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Wednesday, July 25, 2007
How to Call Cincinnati Bell about Your Bounced Emails
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
Perhaps you’ve heard about how Cincinnati Bell’s emails are being bounced back as spam from some of the biggest national email providers. And maybe you want to talk to someone at Cincinnati Bell, perhaps because you don’t believe the lame memos their PR people send to media to stop the fury of righteous complaints coming their way. But when you call Cincinnati Bell’s help line, you don’t actually get someone working for them. You end up at an outsourced corporation named Pomeroy. Here are instructions for getting past them to someone who can actually do something about your complaint.
As a third party corporation, Pomeroy’s job is to make customers feel like their issue has been handled. That’s why Cincinnati Bell contracts with them—to prevent calls from making it into the hands of actual Cincinnati Bell employees.
There are about four layers of “supervisors” from within Pomeroy, and the higher you get on the chain, the better they get at the art of B.S. That’s their job—to make you feel satisfied so you don’t get to Cincinnati Bell. But remember, you called because you wanted to talk to someone with Cincinnati Bell who could hear your complaints and your concerns about your email situation. You need to escape the Pomeroy network.
That’s where knowledge of employee badges and corporate ID numbers can come in rather handy.
When talking, make sure the employee has a blue badge without a “v” for “vendor” at the end of his or her corporate ID. Those v-free blue badges are all Cincinnati Bell.
If you feel really ambitious, maybe you could shoot for the top tier executives (or at least their secretaries).
And for your reference: http://www.cincinnatibell.com/customer_support/contact_us/by_phone/
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25 Jul 2007 at 10:30 am | #
Comcast has been kicking my emails all week- anyone else having issues with Comcast?
25 Jul 2007 at 10:53 am | #
this article makes no sense. if you really want to speak to a “cincinnati bell” employee they know less about these issues that even you seem to know. these people from pomeroy ARE the technical support desk. you don’t what help? don’t call them.
25 Jul 2007 at 10:55 am | #
Wow, that’s ridiculous. If you had half a brain you’d do some better research before posting a story. This is what’s wrong with cooperate media today.
Cincinnati Bell has no control over these bounces.
If a company such as AOL decides to block them due to spam coming from their server, there is nothing they can do.
Sure, they can ask AOL to remove them, they can plead and beg for weeks on end. (which you’d know has happened if again you did some research) Yet in the end, the ball is in the other providers court.
These company’s such as Comcast, AOL, Yahoo..etc all use similar block list. There are block list on the internet that large e-mail providers will query when someone attempts to send them e-mail. In doing so they will find our mail servers on there list and thus refuse to except mail from us until the mail server is taken off the list.
Maybe you can show up at the providers door step with milk and cookies and an uneducated story as to why they should fix this?
25 Jul 2007 at 11:33 am | #
Our region’s number one ISP can’t send email, and I’m supposed to believe this is AOL’s or Yahoo’s fault?
What’s funny is that comments #2 and #3 come from IPs which resolve to the following:
OrgName: Cincinnati Bell Telephone
OrgID: CBT-4
Address: 201 E. 4th Street Room 346
City: Cincinnati
StateProv: OH
PostalCode: 45202
Country: US
25 Jul 2007 at 11:50 am | #
Hrm. And people that might actually know what is going on, as opposed to say… Someone who DOESN’T with self-proclaimed accolades on an anonymous forum such as this aren’t permitted to comment?
Wake up DEAN.
The Internet isn’t some homogenous place. It’s a series of fractuous kingdoms. They don’t always get along, and skirmishes often occur. The point is… Servers are privately owned by the networks that run them. Get it?
Cincinnati Bell can no more force AOHell, Yahoo, Comcast, etc to take mail from them than I can force you to accept the steaming bag of dog poo you so richly deserve.
Bottom line is, Pomeroy, CBT, or Rashiid from Delhi, the people you talk to are there to help. I’m sure they don’t want to talk to a pissed off customer anymore than we want to have our mail bounce. Abusing the person you talk to isn’t going to increase their desire to resolve the issue, just their desire to tell you what you want to hear to get you off the phone.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
25 Jul 2007 at 12:02 pm | #
Do some research buddy. Look into block list. Use google, its your friend. Look into mail servers. Dig some more. You wil find the Cincinnati Bell Mail servers are on these blocklist. The ISP’s (even Fuse/zoomtown) subscribe to these blocklist. When e-mail is attempting a delivery the mail server (in this case, yahoo, aol..etc) will look at the block list that they subscribe too. If the Fuse/Zoomtown mail servers reside on that blocklist, then the mail is bounced back.
This isin’t rocket science.
Do some reasearch or talk to someone technical who posesses rational thinking.
Then you can report what is actually happening instead of turning this into a huge conspiracy theory….
25 Jul 2007 at 12:05 pm | #
Hi Everyone,
On this subject there may be a few articles that should be considered. You will see that many carriers not just Fuse have had this issue since before Feb 2006.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/05/business/email.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/technology/05AOL.html?ex=1185508800&en=382348998db0f219&ei=5070
After reading this keep in mind that cost always rolls downhill, and just maybe Cincinnati Bell is trying to prevet that very thing.
As I’ve had some experience with the Zoomtown/Fuse helpdesk, I’ll let you know that the color of the badge does not effect the scope of support, the Pomeroy group is very closely knit with CBT management.
Thank you,
Someone
25 Jul 2007 at 12:08 pm | #
This is one of the worst articles I’ve read in a long time. What leads you to believe that Pomeroy being contracted for help desk support has anything to do with the customer support experience you receive, or the speed in which engineers fix network related issues? Do you genuinely believe that if Cincinnati Bell had all of their technical support help desks in-house your email problems would be fixed any faster?
Do you believe that somehow fighting your way up through Pomeroy and into the ranks of CBT employees means that your complaint will hold more weight?
Firstly, in my experiences, you don’t have to, nor can you generally get through “Pomeroy” supervisors and into the ranks of the actual “geniune cbt emompoyees” that you speak of. You can however, go entirely around Pomeroy and speak with all CBT employees by going through the Billing / Sales / Customer Complaint departments, but they cannot fix your email problems can they?
Perhaps you are correct, and if you persevered long enough, and fought hard enough, there is a chance, that MAYBE just MAYBE you could battle through the hordes of Pomeroy employees to speak with an engineer in Network Operations, but what is he going to tell you? The same exact thing that the Pomeroy employees have informed you of. That’s because Pomeory help desk agents, and CBT Engineers who fix the problems all work in the same building, and all communicate effectively to assist us, the customers.
But your article isn’t about getting problems fixed is it? Of course not, it’s about complaining, and you want to make sure your complaints get heard, right?
Reading your article gives me a vivid mental image of Pomeroy employees huddled around a furnace shoveling piles and piles of customer complaints into the fire so they are never seen again, you make it seem as though the people that work within the help desk are inferior, and unable to help, incapable of addressing our concerns. I’ve called the help desk at Zoomtown numerous times, and had a pleasant experience with them, and their managers on most all occasions, my complaints are heard, my issues are addressed.
