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UK_Dave
join:2011-01-27
Powassan, ON

UK_Dave to OneWorld9

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to OneWorld9

Re: TekSavvy - glorified reseller, not ISP

"+1 ... announcements like this and others will a) show they know what's going on, and b) prevent a lot of wasted time troubleshooting, etc. Granted, power is a lot simpler to troubleshoot than your ISP connection, but TekSavvy needs to work towards that kind of knowledge of their customers' connections (at least from the network side)."

--------------------

Sure. I add it only as an example - fully aware that although many might see it as a the "Gold Standard", some would refer to it as the "Industry Gold Standard".

Different industry needs different approach maybe?

TSI Marc
Premium Member
join:2006-06-23
Chatham, ON

1 edit

TSI Marc to NightMayor

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to NightMayor
said by NightMayor:

I also agree with this. Communication is always key. I think the problem though is that the general public thought just because UBB is gone all our internet problems are solved. So yeah, there needs to be another uprising of sorts, rioting is a little extreme IMHO.

It's simple really and it's that UBB is far from gone. There is more regulatory activity right now than ever. Many issues are being held up because UBB wasn't dealt with properly the first time around. I agree we all need to get on the same page but we're too busy arguing about support issues while the whole forest is on fire.
bbiab
join:2004-05-26

bbiab

Member

I think most knowledgeable customers appreciate TSI's position and effort Marc.

sbrook
Mod
join:2001-12-14
Ottawa

sbrook to OneWorld9

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to OneWorld9
said by OneWorld9:

+1 ... announcements like this and others will a) show they know what's going on, and b) prevent a lot of wasted time troubleshooting, etc. Granted, power is a lot simpler to troubleshoot than your ISP connection, but TekSavvy needs to work towards that kind of knowledge of their customers' connections (at least from the network side).

Short of pinging all their customers on a routine basis ... which means they have to be told by Rogers who's been assigned what IP, there's no way that TSI can tell who's having problems. Supply side monitoring is very very difficult. Rogers won't in any hurry provide access to their DHCP service to implement supply side monitoring.

Electric power companies also tend to rely on client side monitoring too and as a result the delays tend to result in cascade failures like the Ontario outage a few years back. Supply side monitoring is far more common at the power distribution level in Europe so cascade failures are far less common, but that requires more infrastructure that it would be very costly to implement in an internet environment.

The other problem with supply side monitoring is the tin-foil-hat folk will start up with "What's my ISP doing probing my system ever hour every day? They're spying on us."

TSI Marc
Premium Member
join:2006-06-23
Chatham, ON

TSI Marc to bbiab

Premium Member

to bbiab
that's good. maybe I take these things too personally.

NightMayor
join:2010-04-28
York, ON

1 edit

NightMayor

Member

I'm pretty sure all of us here really appreciate you guys reading our replies and suggestions.

You have to understand though, we can't share something that most of us don't know exist. That's why there's all this confusion of not knowing where to go to find service advisories. So I don't agree that we are spoiled, just uninformed. This is part of the communication problem some of us are suggesting needs to be fixed.

In any case, here's follower 87!

BronsCon
join:2003-10-24
Fairfield, CA

BronsCon to OneWorld9

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said by OneWorld9:

Throughout the past two months of troubleshooting my issue with TekSavvy, they requested I submit various logs to them, including ping, tracert, etc. Each time, gathering those logs took me approx. 45 mins. or longer. I am well-versed on how to run these DOS commands and gather the logs. If this is what TekSavvy requires to open tickets with Rogers for support, all of this could have been automated.

TSI Agent: Okay, I'm going to need you to run the TekDiagnostic utility, which was sent to you on CD-ROM when you first signed up for service. Leave it running and when the problem occurs, it will automatically send us the information we need.

Customer: Oh. I lost that CD a long time ago...

TSI Agent: That's okay, it can be downloaded fro...[cut off by customer]

Customer: Downloaded? My connection isn't working, how the f am I supposed to download it?

---

Yes, I know that my hypothetical customer can download it at work or a friend or neighbor's house or whatever, but what good is that if they're on the phone with the tech *right then* and the issue is occurring *right then*?

