Sprint Service Problems

Tue Dec 19 21:07:06 UTC 1995

On Tue, 19 Dec 1995, Steve Goldstein wrote:

> First, if you are getting SPAMmed with <furlough> messages from NSF, sorry.
> The server does it automagically.  I am still reading my mail from home,
> though now in an UNOFFICIAL capacity, as I am forbidden from performing
> gummint service...

Oh, thats ok, we all love getting 7 or 8 email messages from NSF every 
time we mail to a mailing list simply because they want us to know the 
great loss we are experiencing due to the gov't shutdown. (I am pro NSF 
for the record, but the pissing matches agencies have gotten into are 
irksome, almost as much show as the grandstanding politicians.)

> 
> Next, please realize that the operational and implementor folks at Sprint
> are held hostage to the big bureaucrazy problem: they have to wait each
> year for the next budget cycle to play catch-up with their performance
> needs.

I'm not blaming the implementors, I am blaming sprint corporate.  They 
are in a business they don't understand and don't care to.

> 
> So, do your best to help them by sending constructive comments to them for
> them that they might show to their top-level management that is still
> living in the days of voice telephony with 25-year depreciation cycles on
> central office gear.  Don't stop complaining, but try to give the clueful
> guys within Sprint something to help them win the good fights internally.

Well, I tried constructive criticism, I tried writing email, I even tried 
just telling the temps they hire to run the INSC /exactly/ what to type 
in to fix a problem.  Lets see, after that I got to explain to them what 
the /?? postfix on IP adresses meant.  You're right, we should /help/ 
them for proving that they cannot do their job or even find someone to 
hire to do the job. Go sprint.  Woowoo.  Needless to say I don't have 
fond thoughts when it conerns sprint's backbone.  The designed a broken 
backbone and then hired non-technical techs to handle the NOC desk.  
There are about 4 good people at sprint that you actually get to talk to, 
Elliot Alby, Diane (don't know her last name), and at least Mohammad and 
Prassad will do what you tell them to.  Sean Doran is great when you get 
through to him (email only), and Rick Martin does a tolerable job with 
news (in an organisation where tolerable is a bright spot).  The fact of 
the matter is that Sprint provides inferior service at market prices.  
Any questions?