I’m glad that I am not you, I bet you spend countless hours on the phone with their technical support, I bet you’ve exhausted yourself demanding to speak with supervisors, jotting down badge numbers, being forceful and rude to people working in call centers. You truly believe that they can do nothing for you. I do pity you.
Next time you’re waiting on hold at Zoomtown fighting to speak to a supervisor, waiting to pounce them with the question, asking if they have a “v” on the end of their badge or not. I want you to think of me, I’ll probably be reading a book, or watching my favorite episode of The West Wing, who knows, I might be making myself a margarita.
25 Jul 2007 at 12:15 pm | #
Some research on you yourself Jason reveals that you are a troll.
25 Jul 2007 at 12:54 pm | #
#6, #8, and #9 all come from CBT.
Dont’ you people have some work to do, like getting us off the spam list, or something?
25 Jul 2007 at 01:19 pm | #
“Dont’ you people have some work to do, like getting us off the spam list, or something?”
Someone hasn’t been reading the comments…
25 Jul 2007 at 01:23 pm | #
Someone is at work not working.
25 Jul 2007 at 01:52 pm | #
Ok, I’ve been on both sides of this kind of situation in the past, as a network consultant.
For Dean: There are multiple levels of support in any large organization, especially in one like an ISP. The people that this article are blaming for everything is a outsourced Help Desk. They have NOTHING to do with actually making sure the network is running in any way, other than passing on reports of outages to the Network Engineers. That doesn’t make them stupid or lazy, that makes them trapped in the middle of the situation. They can’t fix the problem because they don’t have the authority or resources to do so, but they get bitched out by people like you, Dean, and other customers who are upset and want to yell at someone.
The next level of techs are the ones who are actually maintaining the infrastructure. They’re building the servers, configuring the routers, doing all the things that keeps the network going. HOWEVER. They don’t have any control over AOL or any of the other ISP’s that have decided that Cincinnati Bell is not deserving of being removed from the block lists. That’s where management comes in.
Cincinnati Bell’s management/corporate groups are (I’m sure) trying desperately to crawl through AOL’s morass of red tape and bureaucracy even as I write this. Because it’s not in their best interests, any more than it is in yours, to continue on in this way. They’re probably tearing their hair out right now, and screaming at anyone who will stand still long enough, to get this fixed.
And the companies that aren’t getting blamed? AOL, and all the rest that are using that block list. If you want to complain to someone, complain to them. CB hasn’t done anything to keep you from being able to send mail to your friends at AOL. It’s AOL who’s decided that you can’t. Take it to them, and stop picking on the people who are trying to help.
25 Jul 2007 at 02:15 pm | #
I shouldn’t even reply to this, because it’s very clear that, not only are you NOT understanding the issue, you are also being too self-righteous to listen to people who DO know what they are talking about.
Check the website I posted. You sound like a customer I had the other day. Thankfully you are not.
However, I will tell you the same thing I told them (took 1.75 hours and 4 people before they would listen), there is NOTHING your ISP can do about it.
Oh, and check MY ip, you will be happy to know I have nothing to do with CBT. Maybe that will mean something. I doubt it.
In defense of those posting and not working, just because the IP belongs to the company doesn’t mean that they work there. Don’t mean they aren’t at lunch. But you’re the DEAN, you knew that already.
Have a Great day.
25 Jul 2007 at 02:25 pm | #
The Dean is part of the problem, not the solution. It is idiots like Dean who know just enough to get themselves into trouble that make working the helpdesk a nightmare. Check my IP Mr. know-it-none. I’m not an employee of cincinnati bell but I work for another internet company. The other posters are right, there is nothing an ISP can do if it is being blocked, other than try and correct the situation that caused them to be blocked in the first place, and then wait for the blocking ISP to remove the block. I’m assuming cincinnati bell did the first, if that is the case the ball is in the other ISP’s court. There is nothing CB can do to force the mail through.
Instead of being part of the problem, try being part of the solution. Ask the people you are unable to email to ask _their_ providers to remove the block. A service provider will tend to remove a block quicker if they are getting many complaints from their own customers.
You are probably one of those complainers who ‘is losing millions of dollars’ because you cant email free addresses from your free address. If email is that critical to your internet and meat world livelihood then perhaps you should pony up the cash for a more fault-tolerant and redundant mail solution instead of relying on a free service that you get with your internet connection. ISP’s make NO money from providing email service, and with the rise of spam its becoming more and more costly to maintain that service.
25 Jul 2007 at 02:27 pm | #
OK Gang- I being the total non-computer person called the nice service guys at Cinti Bell. Well- PR needs to re-write their script- which was obviously being read.
You are told-While this is not our fault, we are working to resolve the issues with over 20 companies that are now blocking our emails. Say what 20 companies?????
This is something that happened this weekend w/ Comcast when they did an upgrade-all of my emails were fine until Sat nite and then kicked back by Sunday morning. Now for the fun part- some of them do get thru- after you try at least 4 times.
So-guys from Cinti Bell- it is great that you respond with a bunch of techno-crap- bottom line is that my emails are kicking back and it isn’t fun. So instead of blogging to The Dean- stay on the phone and maybe my wait time wouldn’t have been 14 minutes!!! And I don’t care if you are a vendor or an employee- 14 minutes in que is too long for any decent customer service.
25 Jul 2007 at 02:41 pm | #
Dean of Cluelessness,
Yes, I am one of the people who has spent ten minutes navigating push-button phone options before finally getting a queue that tells me to enter my number for a call back, only not to get a call back.
So then you start over—ten minutes of button pushing to get in line, and then to maybe wait in line for 10 minutes. My favorite was when I had a problem, they helped fix it, and a week later the same problem came back. The guy on the phone actually said I had never had a problem like the one I was describing. Apparently, he could not read the notes on the account, or they don’t do a good job leaving notes on the account.
Don’t tell me their service is free. What’s free is my gMail account. I pay Fuse for internet access, and part of their service is that email in included. That’s hoe they allegedly compete. A lot it good it does, if they can’t even keep themselves off the blacklists.
25 Jul 2007 at 02:54 pm | #
As a former ISP technician, having dealt with emails from customers who clearly didn’t understand what was actually happening, I’ve seen more than my share of stupidity, literally enough to last several lifetimes. This “article” represents what may very well be the worst single example of it I’ve ever seen.
It’s like the Mt. St. Helens of stupid.
The real lesson here is just because it can type complete sentences doesn’t mean it’s intelligent.
You probably haven’t figured it out yet, but you just became cannon fodder for techs, tech sites, and tech blogs everywhere. You shall stand as a shining example of what NOT to be, and will at least serve SOME purpose in life. People will point and laugh, most likely until their spleens burst.
