dslreports logo
 story category
TeleBlend's Mea Culpa
Global Crossing not to blame for outage...

As mentioned earlier this week, SunRocket's "preferred replacement provider" TeleBlend has been having trouble servicing SunRocket refugees, and has had several major outages this week. It appears the provider is learning on the fly. This week's lesson? Don't blame your major carrier for outages that aren't their fault.

Click for full size
Network status updates and TeleBlend CEO Lisa Bickford blamed Global Crossing for this week's outages. After discovering the problems were in fact their own, the company issued a mea culpa to avoid any run-ins with Global Crossing's lawyers:
quote:
"During the service disruption, the company inadvertently made public statements that incorrectly implied the outage was due to an issue with Global Crossing's network. TeleBlend would like to state definitively that the cause of the service disruption was in no way, shape or form due to any issue or outage with Global Crossing's network, which continues to serve customers with industry-leading performance and 99.999 percent service reliability."
Some TeleBlend customers continue to e-mail us to say their service is not working properly. Our users also seem to be indicating that there's some line tug of war going on between Packet8 and TeleBlend.
view:
topics flat nest 

jsimmons
MVM
join:2000-04-24
Falls Church, VA

jsimmons

MVM

High entertainment value.

While I feel sorry for the SR customers for having to go through this mess, having lost their service and any prepaid monies, this unfolding story is certainly entertaining to follow. Its hard to tell where this will all lead.

If I was an SR customer, I'd have just written the $$ off as a lost cause and headed for a more stable provider - perhaps Vonage or someone with a track record and better balance sheet.

jgkolt
Premium Member
join:2004-02-21
Avon, OH

jgkolt

Premium Member

Re: High entertainment value.

better balance sheet: packet 8
better quality: Viatalk
More subscribers: vonage (or comcast)

It truly is entertaining.

I wonder if teleblend purchased any of SR equipment?

BTY why was sunrockets network commonly going down?

swintec
Premium Member
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME

swintec

Premium Member

Re: High entertainment value.

said by jgkolt:

better balance sheet: packet 8
better quality: Viatalk
More subscribers: vonage (or comcast)

Even BETTER quality yet, Voicepulse. You get what you pay for with these companies.
bmn
? ? ?

join:2001-03-15
hiatus

1 edit

bmn

Re: High entertainment value.

Yeah, with Packet8, quality. Haven't a problem with them in a LONG time.

N3OGH
Yo Soy Col. "Bat" Guano
Premium Member
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs

N3OGH to swintec

Premium Member

to swintec
Or, you could buck the BBR trend and stick with POTS

Mine works all the time....

Fast_Eddie
@comcast.net

Fast_Eddie

Anon

Re: High entertainment value.

Sorry, I left Verizon as they were overpriced. Verizon can kiss my lily white butt. I wonder why the Verizon wireless service is better priced and better quality?

As far as charges go, I filled a dispute with my credit card company (Chase). They refunded the prorated difference. They also assured me that the refund was a fixed refund, as they know that SunRocket has no intentions of honoring their contract.
LostMile
Premium Member
join:2002-06-07
Coloma, MI

LostMile to swintec

Premium Member

to swintec
There's nothing wrong with using a small VoIP provider. However, if Lisa turns up on their board, it might be wise to start porting your number to a new provider.

digitalbluecat
@db3net.net

digitalbluecat to jsimmons

Anon

to jsimmons
I am glad our problems are entertaining..........

Well I have read most of the negative about the Teleblends customer support and having lost my service during an apparent porting and relocation operation over the last 24 hours let me just say that all my e-mails to Lisa Bickford and her chief of operations, Michael, resulted in answers and action and when my phone service was restored afew minutes ago the COO herself called me from home to verify it.

Kudos to Teleblends and my heart felt concern for their transition of over 50 thousand phones to their own equipment. Give them a break! they are neither crooks or a fly by night operation.

AtlGuy
join:2000-10-17
Marietta, GA

AtlGuy

Member

Error

After discovering the problems were in fact their won, the company issued a mea culpa to avoid any run-ins with Global Crossing's lawyers:

I think you meant their own perhaps?
druber
join:2000-04-11
Stow, MA

druber

Member

Re: Error


no, global crossing's. as in, global crossing suing them for defamatory statements.

