7/4/2006. TDS's help desk is unresponsive. Almost anything I send them, they classify as "spam" and then ignore.
In Exhibit-1.JPG you see me reporting extremely poor NNTP connectivity at TDS on 22 June 2006. My message was classified as "SPAM 4 Helpdesk", and was ignored; meanwhile, TDS's NNTP service has steadily gotten worse.
In Exhibit-2.JPG, you see me reporting a DNS problem which TDS was having on 2 July 2006. TDS classified my report as "SPAM 4 Helpdesk" and "closed" the issue without answering me.
In Exhibit-3.JPG, you see me reporting later on 2 July 2006 that standard tools found TDS operating misconfigured DNS and two open mail relays, thus making them a probable source of anonymous spam. TDS sent an auto-response and marked my message "closed" at the very moment that I sent it.
In Exhibit-4.JPG, you see me reporting on 4 July 2006 that I am very displeased with TDS's response to my helpdesk messages. I recapped the problems, and advised TDS that if they ignore me again I will post my complaints on the web. Once more, they marked my message "Spam" and ignored it.
TDS seems to have deleted their Message #060430-000041 in which I pointed out that the phrase "Network News" in their help engine should pull up references to their NNTP server as well as the page where they report news about their network. They initially tried to tell me that Network News has nothing to do with Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP), before hiding or deleting my suggestion. Their help file has not been updated. It seems to me like they are trying to own the term "Network News" after 25 years of Network News technology.
In sum, it seems TDS has outsourced technical support to a combination of robots and marketing people, whose primary business is to tell the customer to go away. But what do I know?
7/5/2006: TDS responded, pointing out that they had referred me to their abuse desk in one of their messages, though I had not been complaining about spam. They wrote: "As you have ignored our response to your question, we have disregarded questions of the same nature." (Exhibit-5.JPG) No, sirs and madams, I have not ignored your response to my question, I have pointed out that it is irrelevant to my questions and complaints.
Really, the only response from TDS that is appropriate now is an acknowledgement from a manager with responsibilities over the helpdesk. Attempts to blame me for my dissatisfaction will be displayed on the Web.
The same day, 5:50 pm: Voice mail from Crystal at TDS Technical Support indicates that they have finally noticed my question about their poor NNTP connectivity, and they have finally escalated this matter to what Crystal describes as their ISS department. The sleeping giant awakens? Could be--I'm not sure. But it's the first sign I've seen that they're listening. I'm starting to become optimistic.