So congratulations, Sparky. You earned it.
25 Jul 2007 at 03:00 pm | #
I don’t know who you think you are, but I know what you are. You are an end user, and I mean that in a very derogative way.
I am a system admin for a very large, high volume internet e-mail system. Our mail gets blocked from time to time because people like you (clueless end users) report our legitimate, absolutely non-commercial e-mail as “spam” either by mistake or as a malicious act. So we get blacklisted on some site who either doesn’t check the validity of the e-mail (which, by reading any admin with 1/2 a clue would see is legitimate), or is asleep at the wheel and just “checks yes to all” and blocks the mail. Regardless, at this point I have to contact the admin and have him or her unblock us. Sometimes with big, inefficient companies such as AOL, this can take days or even weeks.
Cincinnati Bell does NOT own the AOL and Yahoo mail servers. Cincinnati Bell can NOT remove their services from AOL and Yahoo’s block list. Only AOL and Yahoo can do that. All Cincinnati Bell can do is ask to be removed.
If you don’t like it, perhaps you should consider purchasing a domain and hosting your own e-mail via a hosting provider of some kind. Many hosting providers cost little to nothing to get set up and running, then you can forward all your stupid chain letters to your buddies at AOL until your fingers explode.
Furthermore, outsourcing call center help, particularly tier 1 support is very, VERY commonplace. At least these techs were (presumably) Americans and not outsourced to India like many computer manufacturers are well known to do.
Get a clue about technology before spouting off this garbage.
25 Jul 2007 at 03:13 pm | #
Suppose you stop at a stop light and you get rear-ended by some guy who didn’t stop. Is it the Public Works Department’s fault that the guy behind you didn’t stop because they put a stop light there? Is it fault of the manufacturer of the car you’re driving? Is it his car’s manufacturer? Of course not!
CBT provides a service to customers who want it. They got a bad one. Just like the guy who rear-ended you, it’s nobody’s fault but the dude who rear-ended you. I am sure CBT terminated this individual’s account when they figured out what he was doing. This is just called “cleaning up the mess”.
Look dude, if you want to biatch at someone who will make a difference, why don’t YOU fire up your gmail account and fire an e-mail to “postmaster@aol.com” and “postmaster@yahoo.com” and complain to them that they aren’t honoring the requests of CBT to be removed from their blacklists so you can merrily spam their customers with your tripe?
Oh, that would make sense, wouldn’t it.
25 Jul 2007 at 03:17 pm | #
INTERESTING THAT MY MAIL IS NOW GETTING THRU TO COMCAST!
But 14 minutes in que is not satisfactory. I use to manage a customer service unit for a large health care provider in town and if my que hit longer than 90 seconds- I was on the floor looking to see what the problem was.
I understand that others can set up blocks-but wouldn’t you think that Cinti Bell/ATT- is a large enough provider that they wouldn’t end up on a block list?
The Dean and those techno-illerates don’t deserve your wrath gang- just because you can fix this crap-don’t think you know it all. Just this stuff. You can’t do neurosurgery! Well- you might think you can!!!
25 Jul 2007 at 03:28 pm | #
@Fused Out
I can explain the 20+ companies.
Here’s how back lists work:
ISPs and large companies do not want the trouble of putting together large lists of known spammers. Thankfully for them, there are companies who do. these companies are tied in to the spam blocking software and websites that many of us use.
1. You recieve spam from a CBT user. You report it.
2. So do a bunch of other people. They report it.
3. The company that makes the black list (not CBT) looks at the reports. Users #1, #12, #7, and #32 of CBT have sent spam.
4. The black list company doesn’t want any of it’s users to get more spam from CBT so they add users #1 though #50 to the black list, just to be safe. Somtimes, they will add all of CBT (or which ever ISP we are talking about)
5. AOL, SWB, and Prodigy get the updated black list. The black list is huge and nobody bothers to read it, just like your standard software licence agreement.
6. User #16 sends email to her mother on AOL. The email is bounced back as spam because CBT users #1 though #50 are on the black list.
7. User #16 calls CBT asking (angerly) why she is being called spam.
8. CBT help desk explains to user #16 that it isn’t their problem, that the only way this can be fixed is to locate someone (who cares and can help, both very important) at either AOL or the black list company to have CBT removed from the black list.
9. User #16 doesn’t believe the help desk.
10. User reads this comment and (hopefully) understands that they aren’t getting as blown off as they think they are.
——-
I hope this help. Honestly folks, I’m sure they are aware of it and are trying to get it fixed. It’s just not an easy or fast process, especially if they are unlucky enough to get put back on seconds after being removed.
25 Jul 2007 at 03:32 pm | #
I would concur with my felow techs who are posting here. Basicaly if someone decides to block email from the ISP I work for we get no say in it. We have to ask/beg/plead/threaten to get them to take it off. There is however nothing we can do directly to make them allow our email again. It doesn’t matter how big or small we are.
Please do some basic research before putting misinformation like this up on the net.
And as for speaking to managers? please they have less idea about how it all works than you do.
25 Jul 2007 at 03:49 pm | #
As pretty much everybody here has stated - the receiver does the blocking.
Think of it as a matriarchal kinda system.
However, I have had problems with Fuse blocking emails from other ISPs.
I have had the other ISPs error logs in my hot little hands.
I have looked up the error codes.
Fuse was blocking the other ISP.
The tech guy at Fuse told me the ISP was blocking their people from sending to Fuse.
Maybe this can be done (dunno why he would) but the guy at Cinti Bell was lying or an idiot.
Now, how does the ISP get ahold of Fuse’s tech staff ?
If he just follows the usual lines of customer support, well, he’s gotta be a customer !
So how does a guy from Google out in CA get ahold of Fuse techs ?
I couldn’t find contact info anywhere.
I am overall satisfied with Fuse and would recommend them (and do) but when it comes to a problem they can be a pain.
25 Jul 2007 at 04:04 pm | #
You guys have made some real fools out of yourselves.
The Dean 1
Pomeroy 0
bell -1
Quit trying to blame it on other folks and get your email together bell and get rid of the awful support group, You used to be an honorable company.
25 Jul 2007 at 04:23 pm | #
Evidently the Dean is confused by the cogent explanations above so I’ll try a different tack. Forget technology. Forget who’s outsourced to where. Forget who’s on the other end of the phone. Let’s just look at the core problem and go from there.
Problem (in his/her own words): ‘Cincinnati Bell’s emails are being bounced back as spam from some of the biggest national email providers.’ The key words that describe the problem are ‘bounced back as spam.’ With me so far?
Now here’s where the Dean’s evidently getting lost. Who’s doing the bouncing? Cincinnati Bell? No. In Dean’s own words, it’s being done ‘by some of the biggest national email providers,’ not Cincinnati Bell. So why call CB since they aren’t the cause of the problem? If you want to do something useful, Dean, contact the ones doing the bouncing.
