[asterisk-biz] Anyone try to call VoIP Supply?

Sat Oct 14 13:25:36 MST 2006

I'm sure they appreciate the lecture. They'll probably get round to
reading it right after they've made sure all their staff, their
familes and their communities are safe and well.

Did the bottom drop out of the ambulance-chasing business?

On 14/10/06, Matthew Rubenstein <email at mattruby.com> wrote:
>        As I said, I'm not singling out VoIPSupply, they're just an
> illustration of a basic value of Asterisk that's not being utilized in
> this case. As I said, their website isn't down, because it (apparently)
> doesn't depend on a server in their office, therefore on their office
> power and WAN connection. It's probably in a datacenter (or maybe
> someone else's small office, outside of Buffalo, in which case I hope
> they learn from this outage and move it somewhere reliable). Which is
> now the conventional wisdom for websites.
>
>        After over 10 years of businesses learning they're better off with
> continuing telecom presence, even when their offices are closed,
> websites have uptime assurance, like "harder" servers and redundant
> failover. Telephones are even more critical. Not just to running the
> business, but perhaps to surviving whatever shut the office, perhaps
> even saving lives. Asterisk has even better failover facilities than
> most webservers, so it's got the tech. I'd expect VoIPSupply still have
> phones, because they sell VoIP gear, which can survive a disaster like
> the one in Buffalo. Their neighbors probably don't have that advantage.
>
>        But, as I said, 'this is not a reflection on VoIPSupply compared to
> competitors or anyone else in particular. I think it's more a reflection
> on the newness of the industry, and the general tendency of "Internet"
> suppliers not to "eat their own dogfood'.
>
>        I think this snowstorm is an object lesson to the Asterisk business
> community in the value of Asterisk's support for redundancy and
> transparent call routing for failover. Or the wisdom of network
> topologies that include tougher datacenters for uptime. Or both, or
> something similar. VoIPSupply is a good example, because they're in the
> business, their town does get these disasters fairly regularly (though
> not quite so much so soon, but still inevitably). They might be the
> early example that upgrades the community's disaster preparedness
> baseline. Most places have an equivalent, and the general trend is for
> increasing necessity of disaster preparedness everywhere. VoIPSupply now
> has the advantage of having lived through it, so they could be be one of
> the best disaster-prepared companies the next time around.
>
>        If VoIPSupply, or any of their neighbors, were prepared this time
> around, we wouldn't be having this discussion. They'd be explaining how
> their phones were the only ones in Buffalo to stay up, still doing
> business while everyone else was shut down. Next time around, we will
> have a chance to learn from them how to do it. That next time is
> inevitable, and in Buffalo, probably pretty soon.
>
>
> On Sat, 2006-10-14 at 09:16 -0400, Matt wrote:
> > I've always liked voipsupply and their customer service... just keep
> > in mind this outage has nothing to prove about VoIP... regardless if
> > they are running VoIP or a NorHell phone system, it would be down.  I
> > tried calling several others companies at random that are on the same
> > road as them, and they all ring fast busy or just ring and ring.
> >
> > On 10/13/06, Matthew Rubenstein <email at mattruby.com> wrote:
> > >         Snowstorms and power outages are understandable reasons for business
> > > closures. But Asterisk offers flexible call routing and voicemail to
> > > address disaster preparedness. VoIPSupply sells packaged HW/SW, and
> > > isn't an Asterisk developer, so this doesn't strike as close to home.
> > > But keeping phone connectivity up despite network/office problems is one
> > > of the major selling points of VoIP. If they sold network gear (they do)
> > > or servers and their website were down because it depended on a machine
> > > in their vulnerable office, that would reflect on their use of the
> > > technology they sell. This snowstorm is unusually severe for so early,
> > > but in Buffalo they expect these kinds of problems. I'd expect their
> > > phone access, even just to a status message, to stay up in expectation
> > > of these kinds of problems.
> > >
> > >         This is not a reflection on VoIPSupply compared to competitors or
> > > anyone else in particular. I think it's more a reflection on the newness
> > > of the industry, and the general tendency of "Internet" suppliers not to
> > > "eat their own dogfood".
> > >
> > >
> > > On Fri, 2006-10-13 at 15:33 -0400, Matt wrote:
> > > > Well maybe it is a power outage.. I tried calling a few other places
> > > > on sonwil drive and they also are coming up busy or ring-no-answer.
> > > >
> > > > On 10/13/06, Matt <mhoppes at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > Yeah.. I just posted a question about this to the regular list.
> > > > >
> > > > > Our sales guy has been offline for 2+ days.  Their 800, and direct
> > > > > lines are FAST busy (not busy).. canadian store and blogs are offline.
> > > > >  Did they have a fire or something?  I just ordered from them on
> > > > > Friday of last week... and got my item on Tuesday.
> > > > >
> > > > > On 10/13/06, Andrew Joakimsen <joakimsen at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > > All their phones are busy.... I guess they just totally gave up on
> > > > > > customer service....
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> > > (C) Matthew Rubenstein
> > >
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> (C) Matthew Rubenstein
>
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-- 
Peter Bowyer
Email: peter at bowyer.org