This isn't the right solution to this problem. A lot os ISPs here in the US tried using tools like this a few years back. The sent out CDs with propaganda strongly insinuating that your connection would stop working eventually if you did not install them, so customers would have them already installed when the time came. The problems came when some inquisitive minds who knew better picked apart at what the tools actually did and when it was found that the tools tracked user actions and connection metrics and sent data back to the ISP (it didn't matter that they only did this when the user requested it), the backlash was huge. Well, except for Comcast, whose tools constantly collected data, though they still only sent it upon request...

So, I guess, in answer to my own question about why other ISPs don't use such tools... ^-- This. On top of causing customer backlash, they were next to useless because most of the time when there was an issue there was no way to get the data from the tool to the ISP.

Today, such software is limited to pinging a few sites, running you through a "check your cables, reboot your computer and modem, then run this again" process, and returning a "your connection appears fine" or a "there is a problem with your connection, please call [ISP] at [phone number] for assistance". They're nothing like the almost useful tools you describe, which were attempted in the past.

The best bet is something like Line Monitor (which you're already using) which pings the customer's IP repeatedly, but that also requires that either the user's modem is acting as their router and is configured to respond to ping, the modem is in bridge mode and the user's router is configured to respond to ping, or the user's modem is in bridge mode with no router and their computer isn't running firewall software that drops ping requests. It also requires the user to know their IP address. Anyone who could make that tool work in cases where it won't work by default (and most who know how who look up their own IP address) will already know how to run a traceroute and ping a site. Also, you can bet you ass that TSI is monitoring lines that have trouble tickets open; whether or not the front line reps have access to this monitoring is another issue and if they don't, they should.
said by OneWorld9:

Therein lies the essence of my thread in the first place. If customers will not accept a subpar service, it needs to change.

Therein lies the basis for the text you are quoting. If customers want the landscape to change, they have to do something to enact that change. TSI wants it toi change, as well, but if you actually read everything I wrote, you'll see what TSI simply wanting it to change, knowing what needs to be done, negotiating their asses off, and wishing for the best ain't gonna do it. Customers need to flee the incumbents in droves, making TPIA the incumbents' primary income source (or at least *A* primary source) before the incumbents will play ball. Now that I've stated it 3 different ways, do you see the problem with what you're expecting? You're right to expect it, but you're wrong if you think it's possible without external pressure in the form of customers leaving the incumbents and showing that they're willing to suffer a small war to change things.
said by OneWorld9:

When they also go so far as to ask the customer to waste a lot of time performing troubleshooting when they themselves have not ruled out a network issue (which is their responsibility), they do indeed need to make things right. Whatever losses they may incur as a result, that's solely because of their current processes and procedures. If they want someone like myself to troubleshoot for them, they can put me on their payroll.

You haven't called tech support at, or requested a credit from, a first-party provider in a while, have you? It's pretty standard practice. The fact remains that when the issue is caused by Tek, they typically do offer a credit or refund. However, to offer credits or refunds to every dissatisfied customer, on the scale you're suggesting, would put them out of business; the incumbents, who run on much fatter profit margins, don't even do this, because they also could not afford to do so and stay in business. Reasonable to expect? Arguably. Possible within the realm of reality? No.
said by OneWorld9:

I'm not disputing it's a terrible situation for any TPIA to be in. However, they clearly want to compete with the incumbents as a "better service". I joined TekSavvy with this impression. My experience being otherwise, I'm sharing that it isn't (which some people have appreciated). They have offered to make things right, so I'm giving them that chance.

They want to compete with the incumbents as a "better service offering", where "service" is "internet" and "offering" is "speed and/or usage limits". If they offer you neither better speeds nor higher caps than their competitors, then they have indeed failed at that for you.

I understand (and also appreciate) that you are here to share your story, so that others know that these things happen. It is important that people do this, to help weed out bad providers. It's equally important that people like myself, and others on these forums, post additional information to support a good provider like TSI (regardless of your personal opinion, if you compare all the details of your other options, I'm confident you'll come around to my view, which is likely why you're giving them a chance to fix it rather than jumping to someone better). That's the metric by which you can judge customer satisfaction. If nobody's bothering to post in support of the provider, they must truly be terrible; well, here we are showing our support.

Of course TSI is trying to make things right; they always do. Yes, it may take some time and often it takes something like this thread to bring a particular issue to the attention of the higher-ups, and that is unfortunate. Something does need to be done about it, and I have a few suggestions for fixing this issue, which I'll discuss, via PM, with a certain of their higher-ups who had shown an interest in another of my ideas.
BronsCon

BronsCon to TSI Marc

Member

to TSI Marc

Re: Welcome to Dystopia

said by TSI Marc:

like... how much more can we possibly put it out there? It's almost like you guys are spoiled and you dont even know it anymore.

