Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: gutierre@noc.arc.nasa.gov (Robert Michael Gutierrez) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: MCI as Slamming King Message-ID: <12465@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 23 Sep 90 05:54:01 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Robert Michael Gutierrez Organization: NASA Science Internet - Network Operations Center Lines: 87 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 669, Message 1 of 9 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (David Tamkin) writes: |> Tom Ohmer [O] and Chris Johnson [J] wrote in volume 10, issue 659: |> O> My apartment-mate got involved in that pyramid company from |> O> Michigan. They had a `deal' of some kind for him to use MCI. I |> O> found out about it by accident... |> O> I called MCI Customer `Service' and they told me I had requested |> O> the switch. "No, I did not." "Aren't you ?" "No." |> Robert Michael Gutierrez is the local expert on these matters, but |> I'll venture a theory: Tom's apartment-mate wanted MCI 1+ on his own |> line but 10222 access to his own MCI account if he should need to |> place a long-distance call from Tom's line,.... I agree with this theory, but unfortunately, there are a number of customer service reps who don't know how to implement this theory. All customer service reps are trained in a two week class, and in that two week class, about one semester's worth of Telecomm 101 is shoved down their throat, and three days is left to use the CICS-VS system MCI uses on their IBM 3090's. (The specific CICS system was named OCIS [On-Line Customer Information System]). Even for me, coming from a totally different computing environment and never having used an IBM 3270 terminal, it was difficult (I caught on the telecomm part real easily). Let's face it, customer service is there for one purpose only in any industry, to hold people's hands. Comprehensive training to use the equipment is secondary. Most of the customer service new-hires always end up getting trained by their next-door cubicle neighbors, not in the training class. And the new-hire, with 30+ calls on hold, isn't going to go run off to find his/her manager or "group leader" for something he or she does not understand. He or she is going to take a guess. Personally, I'd ask the rep how long they have been working there. Over three months would be a minimum. Six months to one year is preferable. Over one year is considered an "old-timer", and is rare in their Customer Service Department. |> J> A few years ago, MCI changed my dial 1+ long distance service from |> J> AT&T (my selection) to themselves, against my wishes.... |> J> The other day, I received a letter in the mail from MCI saying welcome |> J> to MCI's 1+ service. Wait, I thought, didn't I speak to an MCI |> J> telemarketer a month or so ago, asked to speak with their supervisor, |> J> and explicitly told him NOT TO CHANGE ONE THING? Yes, in fact I did. |> J> Those jerks told U.S. West to change my service from AT&T to MCI |> J> again, without my permission. Can you tell that I'm annoyed? |> Ohio Bell accepts MCI's slam on Tom Ohmer, US West Communications |> accepts it on Chris Johnson, Illinois Bell accepts it on my parents, |> NJ Bell and Pac*Bell let IEC's slam other readers and their acquain- |> tances:.... [etc] All done on mag tape. Nameless and faceless. No amount of "tag my LEC account *never* to accept changes from an IEC (L.D. Company) concerning my PIC (Primary Interexchange Carrier, or L.D. company)" wil ever help anybody in the U.S. of A. All that is done is a "note" is entered on your account ... three whole lines that a rep can enter into your account ... anything can be entered (like "Customer is a 5150"* [see note below]) etc ... but the computer could care less about those notes. It still will merrily process the PIC change off the mag tape. Computers out of control: This should be a comp.risks issue, really. A telemarketer sets off a chain of computer events that is vurtually unstoppable. Only the hapless customers get to clear the aftermath ... or at least try. Robert Michael Gutierrez Office of Space Science and Applications, NASA Science Internet - Network Operations Center. Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. (Footnote: "5150" is the Welfare and Institutions code that gives the State of California power to incarcerate anybody found to "mentally unstable", and is the official California Highway Patrol code for "Mental Case". "5150" designations were used liberally at MCI at one period in time until they got nervous about it.)