Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!texbell!vector!chinacat!telecom-gateway From: gutierre@nsipo.arc.nasa.gov (Robert Michael Gutierrez) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: AT&T Operator Handling of International DA Message-ID: Date: 29 Nov 89 16:27:05 GMT Sender: news@chinacat.Lonestar.ORG Reply-To: Robert Michael Gutierrez Organization: NASA Science Internet Project Office Lines: 165 Approved: telecom-request@chinacat.lonestar.org X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 537, message 1 of 3 Patrick Townsend, telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) writes: >I never cease to be amazed at the careless and sometimes ignorant >handling of international calls for directory assistance by AT&T >Operators. [...] >Is there anyone here besides me old enough to remember White Plains, >NY and the well-trained operators who handled international traffic in >the 1950 - 1960 period? I remember them from a call to Italy in 1974. Wern't they around as recent as 1983? I seem to remember a call attempt through a local TSPS operator who called N.Y. to attempt also. > **Getting the phone number is ninety percent of the battle!** >Directory Assistance in some countries -- India comes to mind -- is >the absolute pits. Compound that with what passes for an AT&T Operator >these days, and thirty minutes can easily pass just getting the >number! >No two operators handle it the same way: some insist on making twice >the work, by requiring me to give them all the details of the person >or business I am trying to reach........... I think that was courtesy of us at MCI who also used AT&T to reach Intl. DA. As a matter of fact, we had 'special lines' to do that with. 'Special Lines' meaning that we had some local POTS lines with AT&T as the primary carrier, so that some TSPS/TOPS operator didn't ask the usual 'Is AT&T Your Primary Carrier???' when our number displayed on her console with the notation that we otherwise would have dialed via 10288+ >times for them. Then, and only then, they try to reach Delhi, only to >dial three times, and three times in a row get the response, 'your >international call cannot be completed at this time in the country you >are calling',............ I do remember it was amusing that when MCI got so-called 'World-Wide Calling', I would get AT&T's tandem recording ('415-4T') when the call would not make it. We were told that we were using Megacom lines to pass international traffic that we didn't have direct or transit lines for, but our customers didn't know that! >Tuesday night I spent 27 minutes, with *seven different attempts* >trying to get DA in Delhi. One operator attempted six times, and six >times in a row got intercepted with 'your call cannot be completed as >dialed', which she insisted to me meant all circuits were busy........ You HAVE to remember the country that you're calling!!! Even when we got transit lines to India (through Italy, I think), it was still the same, 90 percent blockage and the worst lines I could ever think of. I thought FTS lines without echo-cancellers were bad, but try to do international lines with no E/C's!!! Like talking into a 1000 mile tin can........ (FTS = Federal Telecommuncations System) >another operator did finally get a circuit to Delhi, and had collected >all the information from me after several painful attempts, she sat >there screaming at Delhi to the point it became an embarassment to me: >'Hello New Delhi! This is the United States!!!! We want Directory >Assistance!!!!! Hello, can you hear me!!!!!!!!!!!!'......... I have nothing but sympathy for you. Unfortunately, it's a fact of life in India. >And this is not a rare occurance. It is a daily thing for me. AT&T >wants to be a leader in international calls, yet there is no provision >for direct-dial directory assistance;.................. I thought I'd NEVER see the day I'd be defending AT&T, BUT GUESS WHAT..... How CAN you have direct dial Intl DA??? For maybe a few countries that could handle the traffic, fine. But then you have the problem of the other countries that cannot speak good English, have poor lines (which would cause the customer to hang up and re-try, causing more congestion), callers who just want some number with no intention of calling the number in question, etc. You just can't do it right now. Now, if you had an electronic database available between telcos/post offices, this conversation would be moot. >.................................... many operators are very poorly >trained, and the customer is always wrong and knows nothing of what he >speaks. Do any operators speak a second language? No! Do any realize >how phone systems work in other countries? No! Right on the mark. But remember your key words there: "Very poorly trained"..... Where do you think the cutbacks started when AT&T started losing the market??? It's really didn't take that much to learn a TSPS position, and now the new TOPS positions, everything is available on the keyboard in front of the operator. At least this was probably the thinking when the training budgets were chopped..... >Why did they get rid of the White Plains international operators >several years ago? Why did they dispense with Pittsburg a few years >ago? When I worked the 4 short (fortunately!) months at MCI customer service in San Francisco, one of the first things I did was to compile a list of the other countries DA numbers, and call them directly, and I didn't interrogate the customer first for name, rank, and serial number. Even though I did hate customer service, it was no reason to take it out on the callers, and nosy supervisors made sure of that. >And if I wrote a letter of complaint tomorrow to the Chairman I would >receive back a reply in a few days; not from the Chairman, mind you, >but from some highly-placed flunky authorized to respond in his name, >thanking me and apologizing. And what would change? Nothing! For the average person, unfortunately, yes. You, on the other hand, should know by now that probably he's on attmail somewhere, just like Bill McGowan is on MCI Mail, and probably US Sprint's CEO is on Telemail. >Yet AT&T keeps wondering why their long-time customers are abandoning >them in droves. Maybe they could reverse the trend if they would take >the people in the front ranks -- the people who deal with customers >day in and day out -- the operators and service representatives -- and >train them properly. At least that would be a start. I believe that is not only a start, it should not have gotten to this point to begin with. Remember, that when you get an AT&T operator on line, and the operator has an attitude problem, he/she is representing AT&T, and I would take it as the actual attitude of the company he/she is representing, and a letter so worded to the local Customer Service Director or VP would probably be listened to a lot more closely (with CC:'s noted in the letter to the usual telco publications like Communcations Week). Remember, CEO's are only worried about the future of the companies, but local Directors/VP's are more worried about day-to-day operations and looking good to get out of those positions (ie: Promotions). Can You Say 'Disclaimer'??? I knew you could...... I SPEAK ONLY FOR MYSELF!!! | Robert Gutierrez -- NSI Network Ops Center | | NASA Science Internet Project, Bldg 233-8, Moffett Field, CA. 94035-5000 | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------| |"I want some......I need some......Emotion.....And More........" (a song) | [Moderator's Note: Thank you for your remarks. A brief response is in order: Like Oscar Wilde, I could care less what is said about me in the [electronic] papers as long as they spell my name correctly. It suffixes with 'son'; not 'send'. The way to implement and administer DA on an international basis is the way it is done here in the USA: Dial country code + city code + 555-1212. Let the gateway switches translate that into an actual number, just as '6ll', '411', '911' and '800-xxx-yyyy' are presently translated into whatever number(s) they ring into. Overseas points with 800 service from the USA are handled this way. Somehow the other end even overcomes the language barrier when speaking with Americans. To prevent abuse, bill these calls like any other DA: Allow one or two free each month or allow the DA call free if an actual call is made to the same country and city code within the same billing cycle. To further prevent abuse, when answer is detected at the distant end, play a recorded message at the operator, first in English and second in the predominant language of that country: 'Operator, United States calling for Directory Enquiry Only! Do not extend the caller! Do not connect the caller!' Charge for anything over the free allotment of DA calls. MCI screwed up the concept of free long distance DA in this country, AT&T might as well charge for overseas DA as well after the freebies are used each month. Generate an Exceptions Report for review in the Security Department of international DA calls lasting over two or three minutes, or maybe over ten minutes in the case of India, Hong Kong and a couple others. You tell me why it wouldn't work. PT]