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DNR:

I am in full agreement with you there about working with CLECs. We only choose (as in refer business to) one, which is XO Communications. They are really good about direct or cell numbers. Honestly, we only have to work with one number; the Rep we work with. He's available 24/7 and gets problems resolved quickly.

In the few instances where necessary, we have returned the favor by having a technician on-site to test LEC circuit failures in an effort to restore service. Cutting out one step of the troubleshooting process speeds service restoral along for a mutual customer.

Out comes the soap box........Sorry, folks:

DNR, on another note, you have never had to deal with Bell Atlantic (the real Verizon) who purcased GTE in your area. If you ever worked with Bell Atlantic, you would be cleaning pools for a living now, and happy to do so.

They are so inept, it's beyond comprehension. They implicate us when they get sued as being jointly-responsible for incorrect orders. They never succeed, but we still have had to pay to defend ourselves out of their frivilous "joint" legal actions since we placed the initial orders on the customer's behalf.

We actually were excited when Bell Atlantic and GTE merged; we looked forward to GTE people teaching these Bell people how to communicate with their customers.

Our first PRI cutover in former GTE territory that was handled by a former Bell Atlantic rep:

40 days past the due date with our equipment on the wall waiting for the circuit to be completed. Rep "forgot" to actually place the installation order.

Second (although in Bell Atlantic territory): A health care facility that has lost their PRI (100% outage) twice in sixty days. Both due to errors in order entry and records resulting in disconnects.

Give me back the local Bell Atlantic and GTE business offices any day. Now, we place orders with someone in CA, someone in TX confirms it, someone in VA is supposed to provision it, someone in NY actually does it, and when something goes wrong, they all deny any involvement after someone in FL investigates and determines that someone in AL messed up.

I thought the divestiture of AT&T in 1984 was intended to protect us from this stuff. Wasn't that the intent of Judge Greene's decree? Seems like SBC and Verizon are neck-in-neck to see who ends up buying Qwest and BellSouth now. Once they finish that battle, they will shake hands, merge, and then own ALL Bell territories, ALL GTE territories, ALL AT&T long distance networks, ALL MCI business and Lord knows how many brand name contracts.

Thank goodness that Sprint had the wallet available to pick up United Telepone System and Centel. I hate to think of what would happen had the "VZ" or SBC beat them to the punch.

Wasn't the whole intention of the Judge Greene's action to eliminate a nationwide monopoly in telecommunications? AT&T managed our nation's telecommunications network for 100 +/- years and did it well, yet that was determined to be a bad thing for consumers?

Now, 20 years later, it's not only OK to ressurect this monopoly, but to throw a few other names and categories into the mix. Let us not forget that while SBC gobbled up AT&T, Verizon swallowed MCI.

How many millions of dollars can you even fathom that AT&T and our government spent in an effort to result in "1984". What a waste of money. Our nation's telecommunications infrastructure monopoly is now back to exactly, if not more, than it was prior to the decree. Maybe David Bowie saw someting coming with his song.


Ed Vaughn, MBSWWYPBX
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We have the easy way. We tell the customer what they need, and once they have the order taker on the line, call us up and conference us on. No waiting on hold for hours for free, the customer is placing the order and we are there to give advice while the order is being placed. Why do anything else?


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Quote
Originally posted by ev607797:
DNR:

Thank goodness that Sprint had the wallet available to pick up United Telepone System and Centel. I hate to think of what would happen had the "VZ" or SBC beat them to the punch.
Ed, my friend, I guess you have never had to use Sprint. Sprint is our Verizon. They are THAT bad...

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Amen on Sprint. They came from United, HQed in KC. Sprint was to be the deregualated long distance carrier then took over for all. They built their worls HQ in KC also. what a farce. Worked for United and as a contractor for Sprint --- twice. What a laugh.

And on -- and --- on --- and ----

Ed, here's your box.

KLD smile


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Thank you all for the great info. I will give you some recommendations here since I didn't notice any of you mention record keeping. Each and every LEC we have worked with in the past has made errors and that is where we come in. The errors can be invisible to you and to the customer unless you know what to look for and then take the time to look for it.

We offer our services of ads, moves and changes to clients (really cheap enough for you to resell) and then we follow up on the orders to ensure they were placed correctly for the installers. So many times lately there is a facility shortage and key personell don't tell us until we call the day before the install is due. Of course we call a week in advance, then each day prior... but they hold off giving us that vital info (of no facilities) until the day before (if we're lucky).

