How (and why) to Ramble on your goat sideways
05-19-2020, 06:07 PM
Let me tell all of you a story.
Ten years ago, when my wife and I had just got married, we bought a little starter home in the 'burbs.
Nice little neighborhood but nothing too fancy.
The only internet option available to the neighborhood, however, was AT&T and Charter. I could have my choice of pretty crappy cable internet service or this new-fangled "FIBER!!!1!" internet option, UVerse.
I opted for the UVerse.
It never quite worked right. Our internet would constantly drop and the TV signal would cut out. I noted one day when it was happening that the UVerse-provided router was RED HOT.
Well I called, put in a service ticket and had to beg and plead for them to send me a new router.
They eventually did, and all was right with the world.
Until I got the bill.
It was double what it should have been. They charged me a $150 installation fee for a router I installed myself. I won't bore you with the details, but I spent HOURS on the phone trying to get that charge removed, and was never successful.
I didn't want a hit to my credit, so I paid the bill, but I'm as petty as I am irritable so I packed all that ATT equipment in a box and told ATT to come get it or I was going to throw it through the front window of the nearest ATT Store.
I told you that story so I could tell you this one:
I did a review of one of my largest customers today for their telecom bills and realized that ever since I started the process to move them off of AT&T dedicated services to a competitor (a process I might add, was put into motion the DAY AFTER the above mentioned incident), I have saved my customer a total of almost $10,000 per month. That means, that officially as of this review, I have cost AT&T over $2 million dollars over the last 9.5 years in revenue. This is a process that I have applied to all of my customers over the years, since our consulting firm has a great relationship to the local telecom provider.
If I had to put a round number to the revenue migrated over my whole customer base, I'd put it well north of $12,000,000 over that time span.
Over $150.
This is my finest point of personal pride.
Ten years ago, when my wife and I had just got married, we bought a little starter home in the 'burbs.
Nice little neighborhood but nothing too fancy.
The only internet option available to the neighborhood, however, was AT&T and Charter. I could have my choice of pretty crappy cable internet service or this new-fangled "FIBER!!!1!" internet option, UVerse.
I opted for the UVerse.
It never quite worked right. Our internet would constantly drop and the TV signal would cut out. I noted one day when it was happening that the UVerse-provided router was RED HOT.
Well I called, put in a service ticket and had to beg and plead for them to send me a new router.
They eventually did, and all was right with the world.
Until I got the bill.
It was double what it should have been. They charged me a $150 installation fee for a router I installed myself. I won't bore you with the details, but I spent HOURS on the phone trying to get that charge removed, and was never successful.
I didn't want a hit to my credit, so I paid the bill, but I'm as petty as I am irritable so I packed all that ATT equipment in a box and told ATT to come get it or I was going to throw it through the front window of the nearest ATT Store.
I told you that story so I could tell you this one:
I did a review of one of my largest customers today for their telecom bills and realized that ever since I started the process to move them off of AT&T dedicated services to a competitor (a process I might add, was put into motion the DAY AFTER the above mentioned incident), I have saved my customer a total of almost $10,000 per month. That means, that officially as of this review, I have cost AT&T over $2 million dollars over the last 9.5 years in revenue. This is a process that I have applied to all of my customers over the years, since our consulting firm has a great relationship to the local telecom provider.
If I had to put a round number to the revenue migrated over my whole customer base, I'd put it well north of $12,000,000 over that time span.
Over $150.
This is my finest point of personal pride.
Reply
8
8
05-19-2020, 06:44 PM
Elite Member
iTrader: (5)
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Detroit (the part with no rules or laws)
Posts: 5,677
Total Cats: 800
I can totally 100% relate.
It's nice being the pen holder(well, i'm not really, but i am the guy who gets to choose vendors, equipment, ect.) for multi million dollar capital expenses and contracts. I've cut companies out of so much money over such petty ****. It's hilarious.