And I’ll let you in on a little secret, Dean: Cincinnati Bell wants this cleared up far, far more than you ever could want it. If they could wave a wand and clear themselves off of the blacklist, they would have done so already.
25 Jul 2007 at 04:59 pm | #
Thank you Quim, and explaination without the rude comments!
When something like this happens-don’t you think that they would have a list of the “real” companies to run a cross file against and not block them?
I had a major project that had to be sent to Silicon Valley yesterday- yeah the center of the universe- and couldn’t get it thru because it kept getting refused. I finally jumped over to Yahoo- and it got thru-I still don’t get that. But, to the people I was working for- it made me look like a fool- and trust me if Silicon Valley doesn’t understand the blocking- no one in this burg does.
I have shown them this blog and they are laughing their asses off at the technos- trying to be big and bad.
They agree that a cross reference check should be done to block out the spam senders before blocks occur. And one of the guys actually knows someone at Comcast and they will be working on that in the future. And it is being outsourced.
I have no problem with the tech guys at CB- they have helped out over the years- but the canned speech was terrible and let these poor people look stupid. I blame that on management- totally. They are only the people on the phone. But this is a much larger issue than they can fix.
I’m glad that the Dean posted it- it got me in touch w/ my company and things on my end were fixed. Without it- I’d still be in the dark.
And Techno Guys- back off- we need you- but we don’t need the ‘tude.
25 Jul 2007 at 05:24 pm | #
Anther thank you W.D.- no slamming or other rude comments.
I was just shocked to see all of my emails being kicked by some of the nations largest companies. You would think that they already would have relationships in place to stop this from happening. AOL, Comcast, Yahoo, All of the ATT’s and Roadrunners. Now that is sad…
25 Jul 2007 at 06:09 pm | #
Dean,
You swatted the corporate bee’s nest and the swarm is aroused. Not since your article on 3CDC have I seen so many people call you names. Your self esteem must be bruised but take heart, the reaction means you are doing what needs to be done. At least you are courageous enough to object to poor service and expect resolution.
You will not get a better solution because it might cause a dip in quarterly profit. Outsourcing is done in order to cut cost but the short term gains will hurt their long term profitability. The dissatisfaction with the treatment we get from corporations will not easily be forgotten. An example would be IBM in the seventies. They were king and everyone had to go to IBM (I’ve Been Manipulated) for data processing. When the personal computer came along a little company named Apple was doing very well and the beancounters at IBM saw the need to enter the market. For the first time in their corporate history they went outside for an operating system to run on a competing product against Apple. The IBM PC was born and a fellow named Bill Gates won the contract for the Operating System. IBM-PC DOS was the result and it sold like hotcakes. Gates decided to offer his own version named MS DOS. This opened the door to all the IBM lookalikes (clones) to enter the market. IBM’s PC DOS and MS DOS were essentially identical. The packaging was different but they were the same code. The blowback for IBM was huge. When people that had been customers found an alternative they lined up and nearly caused the bankruptcy of the giant. Cincinnati Bell has had a lock on Cincinnati communications for many years. They have lost touch with customers and management could care less.
Keep the focus on this Dean. They will become more insulting but a solution will appear. The giants are confused because they have lost some control. The avalanche begins.
25 Jul 2007 at 06:09 pm | #
Without pointing out fingers and calling people “lamos/n00bs or t00ls” you can really see the point of both sides. Dean as a customer and “techs” that know the email system and what can be done about it. Dean being a user of the service doesnt really care whats causing the issues but wants it resolved as a customer to zoomtown/fuse. The “helpdesk” in which Dean is referring to is giving an honest answer that CBT can not lift a email blockage from another ISP. In defense of the ISP tho, you cant expect an ISP to keep “end users” email address and password secure. That is up to the customers. I mean if your email address is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or @zoomtown.com and your password is whatever1. Your asking to be “hacked” and asking for your email to be plastered all over blocklist from multiple ISP (not just the ones mentioned above).From what I know of the situation is that AOL is not a full fledged “blacklist” blockage as well. They are limiting the amount of email that can come thru their servers from the the @fuse.net and @zoomtown.com email addresses. This tells me that AOL can do something about the situation but basically refusing to help the matter. Is it because they were threw out on their a$$e$ from Time Warner for being such a mooch on their services, I dont know. Bottom line is that without cooperation from AOL in this matter, it will not be resolved. So to all your @fuse.net and @zoomtown.com users out there that are getting tired of the situation. Please email the “postmaster@aol.com” and tell them your issues. Also, the AOL people that you are trying to send to, have them email “postmaaster@aol.com” and discuss the issue as well. No matter what Dean nor anyone says. CBT and the ZT Helpdesk are trying to do whatever they can to resolve the issues in questions. They actually are a good ISP and High Speed Provider.This basically is AOL disregarding attempts to get the issue resolved and having the blame switched over to everyone else.If you call AOL they are going to tell you its everyones elses issues and not theirs. So Dean, please make that a challenge question in your blogs and see how many people call AOL and get the same response. I bet a huge majority will respond the same.
25 Jul 2007 at 06:12 pm | #
Hi Dean,
I’m going to have to go with the “You don’t have a clue” camp on this one. Those of us who make a living fixing things, as opposed to making a living b**ching about things, understand exactly what is wrong here, and why CB can’t fix it.
Your refusal to look deeper into the issue coupled with your righteous indignation have destroyed any credibility you would have had with me.
25 Jul 2007 at 06:15 pm | #
After reading this article, I find it funny how some rather customers keep blaming fuse. They can only do so much on their end and I am sure it’s and everyday thing. What I find more entertaining is the people that don’t understand the so called “techno gargen” are the ones that bitch the most.
CBT cant do anymore then what AOL or Yahoo will allow them too. They can’t access their block list and go in there and delete everyone off. You just need to quit complaining, everything will work out. You can’t expect them to wave a wand and pull a rabbit out of the hat when it is not them blocking you from sending the email.
As for the pomeroy help desk, leave those people out of it, they are more of cbt then you will know. Possibly the only people in cbt besides a customer care rep for billing. They are technicians and trained. Just because you don’t believe what they say, thats your own problem because you simply don’t and are unwilling to understand the situation.
Like others that posted I am sure they are getting yelled at by the managers to fix the problem, however you cant move any quicker with the situation of the ones who are blocking the emails won’t work with you.
Another thing is about the bitching of the hold time. We as people have created this society where it is give me give me give me. To tell you the truth put yourself in their place, try talking a call, listening to a customers needs, one that is furious and keeps talking but wont listen when you try to explain to them. It goes in one ear and out the other.
Not only that the people that call in have problems, more then likely the reason you hold for so long is because well, they probably have to stay with the customer to make sure what they are trouble shooting the customer understands and is willing to help the tech accomplish the task at hand.
