R0CKY
TSI Rocky
Premium,VIP
join:2005-05-19
Chatham, ON
1 edit |  reply to ho ho ho
Re: Bell Layoffs: Ottawa, Hamilton, Toronto and Montreal
Was discussing this with a friend and it seems the Field Techs are likely next.... likely just before the end of the year to boot!  |
|
ho ho ho
@videotron.ca | :/ I hate when they layoff just before or just after the holidays. Always the same.
Is this a new 100-days of layoffs, like they did this past summer? |
|
bellca
@bell.ca | reply to R0CKY
field techs are next? they dont have enough as it is now
what are they thinking? |
|
Harleyguy
join:2008-02-01
Waterdown, ON
| reply to R0CKY
said by R0CKY  :Was discussing this with a friend and it seems the Field Techs are likely next.... likely just before the end of the year to boot! So who is going to fix BELL/3rd Party ISP. Cope wants a 24 hr turnover on these troubles. Tested and dispatched within 24hrs
Field Tech lay not likely but you never know. |
|
Glen1
These Are The Good Ol' Days.
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-24
GTA Canada | BTS is going to be doing it and the testing will be done overseas...according to what I am hearing.
--
My Canada includes Quebec. |
|
Harleyguy
join:2008-02-01
Waterdown, ON
| said by Glen1 :BTS is going to be doing it and the testing will be done overseas...according to what I am hearing. Good luck with that. India cant even read missing xconnects in Web care (NOIP) troubles.
They have no idea what a USSOCS is or its relation to a Bcris order.
Before I go nuts ,someone is going have to define testing and what it involves. Just too many rumours |
|
Harleyguy
join:2008-02-01
Waterdown, ON |
I dont like rumours but the one I hear goes like this.
The Hamilton test center stays and when that DSL trouble is dispatched, the field techs will have to call the India test centre for their testing. |
|
Glen1
These Are The Good Ol' Days.
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-24
GTA Canada
 ·Bell Sympatico
| reply to Harleyguy
Testing is not much different from outside work. You isolate where the trouble is and then send it. The tester goes from point to point to find out if the trouble is "in" or "out" and then sends the ticket to the appropriate location.
"in" - C.O.
"out" - Field.
This can be done from anywhere. When CALRS was first introduced the testing could be done from a central location, each area didn't need its own testboard. Now it can be done overseas and routed to the appropriate section with trouble or SWT.
--
My Canada includes Quebec. |
|
testing
@com.br
| reply to Harleyguy
testing is mostly validation and is already-mostly- automated...
involves the tester
checking several -ancient-data bases to make sure they are all up to date
then testing the line (mostly automated.. but human touch is still necessary at this stage to be able to diagnose problesm...and to be able to fix the weird cases we hear about)
and dispatching/contacting the client if necessary
by sending these jobs to india/elsewhere, bell is relying on their automation, which we all know is far worse than `ok` and ditching the experienced testers...
this mean ignoring the extreme problems(losing a couple of customers here and there), which require and expert opinion, but relying on drones(humans trained to act like drones) to do the job(mainly clicking buttons and following flow diagrams...instead of knowledge, and experience...)
so instead of happy knowledgeable customers, and word of mouth advertising ..bell is relying on retired people and ignorant and busy customers to keep them in business..
and yes i am an ex-tester in hamilton- (quit more than 5 years ago) |
|
llollool
@com.br | reply to Harleyguy
ahahaha we all know how much the field guys love the agents in india..
the guy who was here last time almost strangled himself when he was forced to talk to one... poor guys (including the ones in india.. who take all the blame) |
|
Harleyguy
join:2008-02-01
Waterdown, ON
| reply to Glen1
said by Glen1 :Testing is not much different from outside work. You isolate where the trouble is and then send it. The tester goes from point to point to find out if the trouble is "in" or "out" and then sends the ticket to the appropriate location. "in" - C.O. "out" - Field. This can be done from anywhere. When CALRS was first introduced the testing could be done from a central location, each area didn't need its own testboard. Now it can be done overseas and routed to the appropriate section with trouble or SWT. I will give you that, but have you ever seen a Afwfm ticket with 5 VC jobs or an SCV assignment with 3 "C" order and 2 LT's
There is more involved in testing than meets the eye and from my experience most India agents are not the brightest PEBBLES on the beach and the day that I have to deal with those IDIOTS is the day all my Bell services are gone. |
|
Glen1
These Are The Good Ol' Days.
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-24
GTA Canada
·Bell Sympatico
| Unfortunately yes I have seen those. I was having coffee with 2 C.O. guys the other day and they said FWFM was the worst thing they ever experienced since they started with the company...sometimes you have to just start over and make it work. This is something the India experience will never know about.
