On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 3:02 PM, Eric Louie <elouie@yahoo.com> wrote:
Based on various conversation threads on Nanog I've come up with a few criteria for evaluating Tier 1 providers. I'm open to add other criteria - what would you add to this list?
Billing issues such as: attitude during a billing dispute traceability and accountability (Which service is this 35 cent blah fee attached to?) zombie service rate (Bills showing up for long-ago cancelled products) flexibility (I want you to send me two bills, each for half of that. You can't? Why not?) nickle and dime (There's a $100 monthly rental fee for that 50 foot cat-5 cable!? Really!?) Also, abuse desk knee-jerkiness. If someone reports a problem originating from my system, how much leeway do I have to fix it before you decide to fix it for me? If some knucklehead with a port-scanning worm earns me a no-notice cut off, you and I will have words. At the same time, I don't want to fund someone who would turn a blind eye.
Seems like everyone offers 5 9's service, 45 ms coast-to-coast, 24x7 customer support, 100/1Gbps/10Gbps with various DIR/CIR and burst rates. I'm shopping for new service and want to do better than choosing on reputation. (or, is reputation also a criteria?)
Reputations are well earned and are certainly a factor. They're heavily qualitative, though. I don't know that's it's practical or useful to measure them. Regards, Bill Herrin -- William D. Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us 3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/> Falls Church, VA 22042-3004