atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems ESI Telephones & Systems ESI...grande communications...co line gain???

Email sent to Crankshaft welcoming him to the board and inviting him to follow up with our questions.

If he returns lets be gentle until we break him in.

I guess I should introduce myself and give you a little background about myself. I have a slight advantage because I feel your pain(s). I was a field tech for 7 years installing everything from autodialers, to key systems and PBXs, so I know your frustrations. I then moved on to being a NOC tech at Thrifty Call, which has since become Grande. I started learning the Nortel DMS 250(LD switch), then as we migrated more to a local service provider, learned the DMS-500 (LD and Local Switch). I have been with this same company since 1997 and watched it grow tremendously. We now have 6 DMS-500s of which 5 are in Texas and 1 in Atlanta, and 1 Genband (formerly Tekelec) C3 Gateway Controller and 3 Media Gateways (in Texas) which is a TDM and VoIP switch. I've built all the local translations for this company from the ground up and I love my job... which is the primary reason I'm here. I want my company to succeed, and therefor I succeed with it. If I can get your perspectives, and help you guys do your jobs more proficiently, then I help myself do my job more proficiently, and in the process broaden my knowledge-base. I want to be here so I can help...that's all. Most of the time, I find that the tension between field techs and CO techs (or perhaps we are now Weasels) is not due to lack of knowledge, but more attributable to lack of communication. As you pointed out, this generally comes from poor sales people, and sales engineers that don't truly understand what either the CPE technicians need to know nor do they need or want to know what the CO technicians need. Somehow they believe the T1s or what have you, magically turn themselves up and all T1s are the same. I sense Avalon was a bit angry, at my statement, and don't misunderstand what I meant by field techs... what I was referring to was that the tech from Grande was the one who was misinformed. As a CPE tech, I would have been asking myself why the hell a CLEC like Grande would have changed CID voltage too...but I assure you, he's very incorrect. Since we have so many modes of transport(copper, GR-303, PRI, VoIP,etc..), I sincerely needed him to let me know who this customer is, so I can be sure that we don't have a problem on our network. I've noticed too many times that the escalation processes in my company (as well as others) sometimes falter and tickets are closed without proper resolution. I hope this and all future issues can be resolved quickly. I am here and open to any CO questions you guys may have no matter if it's a new turn up, or change in service.. what have you. Take care all... and it's good to be here.

Hey Crankshaft:
I am not sure if this issue has been resolved by Louis, who started this post but I will check with him in the morning. I have not heard him talking about it so the issue may be resolved. If not I will shoot you an email in the morning and we can figure it out. It's good to see you here. Welcome to a Great board.

Welcome Crankshaft,
You will find that we are all happy to see you here and since the topic turned into a rant and rebuttal I felt obligated to put in my 2 cents worth. Many of us here have been in the industry since tin cans and strings. Some others were around when communications was accomplished by banging rocks together.

I started in Interconnect and moved through Long Distance, Transport, Translations, and CLEC. I can feel your pain too! When I see trouble on a T1 it is usually in provisioning or a channel bank. When it is provisioning the on site technician seldom has a clue what it takes to get it right. We as vendors are often passed on excuses by technicians to a customer and are just obligated to make things work. And as John stated, the pain of billing a customer for whatever time we spend.

I do remember what it was like to report a trouble precisely and have a 99% chance of getting it fixed on the initial report. Now most of the field techs that did that work were forced into early retirement and we have carrier meets (I don't call it vendor anymore.) with an arsenal of test equipment (with the CLEC and LEC both when it's POTS.) to prove trouble and bill the customer again or eat some (or all) of the cost to keep a happy customer.

I'm making that last statement in defense of ALL members here and welcome more like Crankshaft to join us! We could go down in history if that were to happen!

Crankshaft, your participation here is definitely welcome.

Is there some way the (your) field tech could have the provisioning info...or prior to cut, have the existing configuration so you can match it?

This thread has great subject matter for many in our business to participate in. This thread was the original spark that led to the creation of The Complaint Department. For those interested a copy of this thread can be followed up on in that location.

To get there click HERE