I'd just like to point out that the is one of the tongue-in-cheek comments those of us who've been on these forums for years have come to love. It shouldn't be taken as harshly as it's worded and Marc needs to be reminded that sarcasm doesn't come through in text.

TSI Marc
Premium Member
join:2006-06-23
Chatham, ON

TSI Marc to NightMayor

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to NightMayor

Re: TekSavvy - glorified reseller, not ISP

that's very fair. mostly I feel that everybody is supportive and honestly voicing their opinions and thoughts.. as I'm doing too.. so it's all good. It's raw and it's real that way. I like that.

BronsCon
join:2003-10-24
Fairfield, CA

BronsCon to xdrag

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to xdrag
said by xdrag:

said by geokilla:

Only people that know such a tool would be tech savvy people... And if the Internet is down, how do they expect us to get onto the Internet....

True but don't forget more and more people have smartphone and data plans. The day and age where our home is the sole connection to the internet world is shrinking.

That being said, an automated voice message would be great for those who have outages like the hydro example earlier. For slow-downs, it's a bit more complicated.

How many of those people know how to download a file on their phone and transfer it to their computer? How many of them even can (iPhone users can't, for example, it's just not something the phone can do)?
BronsCon

BronsCon to bbiab

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to bbiab
said by bbiab:

I think most knowledgeable customers appreciate TSI's position and effort Marc.

And some non-customers...
BronsCon

BronsCon to TSI Marc

Member

to TSI Marc
said by TSI Marc:

that's very fair. mostly I feel that everybody is supportive and honestly voicing their opinions and thoughts.. as I'm doing too.. so it's all good. It's raw and it's real that way. I like that.

You heard it here first, folks. Marc likes it real raw.

TSI Marc
Premium Member
join:2006-06-23
Chatham, ON

TSI Marc

Premium Member

LOL. glad you like the position and effort!
UK_Dave
join:2011-01-27
Powassan, ON

1 edit

UK_Dave to TSI Marc

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to TSI Marc
said by TSI Marc:

that's very fair. mostly I feel that everybody is supportive and honestly voicing their opinions and thoughts.. as I'm doing too.. so it's all good. It's raw and it's real that way. I like that.

Maybe it's because I'm not used to it - but I find it quite amazing that we're here on a Sunday afternoon, having this kind of discussion, with the CEO of our ISP.

Cheers
Dave

edit: Because it's Sunday. Not Saturday.
sgtux
join:2012-07-14

sgtux to TSI Marc

Member

to TSI Marc

It's simple really and it's that UBB is far from gone...

Mister CEO! I have been kept silence reading all this thread till now. How can you even discuss the issue like UBB? It's just ABSURD and you know it better than anyone because you are CEO of an ISP company that first protested against it in Canada. I immigrated from Europe only 8 years ago and I've been with TekSavvy for 5 years. The Internet UBB exists in Canada only. Even your notorious Rogers is just a big Bell re-seller at the end. Canadians, wake up, do not be sheep!

Mister CEO! I 100% agree with OP. Fortunately Canada still has companies like TekSavvy and CEO like you are, even if you are a re-seller at the moment and not ISPs yet I hope it's gonna changed soon. But even so, you are in charge to get rid of such incompetence your company has acquired for the last two years like crappy customer and technical support even if you blame that most of TekSavvy employees are the same as 5 years ago. Mentality (or something else) was definitely changed. That's why you can only *sigh* when you see such complaints every week.

P.S. Personally I would discuss anything only with adequate people like OP or UK_Dave for example... I'm a professional programmer with over 20+ years of experience in Networking and UNIX OS, so I don't think I might accept any arguments from kids or teenagers like xdrag, sorry in advance.
OneWorld9
join:2010-12-09
East York, ON

OneWorld9 to xdrag

Member

to xdrag
said by xdrag:

Get a few TSI regulars on the board to join the monitoring group which would provide a steady stream of pings in different areas.

I'm all for this ... especially if it could somehow be incorporated into an overall network map of sorts. Again, it may not be ideal, but it's a step in the right direction.

