CAIS DSL failure: lessons in how not to inform

Howard C. Berkowitz hcb at clark.net
Wed Jan 24 22:14:31 UTC 2001


>mike at deneb.cortland.com  wrote,



>Afraid that you've missed an important point in your review of their service.
>When you signed up for dsl service, you had a choice of dsl service or "Cais
>dedicated" for mission critical applications.

As a matter of fact, I have their business service. There is a 
significant price difference between SDSL and ADSL, at least with 
this provider.  This is a SOHO router service, not single host.

But I'm really trying to make a general operational point.

>  The dedicated nature of dsl
>connections is an artefact of the technology and not something that 
>the isp can
>afford to provide at the prices charged.  You're paying the rough 
>equivalent of
>dialup service and can't expect to get the service provided to dedicated
>customers (T1, etc) who pay much more.  You made the choice when you signed
>up.  Providing you with the information you want will detract from resources
>available to solve the problem quickly.

I'm quite aware of labor rates, and I'm not expecting personal 
notification.  Changing a voice message every 4 hours or so, and/or 
sending email, is hardly what I call labor-intensive.

Try the customer service lines at dial providers such as 
Mindspring/Earthlink.  Status reports there on POP problems, as well 
as on support web pages.


>You're benefiting from the technology
>by getting more data for your buck.  You can't realistically expect anything
>which is remotely labor intensive to be provided.  Or have your labor rates
>declined dramatically recently?



>
>
>Mine haven't


The response I'm seeing is poor for a $19.95 per month dial provider, 
or a telco, or a discount airline.  24+ hour outages are hardly 
something I'd call minor.





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