[1100] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: internet consumer reports on state-wide IP networks (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mark Seiden)
Fri Jul 26 20:33:52 1991
From: mis@seiden.com (Mark Seiden)
To: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 91 20:12:13 EDT
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <9107261739.AA11272@world.std.com>; from "Barry Shein" at Jul 26, 91 1:39 pm
>
>
> It's worth noting at this point that Mark Seiden has made a hobby of
> flaming UUNET on various public forums.
>
> It seems to have started over some rather petty disagreement with them
> and now has branched out in arbitrary directions, as we can see here.
>
> I suggest this list take these ravings with a large grain of salt, and
> understand they're motivated by some personal vendetta, not any
> concern for the "consumer". It's all insincere.
>
> -Barry Shein
>
> Software Tool & Die | bzs@world.std.com | uunet!world!bzs
> Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 617-739-0202 | Login: 617-739-WRLD
>
sigh. disclosure time:
yes, i was a uunet customer until 2/91. switched away from them
because of a spiraling of disagreement over how the handling of what i
thought were legitimate customer concerns. on two or three occasions
(first in private and eventually in public) i expressed amazement
about their way of addressing problems when they came up. (i had no
complaint then about the cost of the service, and few about the
quality of the service when it was up). (i still have lots of respect
for most uunet employees i dealt with, but was left with zero interest
in dealing with rick adams.)
a number of my consulting clients still do business with uunet, so i
have some chance to notice how they do business in the eyes of
customers.
however, i'm in the relatively unusual situation of being able to give
a few datapoints of what the differences are between the two
companies, seen from just one consumer's point of view. some are
facts, some are opinions, and i think i'm capable of separating the
two, and separating the personal from the business.
i can't remember too many opinions in my recent posting that couldn't
be applied equally to uunet, psi, or ans. the facts of what my feed
cost (then) on uunet versus what one costs on psi now, what it costs
to get to uunet's nearest POP versus what it costs to get to PSI's,
and the physical topology of data lines are just *facts* -- i can't
help 'em.
in the context of "consumer reports", all of these are relevant
for discussion:
past and present customer satisfaction.
the way the business operates.
what services end up costing.
*anyone* who switches from one service to another will inevitably
develop some opinions based on the differences between the services.
simply having been dissatisfied with uunet does not make my factual
statements about them any less true.
I gather Joe Abernathy can't ask questions because he has an axe to
grind (the evils of net.porn) and perhaps doesn't even understand what
the net *is*. I can't ask questions because I've actually been
through it for years and have developed an axe as a result. (I
suppose a few pure people may remain...) Reductio ad absurdum,
everybody should have to disclose all past and present business
associations before making any statement whatsoever. (Barry, do you
have anything to disclose that might predispose you in uunet's favor?)
whether my present observations are "flaming" or "raving" is in the
eye of the beholder. It's my (sincere, no matter what you think)
belief that pointing out the weaknesses and strengths of services, in
a competitive environment, will cause the providers to either improve
their service (or the customers will become educated enough to switch).
once again, Barry, i regret having inadvertantly included a piece of
email in a posting to the group. (partial blame on elm -- the reply
command doesn't do reply-all, and partial on my part for having a
braino late at night.)
--
mark seiden, mis@seiden.com, 1-(203) 329 2722 (voice), 1-(203) 322 1566 (fax)
