mobbo
join:2005-04-13
Denton, TX | AT&T Culture? I never have a good feeling when I see AT&T is working on capacity, cell towers, backhaul, etc. In my experience, AT&T project managers are incredibly incompetent. Our company's office needed an upgrade of our existing phone system...pretty simple job considering all the equipment was there already. We had missed appointments, lost upgrade equipment, "miscommunications" about when techs needed to be there, flat out missed one Saturday appointment which was my ONE weekend off that month.
Their project structure is incredibly inefficient and redundant. Multiple chains-of-command, VP's all over the place, field supervisors, etc. They finally got our measley phone system installed (half-assed job by the way) after 5 months!!! I'm still cleaning up the piss-poor wiring jobs they did. Boxes left all over the place. They gave us no passwords for maintenance. No phone numbers/acct. #'s for support calls. I finally had to have a damn conference call with some VP just to get that info!!
If the same people are incharge of building out new capacity, towers, etc... I can't imagine the clusterf*** of miscommunication occuring at the moment. It must be EPIC! But they don't care. They're union. They'll get their paycheck.
And they can't "trim" the workforce because they're all union. |
|
| said by mobbo:I never have a good feeling when I see AT&T is working on capacity, cell towers, backhaul, etc. In my experience, AT&T project managers are incredibly incompetent. Our company's office needed an upgrade of our existing phone system...pretty simple job considering all the equipment was there already. We had missed appointments, lost upgrade equipment, "miscommunications" about when techs needed to be there, flat out missed one Saturday appointment which was my ONE weekend off that month. Their project structure is incredibly inefficient and redundant. Multiple chains-of-command, VP's all over the place, field supervisors, etc. They finally got our measley phone system installed (half-assed job by the way) after 5 months!!! I'm still cleaning up the piss-poor wiring jobs they did. Boxes left all over the place. They gave us no passwords for maintenance. No phone numbers/acct. #'s for support calls. I finally had to have a damn conference call with some VP just to get that info!! If the same people are incharge of building out new capacity, towers, etc... I can't imagine the clusterf*** of miscommunication occuring at the moment. It must be EPIC! But they don't care. They're union. They'll get their paycheck. And they can't "trim" the workforce because they're all union. That describes AT&T business services to a tee. I'd rather stick tin cans together or just hire a local business telecom outfit that knows what the hell they are doing. Only big businesses or very, very small ones use AT&T. I can say Pensacola has seen Cox take away 50% or more of all AT&T's business especially residential. I know only 1 person who hasn't dumped AT&T at his residence. |
|
mobbo
join:2005-04-13
Denton, TX | Trust me...I would have NEVER gone with AT&T if it had been my decision. The upgrade was already in the beginning stages when I was hired on. I would have BEGGED to go with a smaller local company, but I had no pull at the time. Working for AT&T must be a very frustrating job. You have 100 VP's and supervisors over you and so many stupid procedures, you can't get anything done!! I imagine after a while you just give up. That was the vibe I got from all the AT&T techs that came to work on our project. They just didn't give a shit. They probably used to care...but it had been beaten out of them after years of stupid corporate crap. |
|
| reply to mobbo
With all respect the majority of the employees you spoke of, project managers, VPs, field supervisors, are by definition non-union.  |
|
| reply to mobbo
Yet you continue to do business with them. If you keep paying and stay a customer they will think nothing is wrong. The only thing they pay attention to is revenue. If revenue were to start dropping someone would notice. If revenue keeps going up then they think they are doing something right. |
|
|
|
 VanPremium
join:2009-07-08
New Orleans, LA | Depends on whether the person has another viable alternative
I attack certain services that I own. In some cases, I am unhappy but not ENOUGH to warrant changing...in others, I just don't have the time/energy to switch
I wish it were easy enough to just flip a switch and change but some companies don't make it that simple and easy |
|
| By the sounds of what he has there are alternatives. |
|
mobbo
join:2005-04-13
Denton, TX
1 edit | reply to battleop
This is at the company and I am not in the position to make such a decision (to switch). I'm a lowly SysAdmin  I also think our company signed an agreement. Again, I don't have a corner office, so I can't jump ship...not my call. Believe me, if I could, I would do it in a heartbeat.
On a related note, I did convince the CFO to drop AT&T as our wireless provider I was happy about that. Verizon (in this area at least) is soooo much better when it comes to cell/wireless. |
|
| reply to mobbo
said by mobbo:Trust me...I would have NEVER gone with AT&T if it had been my decision. The upgrade was already in the beginning stages when I was hired on. I would have BEGGED to go with a smaller local company, but I had no pull at the time. Working for AT&T must be a very frustrating job. You have 100 VP's and supervisors over you and so many stupid procedures, you can't get anything done!! I imagine after a while you just give up. That was the vibe I got from all the AT&T techs that came to work on our project. They just didn't give a shit. They probably used to care...but it had been beaten out of them after years of stupid corporate crap. It is corporate that doesn't care. You probably got some techs that were residential that all the sudden were business techs. Corporate tells them, "Finish this job in x hours or you get written up." They have all kinds of "rules" saying x job can be done in x amount of time that is like half the time required.
I know they ruined BellSouth techs here with those rules. Getting threatened to be fired everyday eventually does make them cut corners. Some are smart and say, "Here's my cell. Call me if it doesn't work." Why? Repeater calls can also get them fired since the company didn't give them time to fix it right in the first place.
The tech I had almost fell over when he say a 4-line jack in my house. A retired tech put them in. But, they put the DSL on the wrong line. I was pulling 4 down on a 1.5 line so told him to leave it alone. He was grateful. His job lasted 15 mins that should've took 1 hour.
Trust me, corporate is the problem. If they let the techs decide how long jobs should take, they'd fix it right the first time. And their supervisors (former techs) know it but the idiot over them doesn't care. Numbers, numbers, numbers. That is why customer service at most companies is in the toilet. Let's sell them something else they don't need instead of fixing the problem.
Funny, a WalMart moves in and they have a team that connects everything from some T-1 or T-3 lines. One I knew said they wired it during construction and once the T-1s were lit, voila! And, their CC machines go through a satellite. Never seen a faster CC machine. |
|
