From: Sean Donelan <SEAN@SDG.DRA.COM>

...

Agreed. End users should never be calling outside their ISP; it is NOT their place to solve problems for their ISP, for multiple reasons, one of which is that if any of our customers worked directly with MCI, for example, to solve a problem they saw that we were not yet aware of, and they and MCI solved the issue without involving us, we'd have no realization that a problem had been developing.

Unfortunately there is no good trouble ticket referral system between providers. I've had MCI (acting as my provider) close MCI tickets and tell me to call the other provider directly because "it was not a MCI problem." Since MCI wasn't going to handle the trouble referral for me, I didn't have a choice but bypass MCI and contact the other ISP directly.

I will second this. My Ann Arbor ISP (Merit/MichNet) has no customer 24x7 trouble reporting service. So, I've made them give me the numbers of their NOC. I have an unusual contract, and they seem to trust me to have done my homework. Most of their customers do not have that information. On numerous occaisions, the Merit NOC has verified that it is not a MichNet problem, and passed me to the MCI NOC. And on at least 2 occaisions, the MCI NOC has determined it is not their problem, and passed me to the Sprint and PSI NOCs (respectively). Other times, MCI has handled the problem under their own trouble ticket system, even when it was at another NSP, and called me back when the problem was resolved. I reported here (this list) sometime last year how pleased I was with the MCI NOC when it was handled by BBN.... I am sorry to hear that they are backsliding a bit, but I assume they are having growth problems like everyone else. WSimpson@UMich.edu Key fingerprint = 17 40 5E 67 15 6F 31 26 DD 0D B9 9B 6A 15 2C 32 BSimpson@MorningStar.com Key fingerprint = 2E 07 23 03 C5 62 70 D3 59 B1 4F 5E 1D C2 C1 A2