phil@goldhill.com (09/19/89)
After wading through the seemingly endless mail about how good/bad ATT was with respect to Sprint or MCI I thought I'd send along a story about what happened to me today when dealing with Nynex. I'm about to move and dreaded my call to Nynex to disconnect my service and then transfer the number (I'm moving within the same town and area code - in fact this number has now survived four moves) to my new residence. I did have to wait awhile but not that long (5 minutes) and then put the request through. I had been hearing horror stories about 1 month backlogs (what with the strike and that fact that 200,000+ students have just moved to Boston) and was very happy to discover that they would do the change within 5 days. The representative then went over my basic charges which was Metro service, touch tone, and call waiting. I said that we didn't want call waiting and we were all set. I then talked to my wife so that we could remove one more item from our endless list of moving to do's and she said that we never had call waiting and had, for example, gotten a busy signal trying to call me the previous week. I called Nynex business office back (waited for 5 minutes again) and asked if we were indeed being charged for call waiting. We had in fact been being charged for call waiting (Nynex doesn't itemize the monthly charges to you can't tell by looking at the bill). I explained that it didn't work and never wanted it in the first place. I was put on hold for about 30 seconds and then was told that my next bill would be credited for 18 months of call waiting - a credit of $48. Needless to say I was very happy. If ever given an option for local carrier I would never change, just as I've never changed my long distance from AT&T. Now I don't know what's going on with negotiations with the strikers and as an aside I agree with their position (from what I've read of it in the local papers) but I'd be worried if I were them. I've never had to wait for more than 20 or 30 seconds to get directory assistance in the past 6 weeks and when I've called the business office I been treated very well. Comparing the service from Nynex against tech/customer support from the biggest (and smallest) computer software and hardware companies that I've dealt with over the past few years doesn't even make sense. Nynex wins hands down - even with half of their staff not at work. Phil Stanhope Manager of Software Engineering Gold Hill Computers, Inc. Cambridge, MA. 02139 phil@goldhill.com
narten@lovelace.albany.edu (Thomas Narten) (09/19/89)
The Nynex strike has been going on long enough now that many of the services formerly handled by the strikers are being processed with reasonable speed. I for one, however, am still waiting for the strike to end; I've been without service for over 4 weeks, and while I can't pin them down on an installation date, the most optimistic target I've been given is November. The problem is that I just moved into a new apartment that has never had phone service before. To establish service, NYNEX must send someone to phsyically connect the wires. They apparently need the strikers for that. Disconnecting and reestablishing service to older units is apparently not a problem, because that can be done through software from the central office. Thomas Narten
johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) (09/20/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0388m03@vector.dallas.tx.us> narten@lovelace.albany. edu (Thomas Narten) writes: >The Nynex strike has been going on long enough now that many of the >services formerly handled by the strikers are being processed with >reasonable speed. ... I was talking to a friend who lives in an apartment a block from the Ware Street exchange in Cambridge. His phone doesn't work, so he called repair. A fellow finally arrived who seemed a little rusty on the details but otherwise generally competent. After some experimentation (his line is so short that the TDR has trouble getting good answers) it appeared that the problem was in a connection on a pole directly in front of the exchange where there are of course pickets all the time. The repairman said he couldn't fix it, he feared for his safety. It ain't over yet. If nobody else has reported it, the strike now looks to last indefinitely. The strikers' medical benefits were supposed to run out last week but a judge to many people's surprise ruled that since the phone company hasn't suffered a "significant curtailment of business" or some such the strikers are still covered. This will cost NYNEX and every other employer in the state a bundle, and there was a short flurry of negotiations, but nothing happened. The situation is not made any easier by the fact that the New England Tel and New York Tel workers are members of different unions who are negotiating separately in Boston and near New York. The unions apparently offered to negotiate jointly, but NYNEX declined. John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869 johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl, Levine@YALE.edu Massachusetts has 64 licensed drivers who are over 100 years old. -The Globe