There are currently 50 monitors, many of them DSL users, and quite of a few of them don't even seem to be active anymore. It's not a good representation of what's actually happening. A lot more monitors would be needed to know if there are problems in any given area.
OneWorld9

OneWorld9 to TSI Marc

Member

to TSI Marc

Re: Welcome to Dystopia

said by TSI Marc:

We've been doing network outage notices for ages...

If you want to know what's going on, you can call in as we always update the IVR, you can see the web site, we always post here on dslr also... we're on twitter.. before the teksavvynetwork handle was created we did it on one of the other handles.

I think the conclusion people are coming up with, even those many would consider proponents of the TekSavvy service, is that you could be doing better in this regard.
said by TSI Marc:

Furthermore, none of these things are on our network, so we can't say conclusively what's actually happening until we get positive feedback from the incumbents unless if it's on our own network. We always post those... so to spend a massive amount of time trying to fish for problems in the dark is really not efficient. It amounts to a best effort kind of thing on our side, which is what we do and have always done.

Again, this could be improved. Are you suggesting you don't need to improve? People like myself should be left in the dark for months about why they're having a problem with their connection? Again, ideally, you need to be able to find out which of your customers are affected and why, so you can inform them. "Best effort" has left me with subpar service for more than two months. Personally, I don't feel that's good enough. I'm sure anyone in my position (past, present and future) would agree.
said by TSI Marc:

As for the link being prominently available on the front page. Yeah, sorry, not going to happen. Just add the link to your favs... the location has changed since we launched the new site but we've had that for years. We're doing the very same things as we've always done.

I'm sorry, but this comes off as "Tough, deal with it." Is that TekSavvy's attitude? Again, we had no idea you were posting network updates... not one person mentioned it until you posted. Making that more visible is a good thing for your customers - it shows you care that they are informed.
said by TSI Marc:

As it is internally, we're more worried about the message it's sending to the average person because there are so many notices. Just look here on dslr and twitter... there are multiple notices almost each and every week.

This is the current service you provide, like it or not. What's wrong with informing your customers (who may be affected by these things) what's going on? How many of your customers frequent DSLr daily, to get apprised of issues that may be affecting them? This is a good place to share information, of course, but I don't feel the average customer has any idea what they need to do to get informed. That's where TekSavvy needs to up their game. I don't feel that putting efforts into informing your customers, as best as possible, is a waste of time. Rather, asking many of them to go through troubleshooting when there's an area problem is a waste of time ... both for them, and for your staff. Part of the reason you have to put out fires (such as training more tech staff to man phones) could be mitigated with proper communication. Rather than spending 30 mins. on the phone, they could simply be told there's an area issue and you'll keep them updated as to when it's resolved. The IVR you mention, no doubt it's only updated with "major" outages that you're certain of. Again, this could be improved.

If you care about your customers - and, really, without them TekSavvy doesn't have a business - then you owe it to them to keep them apprised of anything affecting their service. Sure, the bigger picture is you need to make changes with the incumbents, etc. to get to the level of support that would be ideal. When is that going to happen? If not within the immediate future, then you are providing a service "as is" - and you need to compensate by doing whatever you can to support your customers.
OneWorld9

OneWorld9 to BronsCon

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to BronsCon

Re: TekSavvy - glorified reseller, not ISP

said by BronsCon:

This isn't the right solution to this problem.

That's your opinion, and I respectfully disagree. Personally, if I had the right kind of tools to provide whatever information TekSavvy required of me, I'd most likely use them - assuming they were made in such a way as to allay the fears that you suggest many would have about them. There are many ways deal with all of the objections you mentioned, but I get the impression you feel you've already come up with all the answers, and you're not wanting to really discuss this - I don't want to waste my time arguing about it.
said by BronsCon:

The best bet is something like Line Monitor (which you're already using) which pings the customer's IP repeatedly, but that also requires that either the user's modem is acting as their router and is configured to respond to ping, the modem is in bridge mode and the user's router is configured to respond to ping, or the user's modem is in bridge mode with no router and their computer isn't running firewall software that drops ping requests. It also requires the user to know their IP address. Anyone who could make that tool work in cases where it won't work by default (and most who know how who look up their own IP address) will already know how to run a traceroute and ping a site.

