That assumes that every time someone with clue calls it's about a 'tier three' issue. There is no perfect solution other than patience, and building a good 'outside channels' contact list :) Just my 2ยข ___________________________________ Alan Rowland "no warranty expressed or implied, use at your own risk, may be terminated at any time without notice" -----Original Message----- From: John A. Tamplin [mailto:jat@liveonthenet.com] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 6:10 PM To: Simon Higgs Cc: nanog@merit.edu Subject: RE: AT&T Broadband On Thu, 20 Dec 2001, Simon Higgs wrote: <snip rant> I understand your point, but for every person who calls and who truly does know what they are talking about there are probably 3 or 4 who just think they do. You don't want to pay big bucks for top technical people to answer the front-line calls, and those people hate when something gets passed to them anyway. So you have minimally capable people answering the phone who are told not to transfer the call to the next level until they check all the idiot things that could be wrong (which probably gets a large percentage of their calls). It would be nice however, if after one call when you prove that you do know what you are talking about you get a different number to call which bypasses the "is your computer plugged in" people. John A. Tamplin jat@jaet.org 770/436-5387 HOME 4116 Manson Ave 770/431-9459 FAX Smyrna, GA 30082-3723