From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: GTE Thinks I live in 213
Date: 20 Aug 92 00:00:00 GMT
Reply-To: John Higdon <john@zygot.ati.com>
Organization: Green Hills and Cows
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 648, Message 5 of 10

aimla!ruby!rudholm@uunet.UU.NET (Mark Rudholm) writes:

> Can't somebody put GTE out of our misery??!!!

Well, you could always do what a major client of mine is in the
process of doing. Ignoring advice to not locate a billing center in
GTE area, this outfit took space in a Long Beach industrial park. For
the past year the GTE horrors have been non-stop.

The first problem was so typical GTE: "Sorry, we don't have the
facilities in your area to give you additional lines." GTE NEVER has
enough facilities for ANYTHING. If you need 100 lines, it has twenty
available. If you need one, it has none. Mind you, Long Beach is a
major city in Los Angeles County -- very much a part of the LA metro
area. The billing center was located in an industrial park, not an
isolated residential district. Yet GTE did not have enough lines.

The next problem was T1 delivery of MCI. GTE missed deadline after
deadline installing the hi-cap circuit. Finally when legal action was
threatened, it appeared that GTE hired an outside firm to engineer the
circuit and to install it. In other words, apparently GTE did not even
have a clue as to how to provide that type of service!

There have been billing errors, service outages, and a host of other
problems. At all times, GTE reps were snotty, uncooperative, and
exuded the distinct air of "we are the phone company -- where the hell
else are you going to go?"

Answer: Anaheim. These people were actually considering just pulling
the plug and going out of business when they finally came to their
senses. It turns out that the move to Anaheim will pay for itself
within a couple of months, after which their costs will be
substantially less. When asking Pac*Bell for due dates in Anaheim, the
responses have been, "When do you need it?" Indeed, my experience with
Pac*Bell is that circuits frequently get turned up early. When you
call GTE asking why an order was not installed, you find they lost it.

Trust me. My quarter-century of exhaustive experience is telling you
that if telephone service is important to you and you live in
California, avoid GTE like the plague. If you have a business, never,
ever, locate it in a GTE service area. If you do, you might just as
well get your chapters ready to file now. I am in the process of
compiling a list of businesses that would love to put a contract out
on GTE. Within my circle, possibly a hundred or so people, GTE is the
devil incarnate.

So next month Long Beach will lose a thriving company and Anaheim will
gain one. Is it any wonder that the Town Council of Los Gatos passed a
resolution condemning GTE?


        John Higdon         |   P. O. Box 7648   |   +1 408 264 4115
    john@zygot.ati.com      | San Jose, CA 95150 |       M o o !


[Moderator's Note: No, but it wouldn't surprise me if GTE passed a
corporate resolution condemning you!  PAT]