From: Sunil Pillai
Newsgroups: tmnet.communities
Subject: Newsgroups down
Date: Mon, 01 May 2006 14:15:15 +0800

Let this be on record here…

Sun 30 Apr 2006

The tmnet newsgroups seems to have been down since some time yesterday. I called 9515 today to ask about it.

The conversation goes something like this:

Me: I want to find out if the tmnet newsgroups are not working, since I cannot access it.
[… usual request for name, username etc etc ..]
Support: Hold on, I will check.
Support; You are using your browser?
Me: No, I am using FreeAgent newsreader
Support: So you cannot access the E-News (or E-Browse) news
Me: No, not the online news. The tmnet newsgroups.  Like tmnet.communities, tmnet.marketplace
Support: What are you using?
Me: FreeAgent… Do you know what newsgroups are?
Support: No
Me: Pass me to someone who does… pass me to your supervisor.
Support: Hold on
[… supervisor comes on the line, introduction etc…]
Supervisor: So you are trying news.tm.net.my right? It is taking very long for it to load here also.
Me: It is not taking long to load, it does not load at all.
Me: Don’t your people know what newsgroups are?
Supervisor: That is under tmnet, not Streamyx
Me: What?
Supervisor: Did you call 1515?
Me: What for? 1515 is for dialup, right. I am a Streamyx user. I call 9515 for problems. Anyway, isn’t it all under tmnet?
Supervisor: Yes, I will check on this and call you back.
[… taking down details etc…]
Me: It is disgraceful that you are providing Internet services and your people don’t even know what newsgroups are.
Supervisor: I will bring this up to the relevant people.
Me: Ok, please call me at 2pm.
[…3pm, I call again, supervisor out for lunch…]
[…4pm, I call again..]
Supervisor: Technical says its is congestion and so it is very slow.
Me: It is not slow, it cannot be accessed.
Supervisor: You can ping the server, so it is working.
Me: Just because you can ping the server does not mean that the service is working. What are your technical people doing about this?
Supervisor: Did you call the Product dept?
Me: What product dep?
Supervisor: 1500.
Me: Ie don’t know that number. Since I’m a Streamyx user, I call 9515.
Supervisor: That number is for products and services. We deal with connection etc.
Me: Ok, I’ll try.

[… I call 1500…]
20 mins or so spent on talking to a couple of people who don’t seem to understand the problem. Asking me which browser I use, whether I am using Outlook Express etc. I say I am using FreeAgent newsgroup reader. What address am I using to connect? Well, news.tm.net.my to access the server. No, no that is the setting, hold on, blah blah blah. I am finally told to call 9515 and ask for technical on Tuesday because tomorow is a holiday. I can at least understand that the 1500 is for products and services, and they are not for technical problem. Why did the 9515 supervisor ask me to call them in the first place?

[… I call 9515…]
I ask for technical or the manager. After about 30 mins on the phone, 20 mins of which I listened to the on-hold music and after listening to some nonsense about webmail and another user having same problem of not receiving email etc etc, I finally get my demand of speaking to the manager.

The manager was much better and after telling him the above and that his people needed to be educated on the services they are supposed to be providing, I ask him what  the problem is. He had already emailed the relevant depts and they say it is some network issue etc etc.

It took me 6 hours for someone to finally give me a sensible anser. These are VADS call center personnel being outsourced by TMNet. I wonder how much are the charges, because anything is too much for the poor level of support that is being provided.

The manager says he will call me back if there is any update as he is on duty till midnight. I don’t hear anything from anyone…

Mon 01 May 2006

I call 9515 again. Is there any progress. I have to speak to the support again and be put on hold again. The same old thing. I request to speak to the supervisor. A different one this time. Yes, they have the report, but it appears nothing has been done. No one can tell me what the problem is or how long it will take to fix. They will check with the manager’s report from the previous night  and see what can be done.

All this while I keep saying to let me speak to a real technical person who can understand what the problem is and can get it fixed. No amount of reports etc going up and down is of any use if it is not sent to the right person.

The supervisor said that he will contact the technical department and someone will call me back shortly. At 1pm, another supervisor calls me. I explain everything again. I ask again to talk to a technical person. I tell the supervisor what the problem is. Just get a tehnical person to check the news.tm.net.my server. This supervisor tells me that the technical depart will contact me soon.

During all these explanations of the newsgroup problem, I have been asked what browser I use, do I use Outlook Express, about webmail, e-news, BlueHyppo etc etc. It really appears that they don’t know what newsgroups are.

I spoke to 9 different people…., I only needed to speak to 1 correct technical person and this would have been resolved. But the support has got a fantastic firewall to prevent us from getting through to the right person…

I have just received a call from a technical person asking me whether it is working. Yes, it is. It started working about 2pm or so. So, their technical department must have finally got around to fixing the problem.

Well, at least now there are 10 people in the support who have heard of newsgroups, who now know of the existance of a TMNet news server….