[ale] DirecTV & BellSouth

[Matt Kern]

Chuck Huber wrote:

>On Fri, Jan 03, 2003 at 04:38:23PM -0500, Matt Kern wrote:
>  
>
>>Chuck Huber wrote:
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>>>I don't know anything they did that was ethically wrong.  They gave us 30
>>>days notice which is required by the service agreement.
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>Maybe they gave you 30 days, but I've been down since the 16th.
>>    
>>
>
>It appears your experience is quite different from mine.  I'm still up,
>which makes me wonder why you're down.  Could it be that there was a
>failure on your leg of the net and they simply didn't fix it?  Do you
>think that they deliberately shut it down?  I'm grasping at straws here.
>
>  
>
>>There should have been a much longer transition for both customers and 
>>employees.
>>    
>>
>
>Agreed.  It also would have been many cudo's to Hughes, the parent company
>to Direct TV, to have made better arrangement for the disposition of their
>DTV DSL customers.  I would have been conducive to a price hike rather than
>a shutdown.  A similar scenario is happening to United Air Lines.  In late
>2001, their mechanics union refuses to concede on critical issues.  That was
>a large reason why those same mechanics are now looking for work, right along
>with much of United's other staff.  Quite frankly, I just don't understand how
>an airline can make money selling seats for $69.  It just simply costs more
>than that to fly commercially.  Either the customer base needs to be willing
>to pay more, or they'll have to shut the ailine down.  DTV DSL wasn't a
>standalone company like United is, and thus the parent has more discretion
>as to what to do.  You can see the parallel here - make money or die.
>
Actually the United story is far more interesting, being that they were 
the poster child for the Employee Owned Business and the merits of said 
system.  My step dad worked for them for 35 years, and is horrified at 
the actions of the Pilots/Mechanics (read owners), as they shoot 
themselves in the foot and devastate their retirements.

On some level its similar, owers shooting themselves in the foot, anyhow.

>
>  
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>>They should have waited to lay off half the workforce in 
>>order to keep the phone lines up, rather than leaving a message on the 
>>support lines with the last sentence, "Do not try to call DirectTV 
>>support as they will not be able to help you. <click>".
>>    
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>
>Not very representative of past service levels.
>
Agreed. Exactly why I found it so appalling...

>
>  
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>>>Regardless of all that, we're all in the same boat... looking for another
>>>DSL service.  I suppose I'm not as pressed for it since my DSL line was
>>>redundant for another ISP.  But I'd still like to get that redundancy back.
>>>It was really nice being up when either of the two ISP's were down.
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>Lucky bastard ;)
>>    
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>
>Luck?  Not so sure about that.  I learned that when the cable service went
>out, all my bitchin and complaining didn't change the outcome.  It still
>took days to restore service.  So I literally took matters into my own
>hands and setup a redundant route.  You can do the same.
>
Okay, I'd love to set up a redundant route, but I have enough trouble 
scraping the cash together for my lowly single point of failure ;) 
 That's all I meant by lucky...

>
><rant>
>Getting back to shopping around, I'm disheartended somewhat by many of
>the acceptable use policies that have been presented in this thread.
> Everything from "you can't do this" to "we're watching everthing you do".
> Quite frankly, I'd rather assume the duty of adequately protecting my
>network rather than rely on a bunch of script kiddies to do it for me.
>(Those who think they know what they are doing are very annoying to those
>of us who do.) I'm looking for an ISP that will give me a pipe to the
>internet and forget all the other crap.  I don't need web space.  I don't
>need email addresses or POP3 or IMAP or SMTP.  I don't need a firewall. 
>I don't need spam filters.  I don't need a "MyAnything".  And most of all I
>don't need someone telling me how people are not allowed to communicate
>with me (a.k.a port blocking).  What I *do* need is a link to the internet
>with a static IP address.  So sell me the service, sit back, and shut up!
></rant>
>
Beautiful.  Couldn't agree more.

>
>  
>
>>>Enjoy,
>>>  - Chuck
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>      
>>>
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