I blogged about people abusing ADR.
Did I ever expect to be woken by someone with an MSO text over an accounting error - paying me £3K by accident, and urgently needing it sent back so he can pay the right person. It wakes quite a few staff as it happens. It is about as far from a Major Service Outage as you can get.
And then apparently threatening that he could go to ADR* and cost me £350, twice, if I did not help. Vexatious? I very nearly ceased his bloody line on the spot when he said that.
I have sent the money back, before midnight (which was apparently his deadline to pay the right person).
I am at a loss for words to be honest. I don't know what to say. I am going back to bed now.
P.S. they are now talking on irc about using MSO texts to request pizza and taxis...
*The exact line was:-
23:35 < ydorg> having two ADR's could cost 700 quid
Maybe every MSO outage text should be published as a feed online, so people can be named and shamed when it is abused.. and those reporting a genuine MSO can see if others have reported it first?
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should make the MSO number premium rate with 5 sms replies that cost 5 quid each, reimbursed if the MSO report is valid.
ReplyDeleteCan you not restrict the ability to report an MSO to those who have multiple lines with A&A ?
ReplyDeleteFor example, most of the time this is going to be clueless home users who never ever suspect it could be their own equipment to blame for an outage and anyone responsible for more than a single line is usually someone who knows what a network is and what a major service outage is.
A home user with a single line is not going to be able to realistically tell the difference between their home connection not working and an entire exchange/A&A LNS going tits up.
Either that or a 'penalty for improper use'... at least now you can sort of understand why BT impose SFI charges for engineer visits where one was not necessary to resolve the fault (where such a charge is justified, of course!).
The immediate threat of ADR if you didn't jump through hoops to rectify their mistake must be bordering on blackmail surely? Last time I checked that was a criminal offence...
ReplyDeleteThe problem with the multi-line restriction is sometimes a group of us see it on IRC, and there's a short debate 'who's going to send the MSO?', then it gets sent, then (as if by magic) RevK appears and it all gets fixed. As a feedback mechanism that works very well for the few occasions AAs own monitoring hasn't noticed the problem already.
ReplyDeleteAlso I think the culprit has multiple lines...
What a joke. If for one moment you put aside how ridiculous his whole position is to begin with, even IF he had a genuine case, how can he threaten ADR for something within hours of it happening and is almost certainly going to be resolved Monday morning at the latest?
ReplyDeleteI would write to him saying you will be ceasing it in 30 days. You don't need customers like that.
ReplyDeleteI would write to him saying you'll be ceasing his line in 30 days.
ReplyDeleteYou do not need customers like that.
I am not sure he was threatening ADR for that - but that he could invent plausible ADR cases if he tried and cost us money.
ReplyDeleteAh, so he was threatening to invent a plausible but fictitious ADR case, in the knowledge that would cost you £350?
ReplyDeleteBasically, we think.
ReplyDeleteDid he actually make any mention of the fact he was aware it would cost you money, or in any way use the fact the ADR case would inconvenience you somehow as a threat/bargaining chip? I can appreciate that many people would legitimately use the threat of ADR to try and move a genuine complaint forward, but the difference there is at least these people honestly believe they have a case. They could be completely wrong, but at least they think they're right, which means they're not being dishonest and abusing the system. I find it hard to believe this person could honestly believe they have any genuine case for ADR, which only leaves the other option. Having said that, there's some weird people out there.
ReplyDeleteActually, the threat of ADR was directed toward the many trolling customers who wound the situation up.
ReplyDeleteYou lot really need to grow the hell up.
Read IRC logs, I will post them if you like. THE ADR THREAT was not a threat. The trolling idiots on A&A decided to think they are better.
Funny, when a
At the end of the day he was very silly on the occasion, and needs to calm down and take the occasional jibe like a man. He messed up - people will take the piss for a while, but if keeps his head down it will be fine.
ReplyDeleteSadly that is not the case though. You lied and for that I am disappointed. Otherwise good sir, you have been nothing but good to me and many more of your idiotic customers. For that I am grateful and extremely appreciate that you bent over backwards for me. That I have to be eternally grateful for.
ReplyDeleteYour customers on the other hand.....
I am sorry. What else can I say?
Well, that is not exactly dropping it, is it.
ReplyDeleteJust to be clear, I don't believe I have lied. All statements are personal opinion and stating my personal opinion can never be a lie. Hassling A&A about statements on my personal blog is not appropriate. I do not identify the individual so cannot be any sort of slander or libel. And, as per copyright statement the adverse subject of this post has no rights to access my blog any more, and neither does anyone representing him. I will not be posting any more comments received from dingbat as I believe this matter should be dropped. However, if I get comments then that is proof of breach of copyright by him.
ReplyDeleteSo, DROP IT!
And, to avoid anyone misunderstanding, I have quoted the exact line from irc.
ReplyDelete