Don’t forget that also there are people that call in that don’t know the first thing about a computer. Just as you were teaching a child some customers you do have to hold their hands and help them along, after all thats what great customer service is all about. Making sure that customer can understand what you want them to do.
So to the dean and fused out, I am sure those people are hard at work trying to resolve this for many customers. However like I said you can only do so much from one side, when the other side will not work with you. Your complaining doesn’t help the situation and exposing CBT like that is really trashy on your half.
Everyone needs jobs, would you be upset if you got some guy in india that you probably couldn’t understand? or a help desk that is helping a company giving people jobs, and that are american. For people that freak out over this crap. Get a life, the internet shouldn’t be your livelihood and by the looks of it for 2 it already is.
25 Jul 2007 at 06:24 pm | #
When did tech support move to 4th Street? Sounds like someone needs to check their information a little better. For all of you out there who want to bash Cinbell and Pomeroy for what they are NOT doing, try checking your facts first. All those messages that aren’t going through. Maybe you should check the routing on them to see where they were bounced back from. That right there will tell you its not the Cincinnati Bell network blocking your emails. I’ve talked with several people on the help desk. They are intelligent people trying to help us as customers and dont deserve the blame they are getting for this not being corrected. Try doing your homework before making accusations.
25 Jul 2007 at 06:31 pm | #
Forget technology. Forget who’s outsourced to where. Forget who’s on the other end of the phone.
Forget the issues and let’s fix the blame. Then promotions are in order. The geek squad at CB is inept. They play the game as one would expect. Profit first, customers last.
25 Jul 2007 at 08:40 pm | #
Dean, since you have summarily dismissed the explanations given by those of us in the technology field, perhaps you could tell us why *you* think the emails are bouncing?
And to those who think some of ‘us’ techs are getting hot under the collar for no good reason, let me explain: You do not understand the problem, so you call us - you do not like our answer, so you reject it and essentially call us lazy or liars.
Expecting us to fix systems we cannot access is absurd, and having the audacity to assume we are lying because the answer we give is inconvenient for you, is beyond childish.
The techs are right, the Dean is wrong, and if you disagree with that assessment, then you are wrong too. Anyone arguing otherwise does not understand the problem, and has no business advocating what amounts to spamming the phone lines of the people who CBT pays to help its customers.
25 Jul 2007 at 08:55 pm | #
What is so difficult here? I know the tech support people can’t fix the problem. So I have advocated to surpass them and their relative uselessness on this issue.
This is a problem at the corporate level, and I will not stand while people blame it on someone else’s blacklist. I expect better from Cincinnati Bell, and I expect Cincinnati Bell to hear the criticism—not shield themselves through third party contractors.
25 Jul 2007 at 09:16 pm | #
feature added service…. read your ToS lulz
25 Jul 2007 at 10:38 pm | #
Dean,
I have worked tech support and done mail server administration. Please go to http://www.spamhaus.org/ and read the info on how blacklists work. Mail administrators “subscribe” to these lists which are updated by a separate group. Now they have to be careful as to how these lists work and how reputable they are.
How this starts is spyware which turns unsuspecting computers into spam generating “zombies” and start sending out spam by the thousands. This causes other people or automated systems to report the mail as spam.
Once this happens, the IP address or IP block of addresses is added to a blackhole list and is picked up by mail servers around the world.
Now, another unfortunate thing can happen is that a misconfigured mail server can be sending spam too. This usually gets all mail from that server blocked. I have seen it happen in person. I was working one day and started getting calls about slow e-mail sending. When I took a look at the system monitoring, I could tell it was busy sending something other than the good mail from the customers. I called the contact at our client (yes we were outsourced) and he said he would look into it on Monday. By then the server was on every blacklist known. Oops.
After this the users on the originating ISP start receiving a “bounce” message. Also some Blackhole lists send an email to the mail admin informing of the problem.
The mail admin must then track down the offending IP addresses and confirm customer information. The customer is usually phoned and told they have a certain time limit to clean their computer or they will be cut off.
Once the offending computer has been cleaned, a removal request is placed on the blacklist website. Now this is the problem, some use blacklists that have no removal procedure…ever. Others have inhouse systems that take much more red tape to be removed.
If you are lucky and get removed, your customers can then email happily, till the next persons computer is infected as a zombie and the cycle starts all over again.
25 Jul 2007 at 10:48 pm | #
Hi Again,
I do understand Deans pain, and frustration. When your stuff isn’t working it fregen hurts. So here are some links of other ISP customers who share your pain Dean. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the party that needs this rough blog. I’d imagine CBT is just as anxious to resolve this issue, and the helpdesk especially so, since they are the one who seems to be taking the greatest hit here. Your intent may have not been to isolate the helpdesk but if you re-read your blog you will see that there is a great focus on this group.
Outsourceing helps with the expense of customer care, and if you think about it, much money is being spent to staff an outsourced desk to answer calls about this issue. This problem alone may be one of the reasons for the above average hold time. And also next to retaining customer, is a great reason for CBT to get this issue solved. This problem can’t be a win, win for them. I’m sure their urgency is that of a four alarm fire.
http://www.aota.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9719
http://open-systems.ufl.edu/services/smtp-relay/aoldescrip.html
http://www.bluehostforum.com/archive/index.php/t-8982.html
Google AOL blocking mail—You will find much information.
I hope all gets solved for everyone, especially you Dean. Good Luck.
25 Jul 2007 at 11:17 pm | #
What total and complete hogwash.
there are several “blacklists” out there with IP addresses or email server names on them, and it is very easy to get on to one. Several years ago I ran a server for some non-profit groups. The IP address that the server lived on was Blacklisted, what was the heinous crime that my server perpetrated to get blacklisted by several lists? My email server software ACCEPTED anonymous emails and emails with forged or incomplete headers. I did not relay them, they went right to /dev/null. according to these geniuses that run the blacklists, just accepting a questionable email and dropping it into the bit bucket made my sendmail configuration an open relay (which wasn’t relaying anything, just deleting it as it came in).
I tried for 2 YEARS to get off the lists, but was told that to get off their system I had to configure sendmail to -their- liking and then they would -THINK- about removing my IP from their lists, one of them went so far as to offer “configuration services” for $1000 to “properly” configure my sendmail for me to return connection refused in the case of deformed emails. the load on my server was far lower by just accepting them and throwing them away then by returning an error message on every bad connection/email (and it HAD to piss the spammers off that they were showing thousands of emails going out but boo hoo, no one was contacting them about their products -Grin-
So, Whining to “corporate” about how abused you are that your ISP ended up on a blacklist and that your free email service (and nowhere is email guaranteed to get delivered) that is part of your basic subscription cost isn’t getting through to AO-Hell or other ISP’s will not make a whit of difference.
