My battle with the braindead goliath that is XO communications

Posted by ajohnson

July 17, 2008

Being in the telecom business it is a given that we have to work with several carriers in order to provide service to our end users. When we first started we only had one carrier to deal with who actually was the one to work with all the underlying carriers (XO, Verizon, AT&T, Qwest, etc). Now that we have grown, we have out grown that solution and established relationships with some providers directly.
One of those providers, we will call “brand X”, in my opinion, just doesnt get it… We transferred one of their existing customers numbers internally with them from their switch to ours. Long story short, they couldn’t figure out how to make it work properly. 30 days is how long it took me to get action. See the below letters that I finally wrote to the CEO of “brand X”
Okay, Now I’m not getting any response on the matter and tech support says:

Unfortunately they’re not being very responsive with the issue. We’ve added the info to our ticket with them.
The issues have gone on way to long. You guys are a massive company, and as such this should absolutely not be a problem that should last 30 days. I guess my next step since nobody cares to communicate with me or fix the problem is to escalate the issue to an informal FCC complaint, contact with various states attorney generals offices, and whatever other regulatory agency will hear me on this matter.

Adam M. Johnson
t. 888.745.4099 t.208-664.2869
e. ajohnson@convertecsolutions.com
w. www.convertecsolutions.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(My personal letter right after the above to “Brand X” CEO)
Action, Execution, Something. That’s all I’m asking for here. I understand that you are the CEO and have more to be concerned with that just my “little” problem, but if a company like cant even do something that your own partners say is simple, then what exactly can you all do over there? I run this company and I’m this involved in this particular matter, because to me, every single customer matters and ill pursue this as far as I have to. Here is what your carrier partner has to say about this.

All they need to do is update their routing tables when they port numbers from their PRI to multi-market platform. As you know we’ve been going back and forth with them on this. They’re insisting the issue is resolved and we keep showing them its not by calling your numbers on our own PRI. We wish there was more we could do for you regarding this issue.”

Everyone seems to have their hands tied behind their back because of the action, or rather inaction, of I’m asking you to help us here.

President, CEO

t. 888.745.4099 t.208-664.2869
ajohnson@convertecsolutions.com
w. www.convertecsolutions.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(And another letter after 3 days of inaction and wheel spinning)I know that dawn is now handling the case (I am waiting on a callback), but this is what we are dealing with now. Some people cant call in and get a disconnected message,”Brand X” apparently cant get “Brand V” to help with why some of their customers so then your guy “John” calls clients customers and apparently left a very unfavorable impression that spawned the below email to me… Its not only some “Brand V” customers that cant call client now. There’s “Brand Q” and “Brand T” in British Columbia to name a few. Not to mention that we only know of the numbers that email client to tell them that their number says (disconnected).

What I know now is that even when it was still not routing properly, i.e. going through both your PRI platform and your multi-market platform as confirmed by P, client didn’t have this problem. The second you made a change, client is dropping calls left and right. This is a company that is already in a tough market and is now missing opportunities. I have already borne the pain of nearly getting sued because “Brand X” couldn’t “do anything” on another client but miraculously fixed the issue when they wanted to return to the retail PRI platform they were …

I really, really want to resolve this without getting regulatory agencies or anyone else involved, but if that’s what it is going to take to get this matter the attention and action that it demands, I am willing to take it as far as I have to. I am losing revenue and reputation because of “Brand X’s” s continued failure to deliver. Had this only happened once, I could attribute it to a mistake. But twice in a row indicates a problem with your processes as a whole with regards to this type of situation.

As far as having one of our clients customers call “Brand V” because the number says its disconnected, that’s ludicrous. I postulate that since “Brand V” won’t work with you and play nice on resolving the issue, that is where the FCC process comes into play. I’m not sure who LY is but my contact at the FCC’s enforcement bureau just recommended that I speak with her first before they move forward, but I am not so sure that it will accomplish anything.

I’ve spent nearly 80 hours on just this single issue.

Since typing this email I have received yet another email stating that another customer is getting the disconnect message… 503-283-XXXX

Then I repeat my question? What was he doing? Why was he doing it? And why in that manner?

On Apr 25, 2008, at 10:25 AM, Adam Johnson wrote:

.. –> Converted from text/plain format –>John is with “Brand X”.

—– Original Message —–
To: Adam Johnson
Sent: Fri Apr 25 08:26:12 2008
Subject: WTF!!!!!!!!

Who the f**k is John on your staff? And what was he thinking to call
our customer and give him attitude? And then to talk to Jim (the big
angry boss) and give him attitude?