BUT it also says something to how these companies treat you when you represent a corporation vs a regular civilian. When you're waving million dollar contracts over their head they will do anything in their power to keep that business(I've actually gotten invited out to the owners private yacht for an "event" before. lol). Or even small things, you're always treated better when representing a company. ... Joe Blow with a router problem, yeah go get bent and give us your $150.
Edit* I feel like Joe can relate as well. Probably has some nice stories.
Reply
1
1
05-19-2020, 07:26 PM
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,033
Total Cats: 6,598
The WGN America that you receive isn't the same as Channel 9. It used to be, but it split off and is now programmed and sold to advertisers separately. Basically, the same as TBS (which used to be WTBS), and a few others.
Sears is still under water, with no clear dates as to when we might be able to get back up into our room. It's not going to be a pretty re-start. This transmitter is 20 years old, and gets grumpy when it's cold.
Reply
0
0
05-19-2020, 09:53 PM
Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Montreal, QC
Posts: 271
Total Cats: 55
Let me tell all of you a story.
Ten years ago, when my wife and I had just got married, we bought a little starter home in the 'burbs.
Nice little neighborhood but nothing too fancy.
The only internet option available to the neighborhood, however, was AT&T and Charter. I could have my choice of pretty crappy cable internet service or this new-fangled "FIBER!!!1!" internet option, UVerse.
I opted for the UVerse.
It never quite worked right. Our internet would constantly drop and the TV signal would cut out. I noted one day when it was happening that the UVerse-provided router was RED HOT.
Well I called, put in a service ticket and had to beg and plead for them to send me a new router.
They eventually did, and all was right with the world.
Until I got the bill.
It was double what it should have been. They charged me a $150 installation fee for a router I installed myself. I won't bore you with the details, but I spent HOURS on the phone trying to get that charge removed, and was never successful.
I didn't want a hit to my credit, so I paid the bill, but I'm as petty as I am irritable so I packed all that ATT equipment in a box and told ATT to come get it or I was going to throw it through the front window of the nearest ATT Store.
I told you that story so I could tell you this one:
I did a review of one of my largest customers today for their telecom bills and realized that ever since I started the process to move them off of AT&T dedicated services to a competitor (a process I might add, was put into motion the DAY AFTER the above mentioned incident), I have saved my customer a total of almost $10,000 per month. That means, that officially as of this review, I have cost AT&T over $2 million dollars over the last 9.5 years in revenue. This is a process that I have applied to all of my customers over the years, since our consulting firm has a great relationship to the local telecom provider.
If I had to put a round number to the revenue migrated over my whole customer base, I'd put it well north of $12,000,000 over that time span.
Over $150.
This is my finest point of personal pride.
Ten years ago, when my wife and I had just got married, we bought a little starter home in the 'burbs.
Nice little neighborhood but nothing too fancy.
The only internet option available to the neighborhood, however, was AT&T and Charter. I could have my choice of pretty crappy cable internet service or this new-fangled "FIBER!!!1!" internet option, UVerse.
I opted for the UVerse.
It never quite worked right. Our internet would constantly drop and the TV signal would cut out. I noted one day when it was happening that the UVerse-provided router was RED HOT.
Well I called, put in a service ticket and had to beg and plead for them to send me a new router.
They eventually did, and all was right with the world.
Until I got the bill.
It was double what it should have been. They charged me a $150 installation fee for a router I installed myself. I won't bore you with the details, but I spent HOURS on the phone trying to get that charge removed, and was never successful.
I didn't want a hit to my credit, so I paid the bill, but I'm as petty as I am irritable so I packed all that ATT equipment in a box and told ATT to come get it or I was going to throw it through the front window of the nearest ATT Store.
I told you that story so I could tell you this one:
I did a review of one of my largest customers today for their telecom bills and realized that ever since I started the process to move them off of AT&T dedicated services to a competitor (a process I might add, was put into motion the DAY AFTER the above mentioned incident), I have saved my customer a total of almost $10,000 per month. That means, that officially as of this review, I have cost AT&T over $2 million dollars over the last 9.5 years in revenue. This is a process that I have applied to all of my customers over the years, since our consulting firm has a great relationship to the local telecom provider.
