Netrail woes (was Re: Atlanta-NAP down (fwd))

Dan Foster dsf at frontiernet.net
Tue Aug 26 01:36:40 UTC 1997


Hot Diggety! Nathan Stratton was rumored to have said...
> Vary much not correct. All of our WORLDCOM circuits have been paid, and
> never were late. Worldcom terminated our service because NetRail refused
> to pay over 300K in circuits that NetRail never ordered. We have paid
> them this amount to get our network back up.

Why does this sound *too* familiar? :)

I knew an ISP that offered co-lo facilities for Worldcom. Worldcom
brought in a DS3 to it...took quite a while to install it - I should
know, having worked 10 feet away from the various installers.

Wasn't installed until end of August - and only because the ISP
put on *serious* pressure to the MFS account exec where they would get
a free month of service for every 24 hours they failed to have it
installed. Believe me, out of nowhere, techs in the nice looking MFS
Worldcom van showed up and pulled an all-nighter. ;-)

So it was finally up. Start billing, start paying...no problems, right?

*BZZZT*! Wrong-o. MFS later sent a bill where they claimed the
then-not-installed DS3 was turned up and *active* around beginning of
June or something to that effect, and demanded immediate repayment or
they'd disable the circuit. None of this 30 days, 60 days notice process.

You'd think that for a large bill, they'd want to discuss any problems
with the customer? Nope. ISP called MFS back, tried to get account exec -
he was *always* "unavailable", couldn't get anyone else... I think they
finally got someone to answer only when they refused to pay without
discussing the issue, only to get more of the same.

I believe the ISP took MFS to court - not sure what the results were,
I heard two different stories.

And I was talking with one of the CEOs who was one of the first customers
at MAE-East - he related a similiar story with MFS.

So...hope this kind of terrorism doesn't strike anyone else. *grumbles
about _extremely_ sneaky tactics* Wouldn't want to wish it on even my
worst enemy.

Don't get me wrong - the MFS tech folks are as good as anyone else,
but it's just their sales and accounting departments that makes me
*really* nervous.

-Dan Foster
Internet: dsf at frontiernet.net
Disclaimers: Details may not be 100% factually correct; it's been a while
since this happened.



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