Call me crazy, but more systems seem to be down

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Maybe its because I am looking for it, but more systems seem to be "down"-- whether it is a billing system for a company, the local bank, whatever. Since I returned from my vacation last week, the flakiness of my ISP connection is going beyond bandwidth/traffic issues. Is it my good fortune, or are the rest of you seeing the same?

-- Nancy (wellsnl@hotmail.com), October 26, 1999

Answers

My brother in law talked my wife into putting our fax line on "Maxis" long distance. (MLM, grrrr...) We figured, what the heck, we only use it a few minutes a month, it'll make him happy.

Well, as of the past week or so, *no one* with "Maxis" can make *any* long distance calls! All the inlaws are *very* perplexed, as *they* have it on their sole lines!

I found out because I went to fax a bill to a client, and I started hearing a fast busy coming out of the fax machine.

Here's the kicker: they *claim* it's because the new area code entered the mandatory period recently -- buuuuut, the mandatory period was in effect for at *least* a week or two *before* the long distance went and Pooled out!

So, we called the B-I-L, and he said he finally got the explanation from "Maxis". Their story is "AT&T was supposed to handle switching us over to the new area code but they didn't, so now every subscriber has to handle it themselves by making a phone call and requesting the change."

Well, we handled it ourselves by making a phone call to request the change. We called AT&T, and requested they change our service -- to AT&T.

The story just doesn't ring true to me. Sheer speculation, but I would not be surprised in the least if the problem is that someone uckfayed their system due to y2k "fixes", and they have to *manually* unfarkle *each* subscriber, hence, they will drag their heels waiting for each subscriber to call to beg for relief, in order to buy some time.

As an aside, I also suspect that the underlying reality is that as an MLM, their *primary* concern is sucking in "downlines", and the actual LD "service" is secondary, serving mainly as a "legalizer" of the pyramid.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), October 26, 1999.


I've noticed it also. Our water service, bank cards, Mother Earth News subscription, mortgage company, gas bill, electric bill, countless things with suppliers at work, my ISP (both of them), AOL, my PC's at work and home, all of them, have fouled up in the last 30 days. The ISP's are so unreliable I am grateful to get through or not be kicked off. I can't go to chat rooms anymore, cuz it results in kickoffs so often, and the only thing I DARE to do on AOL is a flash session for e-mail. Anything else will tank it, and I have to wait 30- 45 minutes for my log in to time out.

Sheeeeshhhh,

Kook

-- Y2Kook (y2kook@usa.net), October 26, 1999.


Hey,

I have been making international long distance calls with my new long distance company since May. I have yet to see a long distance call being billed to my account. Long distance calls within the U.S. show up on the next statement. No international long distance so far.

Phone company told me that what is showing up on my bill is what I have to pay.

So I do.

-- STFrancis (STFrancis@heaven.com), October 26, 1999.


My business depends on the phones working properly. In the last month, we have seen a marked increase in phone troubles. Callers get cut off during a call, calls can't get through, etc. 5-10% of the calls is a good guess. Bell Atlantic claims it is a bad cable, however they've been working on this 'cable' for about 3 weeks now to no avail. This a city-wide problem, but because of our volume, we 'see' it more than most in the area.

-- Mark Miclette (info@gasmasks.com), October 26, 1999.

yup - seen it frequently the last 6 weeks or so at Winn Dixie and Publix (grocery stores), K-Mart and Eckerds. They can't take credit cards or checks because "the computer is down". I have run into it more times in the last 6 weeks then I have in the last 6 years - and no, I'm not exagerating. And the ominous part is, I've seen people absolutely FREAK OUT when they can't use their debit card to pay for those groceries... some becoming very verbally abusive to the employees. Makes me shudder to think about how those types of people will react if things get really bad.

-- Bob (bob@bob.bob), October 26, 1999.


Out here on the back side of the moon where I live, I have noticed the following weirdness. Power bumps almost every day. Taco Bell down twice in the last month because computers totally down for hours-couldn't do any business. I attributed the snails pace of my ISP to a one horse town company, but I guess you guys are telling me that is not the only place it is happening. The ISP says it is GTE's fault because they haven't upgraded the T1 lines and GTE says its the ISPs fault. Kinda like "whos on first"! Also, one of our banks has had more snafus than I care to type out-e.g.9 weeks to get new checks because computer went down and lost orders TWICE! I am definitely feeling like a mushroom.

-- morgan (bitbybit@eoni.com), October 26, 1999.

No problems here. I use the credit card thing at Wynn Dixie and Publix--elsewhere, too. The phones work fine, as does AOL.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), October 26, 1999.

I've been having a heck of a time with the ole PC at home. Done upgrades, etc. (maybe the problem). Finally today, did the old FORMAT C: and rebuilt it from scratch, sofar, so good. Kinda makes me wonder if maybe the newer 'fixed' stuff ain't quite compatable with lots of the old stuff. Hmmmmmmm Wonder how may that are 'ready' pursued the path I did ???????

-- BH (silentvoice@pobox.com), October 26, 1999.

My mother runs a small business and deals with MCI for her long distance. Anyway, her bill has been messed up every single month she has dealt with them. When she called in to complain she was told that MCI's systems are messed up from their merger with Worldcom and won't be fixed for the next two years. Now throw Y2K into the mix. Whoo!

-- John Ainsworth (ainsje00@wfu.edu), October 26, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

John, MCI was screwed up when I dealt with them for about six months back around 1985. I had to give up on them, because they were hopeless. Sprint was the same story.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), October 26, 1999.



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