Getting back on track what I want each of you to look into is how you keep records and how you follow up on them. Does anyone out there ever look at the order found on the bill after the install?

We find that lately eight out of ten orders placed correctly aren't fulfilled correctly. It may only be a billing error but that isn't helping your customers, is it?

When you cut off a phone line or circuit... How many of you dial the number to see if service is disconnected? Next...Do you check the bill to determine the fee was removed? Many times they continue billing eventhough service is removed.

Let me know what you do after placing the order as far as your follow up and record keeping.

More later...


Barbara Clements


Barbara Clements
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Auditel Inc.
www.auditelinc.com
[email protected]
Colorado office: 719-689-5953
Orlando office: 800-473-5655
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Thought I would chime in on this one. I used to place orders for many of my customers but stopped many years ago for all the same reasons so far expressed. Many of my bread and butter customers have been taught, by me, to look at and closely monitor all their telco bills and all of them know how to file a complaint with our states PUC. LEC/CLEC will get better if more people would file complaints. All of them get fined and when those fines reach critical mass something will happen. You can have the soapbox back Ed.

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I offer once a year to verify my customers telephone bills for free. Of course I do not know enough about taxes and fees, but I do check them for correct number of lines and features on lines. Luckly for me only about 10% of my customers take me up on it, because it can be time consuming. But on 90% of the ones i did I find something incorrect.


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Here is the first tip regarding record keeping for you to give your clients (if you haven't already). First of all ask them to keep detailed accurate records. Request the name of the person taking their order and log the date and the time of the call (including the office the Rep. is located in).

How many of you (or your customers) have been on the phone with the phone company and suddenly they were disconnected?

Happens to us all the time but with detailed records it won't be as easy for them to get away with it... with detailed record keeping it is easier to call back and point a finger at who disconnected you ... also these records are needed to check the order placed (in case the order comes back incorrectly you will know who made the mistakes).

I like the fact that many of you are having your customers place their own service orders but please recommend to them to keep a log and keep acccurate records when they do place orders and keep them in a file or in the computer for backup.

It is always sad when we audit a companies bills and find errors that don't qualify for full refunds. I have an article about this on my website. There are many free articles I have written and one in particular may interest you. Three Reasons Why Your Company Should Consider a Telecom Audit. Paste this in your browser and read some interesting articles.
https://www.auditelinc.com/TelecomNews.aspx

Keep the great info coming...


Barbara Clements
President

Auditel Inc.
www.auditelinc.com
[email protected]
Colorado office: 719-689-5953
Orlando office: 800-473-5655
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We make predictive dialers for recovery and financial companies which means more often than not I need trunks from the CO instead of relying on the PBX to do call control.

I guess the secret to having provisioning done correctly is to become a master agent of the carriers.

Since I did that I don't spend time on hold, I have no mistakes when ordering circuits for customers, customers get the lowest loop and CPM available (I don't mark up and I take no commission so I can often give <1 cent on dedicated PRIs from Tier 1 carriers)

Before doing that it was a pain, mostly because customers are being sold on "voip" service to the CO, which is just marketing spin for an integrated T1 getting muxed out at the DMARC. The dialer fires up and starts dialing 1.5 calls per minute per channel. Its comical to hear CO techs cry when we've overloaded their class 5 switches.

I still have headaches when customers insist on having their in-house telcom people or the office manager get the services. It becomes a finger pointing game for a couple of days - verizon is worst.

Also, and one of my staff members and I have done what Barbara does in the early 90s so we do keep records and audit our customer's bills when they let us provide the services; just to make sure someone didn't enter the wrong thing on the order.


Just my two cents.

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I actually prefer to place orders for my customers. I spend time with the customer first then I make the call from their location. One example of why I prefer to do it is: I just finished installing a nice system with multiple user mailboxes, AA and all other bells and whistles. I let the customer place the order for lines. In her communication with the providor she purchased Voice Mail for each line and also purchased the "Inhouse" wiring protection plan and didn't discuss any rollover or hunt group combinations.

My tip for placing orders:
Get a cup of coffee
Use speaker phone until you speak with a person
Have a list of your needs and check them off 1 by 1

I also consider it an assett to place orders via email...My Bellsouth contact is super at this

I guess I'm old fashioned..Too many cooks spoil the broth.

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