday with our internal phone lines it turned out the local exchange was buggered affecting around 7 buildings.  Imagine my suprise on Monday when I came in to find the problem had not been resolved over the weekend.  I would have thought a problem this large would have warranted a high priority, it seems not.

On Monday the engineers wrote off the card in the exchange and ordered a new one - why dont they have spares?!  A temp fix was made on the faulty one which broke again today.  Finally the situation was escalated to a Major Incident 0- why was it not in the first place?! End result is a total of 2 of my days wasted sorting out problems with a product that they get paid millions to deliver when I need to be doing other important stuff for single mums and other family people who need to get ready to go away for 6 months.

Tossers  >:(

(Note: Company name removed so as to avoid any libel exposure to the forum or myself)



Name and shame the scoundrels, Guffer. ;) ;) :)
Title: Re: A major Telecoms Provider = Useless
Post by: Gaffers on 17 January 2012, 18:58:38
I may be in a media battle with these guys soon on a separate issue so I shall refrain. 

Unrelated to this idiots there was a power cut around 5pm which meant more aggro.... What a carp week so far.
Title: Re: A major Telecoms Provider = Useless
Post by: TheBoy on 17 January 2012, 20:33:35
Having reported a major issue on Friday with our internal phone lines it turned out the local exchange was buggered affecting around 7 buildings.  Imagine my suprise on Monday when I came in to find the problem had not been resolved over the weekend.  I would have thought a problem this large would have warranted a high priority, it seems not.

On Monday the engineers wrote off the card in the exchange and ordered a new one - why dont they have spares?!  A temp fix was made on the faulty one which broke again today.  Finally the situation was escalated to a Major Incident 0- why was it not in the first place?! End result is a total of 2 of my days wasted sorting out problems with a product that they get paid millions to deliver when I need to be doing other important stuff for single mums and other family people who need to get ready to go away for 6 months.

Tossers  >:(

(Note: Company name removed so as to avoid any libel exposure to the forum or myself)
Assume you mean just a PBX fault, rather than a telephone exchange.

Guess you don't pay for a premium SLA...
Title: Re: A major Telecoms Provider = Useless
Post by: Gaffers on 17 January 2012, 20:44:43
I'm pretty sure that whoever signed the contract did not know about SLAs, yet I bet we pay twice as much as we need to for the top level service we will never see.

I feel a TB moment coming on.  It's a good thing I'm not a mod  ;D
Title: Re: A major Telecoms Provider = Useless
Post by: TheBoy on 17 January 2012, 20:52:34
I'm pretty sure that whoever signed the contract did not know about SLAs, yet I bet we pay twice as much as we need to for the top level service we will never see.

I feel a TB moment coming on.  It's a good thing I'm not a mod  ;D
I know your company has about 3 suppliers for such kit, with a fair amout of overlapping between them, my old firm amount them.  Agreed, piss poor neogotiations from the customer's side.  I suspect there is a fair amount of corruption, probably not with Titish Brelecom, as the customer is not buying with their money, and everyone knows that...
Title: Re: A major Telecoms Provider = Useless
Post by: Gaffers on 17 January 2012, 20:59:11
I'm pretty sure that whoever signed the contract did not know about SLAs, yet I bet we pay twice as much as we need to for the top level service we will never see.

I feel a TB moment coming on.  It's a good thing I'm not a mod  ;D
I know your company has about 3 suppliers for such kit, with a fair amout of overlapping between them, my old firm amount them.  Agreed, piss poor neogotiations from the customer's side.  I suspect there is a fair amount of corruption, probably not with Titish Brelecom, as the customer is not buying with their money, and everyone knows that...

Although there lots of other issues with many other aspexts of the site in question caused by other 3rd parties, this is purely to do with your old firm and them alone.  I would have thought that spare pbx boards would be a run of the mill thing, not a several day turnaround?
Title: Re: A major Telecoms Provider = Useless
Post by: TheBoy on 17 January 2012, 21:08:35
I'm pretty sure that whoever signed the contract did not know about SLAs, yet I bet we pay twice as much as we need to for the top level service we will never see.

I feel a TB moment coming on.  It's a good thing I'm not a mod  ;D
I know your company has about 3 suppliers for such kit, with a fair amout of overlapping between them, my old firm amount them.  Agreed, piss poor neogotiations from the customer's side.  I suspect there is a fair amount of corruption, probably not with Titish Brelecom, as the customer is not buying with their money, and everyone knows that...

Although there lots of other issues with many other aspexts of the site in question caused by other 3rd parties, this is purely to do with your old firm and them alone.  I would have thought that spare pbx boards would be a run of the mill thing, not a several day turnaround?
If it Titish Brelecom, does it have a Totalcare contract on it? Given that it took days, I guess not. Its possible your firm doesn't class that installation as important enough.

Don't know what you have their, but if its, for eg, Meridian Option 11, its not cost effective to carry all the spares on the van - not that it would fit. BCM should be easier. Although, if Option 11, I would have thought it would have been remotely diagnosed via RACE.

A further problem, again don't know if it applies, but its not uncommon for only certain 'engineers' to have clearance for the site.


I don't know the specifics of your recent issue, or the site, although I have controlled the 'engineers' in Thameswey before, including your area, but that was 20yrs ago, but I doubt much has relly changed on either side ::).  Just giving you the viewpoint from the 'other' side. Esp if you aren't Totalcare covered  :-X
Title: Re: A major Telecoms Provider = Useless
Post by: Gaffers on 17 January 2012, 22:05:55
Like i said, I doubt we have any kind of SLA on paper.  As to the rest I dont know because I am 2 steps removed from the 'engineers' however I am liking the compliments from many quarters about not being a stuffy rupert and being more 'hands-on' .....

plus I had the chance to enact my Business Continuity Management plan this afternoon although the powercut, albeit temporary, did cut short a good run ;D
Title: Re: A major Telecoms Provider = Useless
Post by: TheBoy on 17 January 2012, 22:21:54
Like i said, I doubt we have any kind of SLA on paper.  As to the rest I dont know because I am 2 steps removed from the 'engineers' however I am liking the compliments from many quarters about not being a stuffy rupert and being more 'hands-on' .....

plus I had the chance to enact my Business Continuity Management plan this afternoon although the powercut, albeit temporary, did cut short a good run ;D
Titish Brelecom tend to have standard SLA offerings. Rather than anything bespoke.  Probably because they, like your firm, are woefully bad at negotiating such things, and covering all angles, leaving themselves exposed.