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

dvd536 to AtlGuy

Premium Member

to AtlGuy
Teleblend / sunrocket. hmmmmm looks like some things never change no matter what you call yourself

Fast_Eddie
@comcast.net

Fast_Eddie to AtlGuy

Anon

to AtlGuy
Trust me, they didn't just decide to post that statement/retraction. Global Crossing threatened them, so they made a public apology for blatantly lying about the problem.

NY Tel
Premium Member
join:2004-04-09
Smithtown, NY

NY Tel

Premium Member

Crazy

Anyone who does business with any strange company that they are not familiar with is doomed to have history repeat itself.
This is just plain crazy. It just amazes me...

jgkolt
Premium Member
join:2004-02-21
Avon, OH

jgkolt

Premium Member

Re: Crazy

"It just amazes me.."

It entertains me personally, i don't know about you.

swintec
Premium Member
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME

swintec

Premium Member

Re: Crazy

said by jgkolt:

"It just amazes me.."

It entertains me personally, i don't know about you.
Agreed. It is one thing to try and save money on phone service..try and save TO MUCH money, and it will catch up to you.

NY Tel
Premium Member
join:2004-04-09
Smithtown, NY

NY Tel

Premium Member

Re: Crazy

Exactly, no one wants to throw money away but I am amazed and entertained at how much time people are spending trying to find dialtone. There comes a time when you need to have one less Starbucks (speaking from experience) and put that money towards bring able to use a phone at home.

Fast_Eddie
@comcast.net

Fast_Eddie

Anon

Re: Crazy

I already have reliable service on my wireless. As I don't actually need a landline phone at home, I refuse to pay Verizon, $35 a month for basic service.

SuperCPA
Premium Member
join:2002-11-28
Dayton, OH

SuperCPA to swintec

Premium Member

to swintec
Pigs get fat, and hogs get slattered.

jgkolt
Premium Member
join:2004-02-21
Avon, OH

jgkolt

Premium Member

Re: Crazy

bababababababBOOOOYAAAAA

Cramer rules
myokitis
join:2004-06-19
Alexandria, VA

myokitis to swintec

Member

to swintec
said by swintec:

It is one thing to try and save money on phone service..try and save TO MUCH money, and it will catch up to you.
Wow, that statement is so true!

fcisler
Premium Member
join:2004-06-14
Riverhead, NY

fcisler

Premium Member

TeleBlend Official Statement on Service Disruption

"TeleBlend Official Statement on Service Disruption"

That's a nice statement. Let me release mine:

"The sky is blue"

Now how about an ACTUAL explanation of what you (@%$@@RF up, TeleBlend?

Oh....man....glad I don't have any dealings with this company....they would have lost my money quicker than an idiot at a three card monty table...

Why does methinks that this company also still holes some stocks in asbestos manufacturing companies?
moonpuppy (banned)
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD

moonpuppy (banned)

Member

Hey Karl....

.....fix the second paragraph please.

Currently:

"After discovering the problems were in fact their won"

Should be:

"After discovering the problems were in fact their own"

Thanks


Steve
I know your IP address

join:2001-03-10
Tustin, CA

3 recommendations

Steve

Re: Hey Karl....

Wouldn't it be more polite to send typo corrections to Karl privately than post it on the front page? What's the point of doing it in public?
Techie714
join:2005-08-02
Anaheim, CA

Techie714

Member

Via Talk coming in clear!

After a bit of a rocky start with Via Talk all is working very well here!

POd Teleblender
@comcast.net

POd Teleblender

Anon

Well - this sux

I switched to Teleblend to prevent a disruption of service. Worked fine for a week.... Now when I try to make a call, a recording comes on telling me that my Sunrocket service has been disconnected and that I can go to myteleblend.net or press "O" to sign up for Teleblend. I already signed up!

What's worse is that people calling me inbound get the message about Sunrocket service being discontinued, too.

Talk about confusion! Great for business!!!!

I finally got to be on hold with Teleblend.... 18 min and counting. At least this time it didnt say "All circuits are busy." and hang up on me.

Heather
@qsoprotection.com

Heather

Anon

I switched to PhonePower.com

Relatively new voip provider but nice set of features. Good service, and the actually answer the phones! They also told me that the founders were the guys who started DSLExtreme.

digitalbluecat
@db3net.net

digitalbluecat

Anon

Lisa Bickford said she would get me fixed up

Lisa Bickford told me she would get an engineer to fix the problem..

oy vey! still no phone service

Guess I will have to mine more e-mail addresses and spam till its done.

Anyone have Mike Morrisons?