I bet you also subscribe to the worst slogan ever to come out of Britain… “The Customer is always right”
26 Jul 2007 at 03:34 am | #
Dean,
Please remove the peni from your ears, CBT cannot magically remove themselves from another corporation’s list. Trust me if they could get rid of people like you calling every 2 seconds because they can’t send an email off to a skank in Montreal, they would fix it seconds and help users that have a REAL problem. I think you said it best anyways, GMAIL is free, and a MUCH MUCH better email client than CBT’s OR Time Warner’s web mail applications. Who really cares if your email comes from @fuse.net? and who really cares if you paid to use some crap web mail client.
26 Jul 2007 at 05:32 am | #
Uh..point here. I have the feeling that its because of you that Cincinnati bell is blacklisted. If you have a problem you have to contact the people who blocked your email. I doubt it will work though once blacklisted it takes god himself to unblock it.
26 Jul 2007 at 08:04 am | #
Dean,
Your article is now making the rounds on several online communities frequented by computer and internet techs. I am not a CBT customer; in fact, I don’t even live in Ohio. However, the level of ignorance you have displayed on this issue, both in your original article and in your responses, is unacceptable.
I worked in ISP support for over a decade, and am now a system administrator responsible for three domains. Those domains have been blocked by major ISPs at various times, including AOL, who is the worst offender of blocking entire domains in an attempt to stop junk e-mail from reaching AOL customers. You can cut the irony with a knife.
You state, “This is a problem at the corporate level, and I will not stand while people blame it on someone else’s blacklist.” Okay, so what you’re saying is, if I decide to block all e-mail traffic from AOL to the three domains that I administrate (which is most tempting at times), it is somehow Randy Falco’s fault that I made that decision? Furthermore, you seem to think that Randy Falco can somehow force me to remove that block?
That’s laughable. All AOL can do is *ASK* me to remove the block. That’s it. If I tell them to go pound sand, there’s diddly squat they can do about it, regardless of how many of their customers call up, bypass their tech support, and demand that they do something.
The reason such blacklists exist is because of starfish end users who go out and purchase a computer powerful enough to run a third-world country, take it home, connect it to their fresh-out-of-the-box DSL or cable modem, and don’t bother to read a single word about how to keep that computer from being compromised and transformed into a zombie that sends out thousands of spam e-mails a day. All the idiot customer knows how to do is call his ISP and gripe that his “Internet is running slow.”
It is people like this, and you, that make my job harder than it should ever have to be. You have a lot of people who have forgotten more about computers than you will ever know telling you how big of an idiot you are regarding this article. You might want to take a step back and consider the fact that, however unlikely in your mind, you could possibly be wrong.
Good luck,
Eric
aka RiffRaff
26 Jul 2007 at 08:58 am | #
Outsourcing is done in order to cut cost but the short term gains will hurt their long term profitability. All these folks claim to represent cbt but they are nothing more then short term contractors (temps) taking away union jobs. Dean i would like to really offer a challenge. Forget the badges and ask your tech, are you in the CWA? if they say no (which they will) then draw your conclusions. I would like all these email intellectuals to explain why people with 30 years under their belt with bell had hours cut last year while the contractors have unlimited overtime and obliviously a little too much time from what i can see here. Stay on it, you would be surprised how many real bell people have read this and agree with you. There is something very wrong. The Telecommunications industry has stomped on labour for so long and this is the result. I like bell, the dsl is the best high speed solution in town and the wireless is superb for such a small company. The outsourced support is what would cause my company to not patronize them or time warner.
26 Jul 2007 at 09:15 am | #
Well something happened after my calls and post here.
Emails got thru to Comcast and to a few others without the “refused” kicking back.
Just because we don’t know the “ins” of the business is no right to slam us. We are just customers stuck because others have abused the system.
There should be relationships in place with the larger companies so this wouldn’t happen just when then run an updated blacklist. That would be the responsibility of Operations VP’s- not the poor techs or Postmasters.
The Dean brought this to my attention- I had no clue what was going on- and everyone who responded did educate- but why the slams?
I like the service line people at CB- they have helped me several times- and have helped with issues that were computer issues- not fuse issues.
But…the real problem exist with the system itself-If they can get down to the minute issues with who the abusers are- then block them, but don’t tie up and hold the rest of the users hostage.
26 Jul 2007 at 09:32 am | #
I was wondering what is so difficult here myself. You know the techs can’t help, so you’re advocating clogging their queues with calls they can’t help you with, until you can get to *ANOTHER* company that, as it has been explained in detail already, CAN NOT HELP YOU EITHER.
Great solution.
Explain your claim that this is a CB problem ‘at the corporate level.’ It has been explained how CB cannot fix this themselves, and the people explaining this have cited references to back up their claim. Your readers should be able to expect the same from you.
And as for your comment, “I will not stand while people blame it on someone else’s blacklist” - Dean! The Spamhaus blacklist IS the problem! You will not accept the truth because you don’t like it?
Tell you what Dean, I have decided I will not accept emails from YOU. I have blocked the two emails that autofill in the address field when I click the contact link.
If you can figure out a way to get someone other than me, the blocker, to unblock your emails to me, please share with the group. Call your ISP and tell them they stink, because I’m blocking your emails.
26 Jul 2007 at 04:04 pm | #
He has called his isp and complained and they did nothing more then allow temps to troll on his blog. I think thats what needs complained about. Don’t worry cause the way things are going with the level of support provided i am sure in the near future calling fuse support will send you to india or to a recording since that is about what you get currently.
26 Jul 2007 at 05:15 pm | #
what hell does it matter that techs are out sourced? Get over it. We will just put it this way I have worked for P&G guess what people I was a contractor with them. You just can’t blame it all on CBT because of your ignorance to understand the situation at hand. Yes I have worked at a help desk before. It shouldn’t matter where the help comes from. Who care about the union for CBT, it wasn’t the workers that made that decision to have a contractor with them. That was a corporate level, and no they don’t get mass over time. I do have friends that work there. They get over time only because the they get slammed with people who I think by law should take a course to learn how to work a computer. I have been in my friends shoes and well I know what its like to hold a customers hand while you explain to them what to do. What should matter is that you got someone and that your getting helped. You always have to keep in mind people always start new jobs and people that never have done a call center, well theres a first time for everything.
Then again thats the world we live in, people aren’t happy with what they here so they have to complain. I can see both sides of the story, but even if you tried to get to corporate nothing could be done. CBT has specific guide lines that the contractors have to follow. So don’t think nothing gets done. Having people calling in and just flooding them is no way to get the problem resolved since its not their fault. They weren’t the ones who stopped you from sending the mail. The user of whatever addy you were sending to did and possibly marked it as spam and now this is the result. Bitch to aol but then again its not their fault either. Get another email addy and don’t use your fuse. Then again some people are scared of change, well stay stuck with your email that you know won’t work until aol will help.
26 Jul 2007 at 07:15 pm | #
About a year ago, we dumped Cincinnati Bell internet for household use. Six months ago we dumped the Cincinnati Bell LAN line and opted for cell-only. To do that, we GOT to dump Cincinnati Bell completely. We consider that a to be a weight off everyone in the family.
