[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not only are there no more offices open
> to the public, but many office staffs are being outsourced to India
> and/or Hong Kong and the Phillipine Islands. They can hire their help
> a lot cheaper in those places. Telco, like many other large corporations
> prefers to hide behind the anonymity of the telephone. That topic is
> worth a discussion on its own merits I think. PAT]
But most of the time you cannot even get a person on the phone. I noticed a damaged remote equipment closet and tried to call it in. They wanted my phone number and since it was not with the phone company it disconnected me. It took me over 20 minutes to finally get to a person that even knew what I was talking about. I had the location and all identifying numbers.
Jim Rusling More or Less Retired Mustang, OK
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[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That sort of stuff (locaation and identifying numbers) means nothing. The only thing they are equipped to work with is _your_ telephone number in order for them to work from their script book of responses. Since they are in India now or Hong Kong, I doubt they even have 'equipment closets' or anything like that. Their choice of overseas locations is important because they need (like all companies thus situated) to be someplace where the language is 'neutral' or close enough to midwestern-English (Hong Kong or the Phillipine Islands comes to mind) that the vast majority of their customers won't know the difference or ask any questions. PAT]