Agreed, this is a great tool. I am fully aware of the complexity of setting it up. If that could be simplified, and used more universally (again, part of the "customer tools" I'm suggesting), I think it would be a great help in the current situation of "We have no idea what's happening with your connection." I think this is one of many possible ideas, which needs to be fleshed out.
said by BronsCon:

Also, you can bet you ass that TSI is monitoring lines that have trouble tickets open; whether or not the front line reps have access to this monitoring is another issue and if they don't, they should.

I respectfully disagree. TSI Gabe didn't even look at my situation until this thread appeared, from what I gather of his response. Every ticket that was opened with Rogers, came back as "no problem found" - he suggested it was because the tickets were focused on my connection only, and that was a mistake on their part. I would get an e-mail update from TekSavvy, simply stating that my ticket was updated, and to call them if I still had an issue. How things were left at the end of August, I asked them to please escalate this and get it resolved. They said they were in the process of doing that. I saw several e-mail updates, that the tickets were updated, but I heard nothing more from TekSavvy. Luckily, the issue seemed to go away for most of September. When it returned, I asked TekSavvy what had come of all those escalations - can you guess what they said? More of the same.
said by BronsCon:

Customers need to flee the incumbents in droves, making TPIA the incumbents' primary income source (or at least *A* primary source) before the incumbents will play ball.

If that's really the case, this will never happen. In the meantime, those who are TekSavvy customers should suffer? How long are we talking about here? Months? Years? Decades? You're expecting a lot from the average customer, who is here to get a service - and nothing more. Again, TekSavvy needs to be clear about their purpose - if they want to cater to the "We're happy getting subpar service, as long as it means we pay less." crowd (as a couple of posters have suggested - they'd rather not bring the fight to the CRTC), by all means. I'll take my business elsewhere. From the response of TSI David, I don't think that's their operating model - although some of what TSI Marc has said in his last posts do concern me.

If, however, TSI does want the change you're suggesting needs to happen by having a very large base of customers, they need to be able to handle the problems (like mine) that come up. Ideally, they need to prevent these problems from happening. Anything that gets closer to that goal will show prospective new customers that, although the ride may be bumpy at times, TekSavvy will do whatever they need to do to smooth things out. Again, from TSI David's response, it seems that's happening - it shouldn't have taken this long, but here we are.
said by BronsCon:

They want to compete with the incumbents as a "better service offering", where "service" is "internet" and "offering" is "speed and/or usage limits". If they offer you neither better speeds nor higher caps than their competitors, then they have indeed failed at that for you.

Is this TekSavvy's proposition? I haven't heard that from them. I'm sure most people think that "better service" does not exclude a service that is both reliable and well-supported. Personally, I could care less that I get more bandwidth per month, if that means that my connection will be down frequently and/or very slow / unusable for lengthy periods of time. I think it all comes together as a value proposition. "Better" to me, is not limited to what you're suggesting it is.
said by BronsCon:

Of course TSI is trying to make things right; they always do. Yes, it may take some time and often it takes something like this thread to bring a particular issue to the attention of the higher-ups, and that is unfortunate. Something does need to be done about it, and I have a few suggestions for fixing this issue, which I'll discuss, via PM, with a certain of their higher-ups who had shown an interest in another of my ideas.

Indeed, it is unfortunate - it shouldn't be this way. If you feel you can make headway into changing the process, by all means. That would serve us all.

BronsCon
join:2003-10-24
Fairfield, CA

BronsCon

Member

I'm not going to address all the points in your reply, as there's not much point; we're not going to see eye to eye on any of this and that's fine. You're a customer, I'm an entrepreneur and businessman, so we have completely differing perspectives.

I will point out that this is a chicken-and-egg problem. In order for Rogers to play ball and give TSI priority support and access to the tools required to properly diagnose these types of issues, TSI would need to become a major source of income for Rogers. In order for TSI to become a major source of income for Rogers, enough people will have to stick with them and convince enough more people to join in and do the same untill, well... until enough people do. One has to happen before the other can.

Of course, there's always creationism. A bit of legislation goes a long way, which is why you don't hear of these issues (as much) with DSL.

As far as TekSavvy's definition of "better service", they've never, as far as I'm aware, publicly declared any of that, one way or the other. My observations over the last 7 years, and through several conversations with various members of their staff seem to indicate that I am correct in my assumptions, however.

I've stuck around following them for so long because I'd really like to see them take off and eventually spread down into the US; I could get them started in 6 states.
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