We are completely and totally pleased with the results even though there have been a couple frustrations. Those few frustrations were quickly resolved by our new providers.
I am not saying this to sell any service and I know that the towers our current providers use are the same as Cincinnati Bell. The decisions that we made as a family have less to do with technology and more to do with customer service. Our current providers are flexible and help to adjust costs and services upon a simple call even after the fact. Our current providers make our services work for us and we don’t have to force fit to work within rules from a service provider.
We didn’t get that with Cincinnati Bell. If there was an overage or an outage with CB it was a stick it to customer issue. Bounced emails and dropped calls with CB are not a recent development.
Without Cincinnati Bell’s horrid customer service, we don’t take big hits. Our current providers adjust to our levels of use and our expectations. And, they are willing to do it on a monthly basis. Outages have been far fewer too but we understand that is a technology improvement.
Assumption is that out current providers want us to be customers and Cincinnati Bell continues to think that we HAVE to be a customer no matter what. This ain’t the 60’s anymore Bell!
26 Jul 2007 at 07:23 pm | #
Tell us the deal you got? Maybe we’ll follow your lead!
26 Jul 2007 at 09:45 pm | #
Attention National Technogeeks:
A bunch of you are speculating as to what the problem is, stating that CBT cannot influence who stops their mail. And yet I have not heard from CBT any official statement that says they have contacted AOL or Yahoo, that they have tried to remove themselves from a blacklist, or that they have looked at their internal servers to see if there are any changes they can make.
CBT could probably do things to limit spam coming from their system. What internal changes are being made to alter how mail goes out?
So c’mon 4th floor CBT execs—tell me what the problem is. I’m not interested in drivel from the geeks. What are YOU doing to fix this?
26 Jul 2007 at 10:32 pm | #
Dean… eliminating Cincinnati Bell from a household needs to be a very carefully planned exercise and everything has to be about the household needs to be considered.
Going in, know that CB can get rather spiteful… and spiteful doesn’t come close in describing Cincinnati Bell.
This is a household of parents and teenagers. The first service cut from here was Cincinnati Bell and the internet. After 7 years of non-performance on CB’s promises, we knew that there were better offerings. With that, any other overage was unforgivable…
As a family, we knew that we were looking and we questioned jumping off the cliff of no home phone line…
With a few issues, the internet was instantly better. Then with the switch to complete cells, it was INFANTELY better.
Again, the satisfaction of this household goes 100% to customer service. The teenagers had overages. With Cincinnati Bell the history was that there were hundreds of bucks in overages. New service providers are RATHER cool… they adjust the plan IN RETROSPECT to the household.
CB reinstated several credits for crappy service as soon as we put in the order to cut it off. I had to pay for more really crappy service from months back. I sort of figured that is what should be expected from Cincinnati Bell. AND, the glee is we NEVER have to deal the THEM-CRAP of Cincinnati Bell again.
Have a great evening!
26 Jul 2007 at 11:05 pm | #
Dean… eliminating Cincinnati Bell from a household needs to be a very carefully planned exercise and everything has to be about the household needs and everything has to be considered.
Going in, know that CB can get rather spiteful… and spiteful doesn’t come close in describing Cincinnati Bell.
This is a household of parents and teenagers. The first service cut from here from Cincinnati Bell was the internet. After 7 years of non-performance on CB’s promises, we knew that there were better offerings and CB overages and failures were, let’s be kind and simply say FREQUENT.
As a family, we knew that we were looking and we questioned jumping off the cliff of no home phone line… that home phone was the big thing. In this exercise, we discovered discarding the home home was an advantage.
With a few issues, the internet was instantly better. Then with the switch to complete cells, it was INFANTELY better.
Again, the satisfaction of this household goes 100% to customer service. The teenagers had overages. With Cincinnati Bell the history was that there were hundreds of bucks in overages. New service providers are RATHER cool… they adjust the plan IN RETROSPECT to the household.
CB reinstated several credits for crappy service when we put in the order to cut it off so I had to pay for more really crappy service from months back. I did pay it. I sort of figured that is what should be expected from Cincinnati Bell. AND, the glee is we NEVER have to deal the THEM-CRAP of Cincinnati Bell again.
Have a great evening!
27 Jul 2007 at 12:21 am | #
How come the folks with such amazing service won’t name their service providers ?
Is it the Secret Smitherman ISP&T company ?
27 Jul 2007 at 01:34 am | #
It’s time for me to weigh in B*tches!
From New to old,
Jane, dang girl! .......“PSSStttt” ya got issues woman! I mean come on!
“After 7 years of non-performance on CB’s promises”
.....from the nagging it sounds more like “After 7 years of non-performance from a man!”
And what the hell is THEM-CRAP? THEM-CRAP? What the hell is that? Some kinda new
language? Ya need another Drink B*tch! Now what’s my name?
idiots…. <SIGH>.... to you I say
Cocaine is a terrrible drug.. stay off it man! it’s makin ya think all kinds of crazy sh*t man!
Fused Out,
Ya brain done fused out man! I mean come on!
“Well something happened after my calls and post here.
Emails got thru to Comcast and to a few others without the “refused” kicking back.”
.........it’s called ‘luck’ mutha ph**ka!!!
Call the desk again man! it’s still goin on!
..no wait! Let me get the Email fairy on the phone… tell him to let your mail get to AOL!
Telecommunications Workers Union… “OH SNAP!”
“I’m Rick James B*tch!”
amiright?? <Yes you are Mutha Ph**ka!!!
Anonanda, you are what the french call “l’incompétent”...
“Profit first, customer last”???
If you had brain one in the technical support field, you would know that
When a customer praises you, you feel good about yourself and what you do for a living.
When you’re unabel to help them, for a lack of better terms… it sucks.
Who knos.. By your remarks, you do apparently…
gmail is free…. I got one for ya!
What did the 5 fingers say to your face????
.........SLAP!! AH! HA HAH HA HAH!
Drink B*tches!
ptstech..
“It’s like the Mt. St. Helens of stupid.”
....And it done Blew the hell up! And now the dumbness it Rollin down the Mountain
and hittin these fools in the head!
Bob_The_Builder < Witness!
The Dean of Cincinnati < Knows-less!
I mean come one man! What the hell??? You need some help man? you need a book or a
web link? I’ll help you fool! THat’s what I like to do! I would say “Drink B*itch!”
but daaaaam! put the drink down fool!
What’s my name again???
“Our region’s number one ISP can’t send email”
You see any issues with our little “region’s” ISP’s getting mail?
I don’t see people saying they can’t send to ISOC or One Net, etc…
The issue is with companies that span the Nation! I said Nation Mutha Phu**ka!!
Fuse ain’t nothin but a ‘Nati thing man!
Can I get a Witness anyone?
