Jim Dixon a �crit:
> ISPA UK first heard of these people when they demanded that we tell
> our ISP members that they had to email CR-CL literature to all of their
> customers. I know what most of our members would tell the ISPA board
> if we tried to impose such a requirement. With my VBCnet hat on, I know
> what I would tell ISPA: we don't spam our customers or demand that they
> spam theirs.
>
> So ISPA declined the opportunity and CR-CL went off to dream up other
> schemes.
Well, perhaps the news story was misleading. But the intentions of it were
correct: the end-users aren't being fairly represented. Their own fault, no
doubt. But that doesn't alter the fact that ISPs can't speak for them.
> The larger UK dialup ISPs have on the order of 100 support staff handling
> thousands of support calls each day. How many end users did you listen
> to yesterday, Michael?
Everyone I know personally is an end-user, since I'm not involved with
Internet infrastructure people. So perhaps on the order of ten to twenty a
day. Except when I go to community meetings, when I'm with two or three
hundred end-users.
But that's not the point, is it? If I may make a not altogether useful
comparison, it's like the situation between stockbrokers and their clients.
In dealing with the upstream provider (in this case, the market-makers for
stocks and bonds), the stockbroker is the client's representative, and must
try to get him the best deal. But when the broker turns around and sells
what he's gotten to the client, or when he's selling something that the
brokerage firm is the pincipal dealer of, the broker represents only the
brokerage, and the client can't expect the broker to be on his side in the
transaction. Even when the broker is the intermediary in a transaction, he
often gets a side deal on a buy or sell, so that he has an automatic
conflict of interest, and can no longer make the deal "in the best interests
of the client". That's why there are ten thousand arbitrations and lawsuits
between clients and brokers on the books each year. It's the same with ISPs
and their customers, except that, because there are no laws yet, there's
nowhere for the client to go for redress. he has to simply shuffle from ISP
to ISP, hunting for an honest break, which he rarely gets.
I have had five ISPs, and I have never gotten the service I was promised
before I paid my bill for the year. Every end-user I know has the same story
to tell.
