sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Cancelling contract due to poor phone service

We are headquartered in Wichita Kansas with a branch office in Oklahoma City (OKC). The Oklahoma City has a single T1 that provides voice and data. Oklahoma City is tied to Wichita's computer's via VPN. The T1 in Oklahoma City is freqently down which is causing much frustration for us - they lose both phones and computers when it goes down. We are under contract with a company that is simply reselling Bell's lines. I don't really have a problem getting ahold of them when the line goes down - it's just that it goes down way too often. When the T1 goes down, it is generally a Bell tech that is dispatched to fix the problem. It is my understanding that the lines in the area are quite old. Sometimes the downtime appears to be weather related, sometimes not. How can I get satisfaction from my provider? Can I have my contract voided for poor service and if so, how much proof do I need? And, if I cancel my service, can I expect the next provider to be any better - considering that I will simply be paying for the same lines from somebody else? Or can I expect better service by going straight to Bell instead of a reseller?

Different provider, same cable pairs=same problem.

I think that no matter which company you choose, your going to have the same problem. Generally, at least around here, our Bell(Verizon) owns the lines for the last mile to the customers site.
It sounds to me that the problem lies solely with Bell. For starters, I would request that they move the T1 service to different pairs.

If you have three failures (outages) within a 90-day period, the answer to your question should be hands-down. That's generally the threshold where extreme measures must be taken.

Bear in mind that Bell isn't going to jump through hoops to satisfy a competitor's service commitment to you. They actually stretch the limit to make their competition look bad so that you will come back to them. Sure, you will get a higher quality of service if it's their own circuit, but old cable is just that: old cable.

I would suggest that you carefully doccument all outages to include dates and times and the resolution, then contact the State Corporation Commission, Public Utilities Commission or other regulatory body for telephone service. Don't exaggerate about "lost business", etc. That's not a tangible loss when dealing with these issues. Also, remember that there's a chance that each city and county may have their own individual policies, so you may have to poke around to get anywhere.

You should not be experiencing outages as you have described, nor should you be bound to contracts that don't deliver the level of service you expect. There will likely be plenty of finger-pointing, but it's not too much to ask that your circuit works for what you pay. Start at the state level and work your way back from there. Most competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) want your business and will be able to provide you with the details surrounding the outages, if they aren't willing to do this legwork themselves. You are not alone; it happens all the time.

That is really NOT the way it works… I’ve seen that from the SBC side of the fence and I no longer work there so I’d have no reason to blow smoke up you arse about it!

Due to the way states measure LEC’s performance and the way the metrics work out once it’s all said and done. In the interest of satisfying states fair competition requirements, many, many times over the CLEC trouble and installation get worked BEFORE their own customers. I’ve seen it day in day out!

The only real advantage to going back to the LEC as far as service goes is there will be less hands in the overall circuit… Less hand offs and less equipment to potentially cause problems.

I must respectfully disagree Bryan. It may very from state to state, but the CLECs customers are not given priority service from the LEC around here.

Well, actually they are supposed to offer priority service, but somehow they manage to find a way to give CLECs a sharp stick in the eye. What is supposed to be and what actually happens are two different things.

Think about it for a minute.....Should they go out of their way to make the competition look better with a rapid restoration or not do so and make themselves look better? I think that the answer is painfully obvious.

I agree, Ed. And also---if the LEC has some good pairs---and some questionable pairs---what pairs do you think the CLEC is going to get?? That happens ALL THE TIME here. LECs will not do anything to make the CLECs look good. Unfortunatlely--most of the CLECS shoot themselves in the foot by having no-nothing desk jockeys try to co-ordinate on the phone with the LECs & the customer. It's a joke to hear them try to explain things to the customer. Frustrating for everyone.

Back on the original subject. I did find a web site for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, complete with an online form to file a complaint. And we are now going about logging our outages to document our problems. Question now is, who do we complain about? SBC or the provider that is reselling the lines to us? And, if SBC, shouldn't it be the provider making the complaint? I want to be careful about whose feathers I ruffle - even if I get out of a contract with one company, I'm assuming I'll still ultimately be dealing with SBC.