atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Telecom Service & Providers Cable Co. Hunt Group Service

We've had that kind of trouble with Charter Cable as well...dismal service really. When we moved offices (one block) it took them 7 days to get our phones up and 9 days to get our internet service stable. I think I spent two hours on the phone (mostly on hold) to get the hunt straightened out. And the funny thing was, that is was working fine in our old location. Couldn't they just copy the setup?

Sounds like it depends on the cable company. Comcast up here has a business division totally seperate from residential. sales guys used to work for Verizon, OneComm etc. They seem to get it.

Time Warner Cable in my area has their lines hunt properly.... my guess is all of them have the ability to do so with their equipment they just don't know how to program it.

Is it really possible for a company to try and sell dialtone to businesses and not be able to offer traditional hunting functionality??

Comcast should stick to TV. Not only do they do sloppy work, How many " other Providers " install an RJ21X when setting up their Lines, Just about Everyone, But, Not Comcast.., nope, they just say " you want rj11 interface or push-in ? " and then they crimp on ends and make a mess.Then, It takes multiple calls to get an order straight. My 2 cents.

Ditto to what Brian said.

I hear what you are saying nonameyet but the customer only sees lower costs and more bandwith. With that said up here Comcast techs are more reliable than Verizon techs.

I'm going to open up a can of worms here but I have to say it. I beleive it's in part due to Comcast is non union and Verizon is union. on this area.

Rant alert....

Verizon has been undergoing some large transformations as of late. Much of it is due to the decline of their wireline business.

The old New England Telephone corporate office building on Franklin Street in Boston has been sold and much of the work that was done there has been sent to other states like New York City and Virginia.

The company has lost a lot of workers. Some through layoffs and others through buyouts. The loss of workers has left the company with a large backlog of work (at least on the Enterprise side).

The company I work for (a CLEC) has been trying to groom DS3 circuits to reduce our CoA (Cost of Access). For the past year or so, Verizon has repeatedly dropped the ball. Their techs do NOT show up as promised or they make last minute cancellations so technicians....like me....are not made aware. We show up as scheduled around midnight, open a conference bridge and sit there....waiting for Verizon to join the bridge...only to find out that Verizon sent an after hours Email to our company canceling the night's work.

Up until about 2 years ago, the horror stories about dealing with Verizon in other parts of the country (New York Telephone & Bell Atlantic) were not seen by me. The New England Telephone workers were pretty easy to work with.

Sadly that is no longer the case.

Verizon has moved the New England "Carrier Access Trouble Center" (CATC) from Boston down to somewhere in Virginia.

When the CATC was located in Boston, wait times were fairly short. Yesterday I waited in the CATC queue for over 90 minutes trying to open a trouble report on some trunks that were blocked in the Verizon Harrison Ave Central Office in Boston. By the time 90 minutes rolled around I hung up in sheer frustration.

I think Verizon's decision to sell their networks in the states of Maine, New Hampshire & Vermont to Fairpoint Communications was part of this decision to shrink the company almost to the point where you'd think that they no longer want to operate as a LEC.

Because of the reduction in work force, Verizon has been forced to plead for patience while it tries to figure out how to clear the logjam of backorders.

The problem is....many of us are either fast running out of (or completely lost) patience with the current incarnation of Verizon.

Sorry about the detour. If needed, it can be moved or made into a brand new topic of some sort.

Verizon in this area made it clear many years ago, dating back to the early 1990's as Bell Atlantic that they were focusing upon moving their wired business toward being a transport provider.

They have done this here. Their preferred customer is now the CLEC and they treat their direct customers like camel dung. Don't dare be a POTS customer of Verizon's anymore unless you really don't need phone service.

Think about it: By being a transport provider, they remove themselves from the end-user issues. No business office arguments, no billing disputes, guaranteed revenue, no technical support, no service calls, no nothing. On their end, it works.

As for your situation, Dexman: They have now escalated themselves to the point were they can even treat their prime (CLEC) customers like dogs. They know that in most markets, they still are the predominant provider of fiber or copper pairs. Their attitude is "If you don't like it, take your business elsewhere". They say this while knowing that you can't.

They are also dodging many state/local laws with regard to service levels. Since most laws are old and dating back to the Bell System days, they are 'rubber-stamped' when renewals come along. The crusty old politicians have no clue about modifying these franchise laws. By being the transport provider, they are absolved of having to uphold the end-user service levels for which these laws provide. The CLEC accepted that obligation when they took responsibility for the customer. Little did they know that they have to rely upon the shifty middle man to make it happen.

Verizon, as well as most LECs are laughing all the way to the bank these days. They simply provide a circuit, they always swear that it works and leave it up to their customer to figure out where the LEC screwed up.

"I'm not guilty unless you can prove it."

I like their logic in a sadistic kind of way.

When I read this, I thought, how can this be? Comcast is better than Verizon? Then I read on. Oh my. We must be reduced to only grading on the curve now - except instead of a curve, we have a slope.

What I don't get is some companies thought process when switching their voice services from LEC to Cable.
Some customers I have seen that do this, probably have fixed costs & overheads in the Millions each year, and by porting their 8 line hunt group from LEC to Cable they will save maybe $100 to $150 per month, that's $1200 per year..... big deal........I don't get it.....