If I had to put a round number to the revenue migrated over my whole customer base, I'd put it well north of $12,000,000 over that time span.
Over $150.
This is my finest point of personal pride.
Reply
0
0
05-19-2020, 10:11 PM
It's kind of an odd situation.
The WGN America that you receive isn't the same as Channel 9. It used to be, but it split off and is now programmed and sold to advertisers separately. Basically, the same as TBS (which used to be WTBS), and a few others.
Sears is still under water, with no clear dates as to when we might be able to get back up into our room. It's not going to be a pretty re-start. This transmitter is 20 years old, and gets grumpy when it's cold.
The WGN America that you receive isn't the same as Channel 9. It used to be, but it split off and is now programmed and sold to advertisers separately. Basically, the same as TBS (which used to be WTBS), and a few others.
Sears is still under water, with no clear dates as to when we might be able to get back up into our room. It's not going to be a pretty re-start. This transmitter is 20 years old, and gets grumpy when it's cold.
Back in '05, I was doing some on-again off-again consulting work with a small bank that had their main office on Canal St. in New Orleans.
When Katrina rolled through, the C-Levels thought they would be fine since their server room was upstairs. I finally convinced them to at least take their LTO tapes with them if anyone evacuated.
When we were able to get into the building, the waterline had got to within two feet of the ceiling on the first floor.
Unfortunately, a large chunk of the roof above the server room went MIA and all the equipment was destroyed anyway.
Had to order two 42U racks worth of equipment and moved everything to a branch that became their new temporary hub site.
Took weeks to rebuild everything from a single surviving set of tapes in a carousel, which is always a dicey proposition in the best of times.
But it took months to rebuild the physical building from the inside out, so we had it pretty easy in comparison.
Reply
0
0
05-20-2020, 03:42 PM
Elite Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Santa Clara, CA
Posts: 5,166
Total Cats: 855
Reply
0
0
05-20-2020, 03:59 PM
Elite Member
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: OKC, OK
Posts: 3,693
Total Cats: 222
It's kind of an odd situation.
The WGN America that you receive isn't the same as Channel 9. It used to be, but it split off and is now programmed and sold to advertisers separately. Basically, the same as TBS (which used to be WTBS), and a few others.
Sears is still under water, with no clear dates as to when we might be able to get back up into our room. It's not going to be a pretty re-start. This transmitter is 20 years old, and gets grumpy when it's cold.
The WGN America that you receive isn't the same as Channel 9. It used to be, but it split off and is now programmed and sold to advertisers separately. Basically, the same as TBS (which used to be WTBS), and a few others.
Sears is still under water, with no clear dates as to when we might be able to get back up into our room. It's not going to be a pretty re-start. This transmitter is 20 years old, and gets grumpy when it's cold.
Reply
0
0
05-20-2020, 04:49 PM
I absolutely love the whole premise of Dirk's couch. I have tried explaining it to people with limited success.
Upon reflection, that is an entirely different Douglas Adams joke about couches adrift in space & time.
Upon reflection, that is an entirely different Douglas Adams joke about couches adrift in space & time.
Reply
0
0
05-20-2020, 10:43 PM
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,033
Total Cats: 6,598
It just means that I have to wait nervously before being allowed back into my main transmitter site to start the process of gradually powering it back up.
Reply
0
0
05-21-2020, 10:17 AM
No, we're still working our asses off at the studio. All our signals are on the air. (WGN America uplinks from a local 9.2 meter dish on our property, and WGN 9 is up on the backup transmitter to Hancock.)
It just means that I have to wait nervously before being allowed back into my main transmitter site to start the process of gradually powering it back up.
It just means that I have to wait nervously before being allowed back into my main transmitter site to start the process of gradually powering it back up.
Reply
1
1
