Thanks for the heads up. Our MCI service has been flawless but it took the state public utilities commission to iron out a 2 year billing dispute.
All the carriers (except Qwest, the ILEC) have to deal with Qwest so management of them would definitely be a part of the terms and conditions. Speaking of which having been burned they will be well scrutinized. I would have to hope that since they are still in business that they would have ironed out by now issues such as you had back in 1996. MCI had a lot of trouble initially with Qwest. Fortunately our service is via T1 which XO can monitor "end-to-end" from their NOC and Qwest seems to be pretty decent about their "last mile" from the co-located XO equipment at the CO.
-Todd
-----Original Message-----
From: John Sage [mailto:list.sage@...]
Sent: Friday, November 05, 2004 12:38 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] [OT] XO Communications - References?
Todd,
In addition to the note you received regarding Allegiance, let me add
my experience with XO. In 1996 our Purchasing Mgr signed a contract
with XO (then NextLink) without checking with me, for local, local-toll
and long-distance.
From Day 1 we had severe problems. Since XO doesn't own the local
loop, they rely on the ILEC to service the wire. Between our ILEC
(SBC), XO and our phone system vendor we had endless finger-pointing.
The problems were typically RNA (Ring No Answer) for our customers or
we were unable to dial certain exchanges - whole prefixes inaccessible.
All these problems boiled down to switch programming, but neither SBC
nor XO would admit to fault. The RNAs were especially frustrating, as
we'd test ourselves, hear the ring, but pick up nothing when connected
directly to the MPOE. The call would never reach our premises - the
ring tone the caller was hearing was "phantom".
The typical service response from XO was "call the ILEC". SBC would
come out, sneak into the phone room, purportedly test, then leave and
say the copper was OK. XO would then say it was a problem with our
switch. We had the regional sales mgr down several times, and once
even had SBC, XO and our phone vendor onsite shouting at each other.
In the end, we told XO we were going to take them to court for lost
business and they let us out of the contract.
One thing to be careful of though, is that all these experiences are
anecdotal and my not reflect the service you'll get. For instance, we
use MCI/WorldCom for our digital trunk for the last year, and it's
worked wonderfully. YMMV.
have a great weekend,
john
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All the carriers (except Qwest, the ILEC) have to deal with Qwest so management of them would definitely be a part of the terms and conditions. Speaking of which having been burned they will be well scrutinized. I would have to hope that since they are still in business that they would have ironed out by now issues such as you had back in 1996. MCI had a lot of trouble initially with Qwest. Fortunately our service is via T1 which XO can monitor "end-to-end" from their NOC and Qwest seems to be pretty decent about their "last mile" from the co-located XO equipment at the CO.
-Todd
-----Original Message-----
From: John Sage [mailto:list.sage@...]
Sent: Friday, November 05, 2004 12:38 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] [OT] XO Communications - References?
Todd,
In addition to the note you received regarding Allegiance, let me add
my experience with XO. In 1996 our Purchasing Mgr signed a contract
with XO (then NextLink) without checking with me, for local, local-toll
and long-distance.
From Day 1 we had severe problems. Since XO doesn't own the local
loop, they rely on the ILEC to service the wire. Between our ILEC
(SBC), XO and our phone system vendor we had endless finger-pointing.
The problems were typically RNA (Ring No Answer) for our customers or
we were unable to dial certain exchanges - whole prefixes inaccessible.
All these problems boiled down to switch programming, but neither SBC
nor XO would admit to fault. The RNAs were especially frustrating, as
we'd test ourselves, hear the ring, but pick up nothing when connected
directly to the MPOE. The call would never reach our premises - the
ring tone the caller was hearing was "phantom".
The typical service response from XO was "call the ILEC". SBC would
come out, sneak into the phone room, purportedly test, then leave and
say the copper was OK. XO would then say it was a problem with our
switch. We had the regional sales mgr down several times, and once
even had SBC, XO and our phone vendor onsite shouting at each other.
In the end, we told XO we were going to take them to court for lost
business and they let us out of the contract.
One thing to be careful of though, is that all these experiences are
anecdotal and my not reflect the service you'll get. For instance, we
use MCI/WorldCom for our digital trunk for the last year, and it's
worked wonderfully. YMMV.
have a great weekend,
john
Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must have already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links
Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
<http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=129lg4b22/M=281955.5530326.6602771.3001176/D=groups/S=1705007183:HM/EXP=1099766303/A=2343726/R=0/SIG=12in2nd12/*http://clk.atdmt.com/VON/go/yhxxxvon01900091von/direct/01/&time=1099679903441607> <http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=129lg4b22/M=281955.5530326.6602771.3001176/D=groups/S=1705007183:HM/EXP=1099766303/A=2343726/R=1/SIG=12in2nd12/*http://clk.atdmt.com/VON/go/yhxxxvon01900091von/direct/01/&time=1099679903441607>
Get unlimited calls to
U.S./Canada
<http://view.atdmt.com/VON/view/yhxxxvon01900091von/direct/01/&time=1099679903441607>
<http://us.adserver.yahoo.com/l?M=281955.5530326.6602771.3001176/D=groups/S=:HM/A=2343726/rand=158816459>
_____
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* To visit your group on the web, go to:
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]