Where does the buck stop?

Fri Mar 29 20:21:06 UTC 2002

On Fri, 29 Mar 2002, Mark E. Mallett wrote:
> BTW as I mentioned when I contacted Genuity, they advised me to contact
> UUnet directly.  So by inference at least one large carrier (Genuity)
> seems to feel that contacting them directly is appropriate.

I believe this is the problem.  Providers can't expected to have it
both ways.

If you are a customer of provider A, and the problem is inside providers
B network what is the appropriate method to get provider B to fix the
problem?

   1. Call provider A. Open a trouble ticket.  Provider A forwards
      the ticket through the chain of providers to Provider B.  Provider
      B accepts the trouble ticket.  B find the problem in their network
      and fixes it, closing the trouble ticket back to A.

   2. Call provider A.  Provider A says its not a problem with A's
      network and closes the ticket.  A tells customer, call Provider B.
      User looks up Provider B's contact information.  User calls Provider
      B and is told, we don't take calls from non-customers, call Provider
      A. Rinse and Repeat.

   3. Call lawyer. Sue Provider A and B for tortious interference with
      the user's peaceful enjoyment of the Internet by negligently and/or
      fraudently propagating false routing information and failing to
      correct the problem after being notified by the user.

I think method 1 is the best way to handle the situation.  Unfortunately,
most of the time method 2 is what happens.  Eventually, someone will
try method 3, and I don't want to be around when that happens.