And for you talkin bout fools not working with your whois on the IP….
Stand outside the building!! Turn on your laptop fool! Guess what IP you will be using…
“Someone is at work not working.”
....yes they were man!!! EVERYBODY was trying to educate you! you KNOW you are a customer!!!
yeah you weren’t callin this time but Daaaaaaang! it’s written out for you!
.........in black and white fool!
“navigating push-button phone options”
........as opposed to what?? Pulse phone options??? Come one man!!!
Stop spilling the drink!
“That’s hoe they allegedly compete.” WHO you callin a hoe??
“I will not stand while people blame it on someone else’s blacklist.”
....Now you know you ain’t standing Dean, Come on now….. And if you are,
well no wonder you are rambling about this!! All the blood done left your brain fool!!!
Sit down! Have a drink! Take a bus, sh*t.. something, hell I don’t know man!
If it ain’t helping stop standin fool!!!
But that’s it
...for right now anyway
I said my piece
Now DRINK B*TCHES!
27 Jul 2007 at 03:38 am | #
Does anyone remember that skit on SNL where Jimmy Fallon played “Nick Burns, Your Company’s Computer Guy”? Fallon played a smug, obnoxious loser geek computer tech, and that’s exactly who these fucking tech losers posting here are, and we all know it. So do they.
Sadly, these geeks have never dated a women in their lives. Put down the keyboard boys and get a life.
27 Jul 2007 at 08:41 am | #
Glad you had fun with us Rick-now I remember why you are DEAD!
I thought that the issue was resolved…nope-Comcast just started kicking back emails this morning.
I was on the phone yesterday w. CB Wireless- my bill was double. Finds out that they have been forgetting to bill me for tx messages…say what I have tx as part of my plan. After an hour on the phone with the Wireless people- who are in Canada and were very nice- I finally got my bill resolved.
So it just isn’t the internet side of things. I don’t mind being sent to an outsourced company if they speak English and when you ask them where they are they say “India-na”!
My next questions is- how did they get the JD POWERS award for customer service?
27 Jul 2007 at 10:25 am | #
Better be careful what you say about us techs laddies. If you think that a company can be spiteful think about us under appreciated helldesk operators. We know where you hide your pr0n!! Its not as if any of you lusers are all that imaginative or capable. And maybe JD Powers actually knows what is in the realm of possibility. Because most of you don’t understand what us techs are saying let me try explain it carefully. One or more of the people who use Cincinnati Bell were infected by a virus and then were used to send spam to hundreds of other email addresses. This was noted by the other ISP’s and Spamhaus and then the domain, which is the latter part of your email address, was blacklisted. And when that is done it usually takes god himself to get that blacklist removed. If you want to blame anyone for the mass stupidity blame those who let themselves become infected.
27 Jul 2007 at 10:36 am | #
If Fuse got marked SPAM, as CBT claims, why do some messages get through.
Sounds like rate limiting, not blacklisting.
27 Jul 2007 at 10:38 am | #
Geek Squad Losers
By the amount of women I get on a daily basis you’d think I was made of sexy gold.
27 Jul 2007 at 10:40 am | #
The Dean of Cincinnati.
Its because the blocks are listed as “Rate Limiting”.
Which means these providers that are blocking them only allow a certain amount of e-mail per day. So say between 9AM and 10AM they may allow 250 e-mails to go through but then block them again until say 5PM where they may allow 150 to go through. That is rate limiting.
27 Jul 2007 at 01:04 pm | #
I didn’t name my service provider intentionally. I am not selling their service but I can speak to the experience. My experience with Cingular is hundred-fold better than Cincinnati Bell.
Again, it has less to do with technology and EVERYTHING to do with customer service. In the last few months we were with CB, we received a $57 credit for the poor service. When I informed CB that we were going to switch, they added that $57 back on.
With Cingular, we have had two overages and both times Cingular adjusted the plan and reduced the previous bill to meet our needs. They also made other adjustments in our services for text messageing, cell internet and international travel without making us jump through hoops. Plus, I do not believe that we have had any service interruptions with Cingular.
I didn’t care for paying that 57 bucks to CB but it was worth it to rid ourselves of a constant migraine. Now, if only the junk mail to “come back” would cease…
Personally I think that CB needs to get over the idea that they are the only game in town, because they aren’t. This household is living proof of that and I don’t see us going back!
27 Jul 2007 at 05:06 pm | #
Hey I’ve already said that the tech guys at Fuse and CB have helped me beyond the call of duty before and I’ve been nice- but- this is one really stupid issue that I still want to understand- but if you put this in terms of something like healthcare- doesn’t make good business sense.
Here:
OK We have treated 10 chestpains today. 3 were real Heart Attacks, 6 were panic attacks/anxiety attacks, and 1 guy died. So if you are patient #11 that walks in the door, because we had that bad outcome- we can’t treat you?
I’m trying guys and I do take care of my Techie very well when I need him- he gets paid in cash and beer- and I’ve also learned in business- treat the IS & T guys like gold.
And I have- they also run the best Final Four basketball pools.
But this idea of a major company getting blocked is beyond me-
28 Jul 2007 at 01:32 am | #
CBT is not a major company, maybe in Cincinnati they are, but nationally they don’t mean squat. AOL is a major company, TWC is a major, hell even Comcast is, but CBT, unfortunately is not, there are ISPs like them in almost every major market.
28 Jul 2007 at 11:39 am | #
But CBT’s ties to AT&T is there and AT&T isn’t small potatoes. I’ve sent a note to Comcast- Hell I’ll try to play just like you guys said- I’m game for anything at this point!
I’m getting kicked back again this morning after I had 2 good days. Now- if I send it thru my Yahoo account- it seems to get thru.
This is just getting to be a pain…..
28 Jul 2007 at 04:22 pm | #
I took all the techies advice…I logged on to Comcast-since I know the users info- and asked for advice. They sent me a form to fill out concerning the blocked emails-I also did the on line chat with a tech who walked me thru filling out the form.
They service that I got from their Denver service center was great. So we got the form filled out and within 10 minutes- everything was fixed- and I got a followup email from the tech asking to send him an email to see if it worked.
But what a hassle….
01 Aug 2007 at 10:11 am | #
What a bunch of geeks.
Customer who pays Cincy Bell his hard earned money, has a problem, his emails don’t get through. He complains, Cincy Bell doesn’t fix the problem.
And the geeks solution, blame the guy who is paying Cincinnat Bell for a service that isn’t working.
Dean should neither have to know, nor should he care where the source of the problem lies. The problem is the responsibility of Cincinnati Bell. Period.
That is the job of Fuse/Zoomtown, to be a reliable internet service provider, right? And part of that service is the ability to send and receive emails? Right?
And to the clown who said the customer should contact AOL, etc., that is the responsibility of Cincinnati Bell, not the paying customer.
You know the customer, the one who pays your salary.