Where does the buck stop?

Sun Mar 31 22:45:13 UTC 2002

At 3:21 PM -0500 3/29/02, Sean Donelan among other things wrote:
>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.

Or

    2a. 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 Provider B opens a trouble ticket.  B finds the problem in
        their network and fixes it, closing the trouble ticket back to the
        user.

    2b. 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.  User replaces Provider A with a more responsive provider and moves
        back to option 1.

I like option 2b better than option 3. Both 2b and 3 will take longer 
than you want, but 2b is likely to be faster than 3.  2a isn't my 
favorite path, but if it gets the problem fixed, I can live with it.

    -Jeff