--
My Canada includes Quebec. |
|
Harleyguy
join:2008-02-01
Waterdown, ON
| reply to testing
said by testing :
and yes i am an ex-tester in hamilton- (quit more than 5 years ago)
I got news for you those were the good ole days when all you had to do was 8 troubles a day.
Things have changed dramatically. |
|
Harleyguy
join:2008-02-01
Waterdown, ON
| reply to Glen1
said by Glen1 :Unfortunately yes I have seen those. I was having coffee with 2 C.O. guys the other day and they said FWFM was the worst thing they ever experienced since they started with the company...sometimes you have to just start over and make it work. This is something the India experience will never know about. If testing goes to India , people will quit their Bell services by the thousands |
|
not a sucker
@videotron.ca
| said by Harleyguy :If testing goes to India , people will quit their Bell services by the thousands LOL then Bell will try and sucker more people into long term contracts by offering another xbox360 if you take take a 3-5 year contract. HEH How many here are still stuck on this contract and had your unlimited changed? Laff. Poor suckers.
Sucker born every minute.... Bell will find them. Thats their strong point. |
|
Deadpool
Go Sens Go
Premium,VIP
join:2001-03-29
Canada
·Bell Sympatico
| reply to Harleyguy
said by Harleyguy :said by testing :
and yes i am an ex-tester in hamilton- (quit more than 5 years ago)
I got news for you those were the good ole days when all you had to do was 8 troubles a day. Things have changed dramatically. Testers in Hamilton are actually better now versus 5 years ago. They don't argue anymore and take the call from the Helpdesk rep no matter what - which definitely was NOT the case 5 years ago!
--
Disclaimer: If I express an opinion, it is my own opinion, not that of Bell or its related companies. |
|
HeywoodFloyd
join:2008-11-23
Canada
| reply to Glen1
said by Glen1 :Unfortunately yes I have seen those. I was having coffee with 2 C.O. guys the other day and they said FWFM was the worst thing they ever experienced since they started with the company...sometimes you have to just start over and make it work. This is something the India experience will never know about. As I have posted elsewhere, there are currently 2 managers for every single employee at Bell Canada. But the situation in the Central Offices is much little different with one manager for ~ 25 employees.
Consider this: In the old days, CO techs got their troubles from TRACS (which got them from CALRS). Frame techs got their orders from MFAS. Field techs were dispatched from either CALRS or FSOS. Data techs worked from TRIS (pronounced "trys"), Remedy, and one other system I forgot the name of. Special circuit orders were sent to the CO via MTWO or SSAMS depending up whether they were internal trunks or external customer circuits.
Now it's 2008 and you are a manager attempting to manage a large group of techs. It will be a lot easier for you if your technicians are all working from the same computer system. On top of this, if you are training a group of people to cover many jobs in the event of a strike (BTW, the last one was 1999), then putting them all on one crappy soup-to-nuts computer system will be better for you as a manager than it is for your technicians.
Now many of the older computer systems required dumb-terminal (or terminal emulator access) but FWFM is web based so I suppose it will be a lot easier for foreign contractors to access the latest system.
Of course, putting your eggs in one basket does come with some risks. Last year FWFM experienced some strange performance problems which included loss of data. This could only be fixed by bringing in an Oracle specialist from France. With this European connection it makes you wonder is there are SAP modules in FWFM as well. |
|
CanerisErik
Caneris
Premium,VIP
join:2007-10-03
Toronto, ON
| said by HeywoodFloyd : Remedy The biggest piece of crap I've had the pleasure of working with at four different organizations. It's amazing how every large organization seems to be drawn to it and all the ITIL crap that revolves around it, when in reality it just makes things worse. |
|
Harleyguy
join:2008-02-01
Waterdown, ON
| said by CanerisErik :said by HeywoodFloyd : Remedy The biggest piece of crap I've had the pleasure of working with at four different organizations. It's amazing how every large organization seems to be drawn to it and all the ITIL crap that revolves around it, when in reality it just makes things worse. Thats only one opinion.
For the user with a text search license who can create PDQ's or Macros , there is nothing that can be pulled out of Remedy.
Its a great tool for those who are not afraid to use it. |
|
CanerisErik
Caneris
Premium,VIP
join:2007-10-03
Toronto, ON
| said by Harleyguy :Thats only one opinion. Unfortunately it's a very prevalent opinion in places where they have tweaked the hell out of it, it runs slow as a pig, and no one uses all the fancy features. Last time I checked, that would be Rogers, Primus, government of Ontario, Toronto District School Board, just to name a few.
Damn, I even recall calling into Primus support two years ago and joking with a random tech about how much it sucked, and I've never even spoken with him before.
So you're partly right, it's an opinion, but not "only one" 
It's certainly a popular product though and perhaps it's even improving lately. |
|
