Ryan, when you agree to offer service, that becomes your responsibility, and when someone is paying for it, they have a reasonable expectation of the service they are paying for. With that said, is it crazy expensive to get a 2 x T-1 where you are? Maybe a T-3 is stupid expensive, but if you even had *some* backup bandwidth available, you may have saved that client. I keep seeing people complain about how they can't sell their wireless service and make any money. In the San Francisco Bay Area, people pay from $250 to $600 per month for a 1.5 - 5 Megabit Business Class Wireless Internet connections, and are generally happy to pay for it as 2 x T-1's tend to run $700 - 1000 per month. With that said, most of those companies have multiple redundant upstreams, and they *rarely* have problems.
Towerstream spells it out on their web page http://www.towerstream.com/index.asp?ref=products_faq Hide Answer Q: Is TowerStream a residential ISP? A: TowerStream is a business internet provider. Our smallest connection is $256 a month; if you need business-class service at your residence, please contact our sales team Ryan Ghering wrote: > Actually we maintain pretty good transparency with our clients, we did let > them know it was a qwest issue, and even went as far as giving the customer > the qwest trouble ticket number if the wanted it. We also updated the > customers each time if we got any ETA information. We NEVER leave the > customer in the dark. Also how is it MY fault that I can't find affordable > redundant upstream? > Where is that cost gona come from? You think my customers are gona pay > double so that I can get a 2nd upstream in here? > Hell no.. Customers only want a few things. As much bandwidth as they can > get, 100 % uptime and it all has to be for 25 bucks a month or less. > > Now thats keeping it real.. > > Nobody can tell me that they honestly will by a 10,000 to 15,000 dollar > secondary pipe if their business won't support it without passing that cost > to the customer. Its not only stupid but bad business. Customers today, > don't care WHO's fault it is, fact is the ISP is blamed for ANY problem. > Hell we have a older couple that blames us everytime that epson updates > drivers for their printer and it stops working, "because the update was done > over my internet". > > Its lets get real time.. If you are a WISP or ISP in BFE. Costs are higher > profit margins are way lower and redundant connections are REALLY costly and > hard to come by. So who loose's here due to LEC stupidity? (which we found > out is what it was btw) the ISP.. We always loose as its always our fault. > No matter what the problem we are at fault. > > Last week we had a major hail storm, Thankfully only a few canopy units were > damaged. However 2 of those customers had the same opinion.. "How come "you" > can't protect these things better. Why do I have to be without service for a > day because "your gear" is made faulty. > > Is this my fault? NO its Motorola's for putting the quality hardware that > never fails that we love so much, in a crappy plastic casing. > > Thats reality.. > > Ryan > > On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 5:33 PM, Tom DeReggi <[email protected]>wrote: > > >> Actually, I disagree with your example. >> >> You let your customer down, not Qwest. >> Did you route them out your secondary transit? If you didn;t have one, >> thats >> not the customer's faught. >> Did you let him know that you are trying to contact Quest yourself to get >> more information on an ETA, and influence a work around? >> Did he feel you were in control of the situation? Or did you leave him to >> fend for himself, even though you were the expert on the technology? >> >> Sending the message, "oh well, its down, not my problem, let all my own >> customers suffer, so what" is not taking care of your clients. >> If you had communicated with your client making him feel like you were >> working towards defending his interests, he never would have took action >> into his own hands and called Qwest directly to investigate further, and >> get >> false answers. >> >> So yes, Customers can be irrational, often unfair and unforgiving, but if >> you want to keep your clients its up to you to deal with it and take care >> of >> them. >> Who's faught it is, is irrelevent. Customer Service is about taking care of >> the customer. >> >> I just lost a customer 2 weeks ago. Power went out AGAIN! It keeps blowing >> breakers on electrical panels not under my controll or access. I can put >> UPSes there all day, but that does no good if breakers turn off upstream of >> my electrical Demarc. But DSL, CABLE, and Cellular EVDO didn't go out >> every >> time the property had power failures. It was my faught that I designed a >> business install to be behind an electric breaker that was outside my >> control to manage. If I did my job and took care of the client, I would >> have called the power company or property management and redesign an >> alternate solution, after the first couple of times the power went out. >> But >> I didn't. Yes, I lost the client, and yes, it was my fault. Blaiming it >> on >> the Power Company didn't work for long. >> >> Just keeping it real. >> >> Tom DeReggi >> RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc >> IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband >> >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Ryan Ghering" <[email protected]> >> To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]> >> Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 10:22 AM >> Subject: Re: [WISPA] Are customers increasingly clueless? Or is >> itgettingbetter? >> >> >> >>> Yesterday, we had a long term upstream outage. Someone in Qwest killed >>> >> our >> >>> ATM upstream and somehow we were getting crosstalk to another ATM PVC. >>> (Don't ask nobody can tell me how this was done). >>> >>> In the mean time customers are calling us screaming that they need their >>> net. Our staff politely informs them all day long that this isn't a issue >>> with us, its upstream. Some customers accept that and move on for the >>> >> day. >> >>> However the kicker!! One of our customers which is a dedicated 3 meg >>> >> calls >> >>> up and asks, "Are you down" I say yes at this time the internet is down >>> due >>> to a problem with qwest in Denver. The customer says "ok, do you have an >>> ETA?" I tell him no not at this time the problem is with qwest not with >>> us. >>> Customer says "ok thanks" and hangs up. >>> >>> Not 20 minutes later I get a phone call from the customer, he's mad as >>> hell >>> and spitting nails. I only caught about 1/2 of what he had said. But it >>> sounded like. "Your a damn lier, I call qwest, they have NO issues >>> anywhere. >>> I want my ****** Net or you can kiss my account goodbye a**hole.." >>> >>> Then he hangs up. ( mind you this is a business customer ) >>> >>> I call him back about an hour later and he says he's canceled. And will >>> get >>> service from somewhere else. >>> >>> How can this be? How was this my fault? >>> >>> Customers are irrational and stupid.. Agreed. lol.... >>> >>> >>> Ryan >>> >>> On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 1:58 AM, Marlon K. Schafer >>> <[email protected]>wrote: >>> >>> >>>> roflol >>>> >>>> Rick this is a GOOD thing.... Your customers call you for all problems >>>> because YOU WILL ANSWER THE PHONE!!!!!! >>>> >>>> Sometimes great service levels suck. lol >>>> marlon >>>> >>>> ----- Original Message ----- >>>> From: "Rick Kunze" <[email protected]> >>>> To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]> >>>> Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 5:40 PM >>>> Subject: [WISPA] Are customers increasingly clueless? Or is it >>>> gettingbetter? >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>>> Customer calls just now. They ask if the Internet is "having >>>>> >> trouble", >> >>>>> I reply that there are no outages. She then says she called a couple >>>>> of >>>>> her friends in neighboring towns and they were all down too. She asks >>>>> if any other people have called today with problems. I replied >>>>> >> stating >> >>>>> that a day doesn't go by without someone calling with such an issue >>>>> etc. >>>>> >>>>> I ask her for some details, "any message on the screen?" She says >>>>> >> that >> >>>>> a message popped up that said, "No Input". I thought to myself for a >>>>> minute and replied, "I'm unaware of any Windows message that says >>>>> that." >>>>> I asked, "This is in Explorer"? She said, "No, she can't get >>>>> >> Explorer >> >>>>> to run, nothing will run, the monitor is dark and a small message on >>>>> the >>>>> blank screen says "No Input." >>>>> >>>>> I would have thought that by now more of the general public would be >>>>> starting to figure some of this out. It's discouraging to me that >>>>> >> such >> >>>>> an obvious hardware issue resulted in a call to see if the Internet is >>>>> down. >>>>> >>>>> Rk <-------- slapping self in forehead! >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >>>>> WISPA Wants You! Join today! >>>>> http://signup.wispa.org/ >>>>> >>>>> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >>>>> WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] >>>>> >>>>> Subscribe/Unsubscribe: >>>>> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless >>>>> >>>>> Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >>>> WISPA Wants You! Join today! >>>> http://signup.wispa.org/ >>>> >>>> >>>> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >>>> WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] >>>> >>>> Subscribe/Unsubscribe: >>>> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless >>>> >>>> Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >>> WISPA Wants You! Join today! >>> http://signup.wispa.org/ >>> >>> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >>> WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] >>> >>> Subscribe/Unsubscribe: >>> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless >>> >>> Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ >>> >> >> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> WISPA Wants You! Join today! >> http://signup.wispa.org/ >> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] >> >> Subscribe/Unsubscribe: >> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless >> >> Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ >> >> > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! 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