[Asterisk-Users] ITSPs with good phone support

[Johnathan Corgan]

With the recent service outage at Broadvoice, there has been a lot of 
discussion here, on broadband reports, Voxilla, etc., regarding whether 
VOIP is mature, or "ready for the masses", etc.

One particular point I've seen repeated, and with which I agree:

"we're willing to deal with less than five 9s, even one or 2 9s, as long 
as we have good communication regarding the issue and its resolution."

In other words, good customer relations are as important or even more 
important than the highest quality of service.

This is no great revelation, but I don't see it practiced very much in 
this industry.  We read many comments about long hold times, dropped 
calls after waiting in the queue, tech support agents who misdirect or 
hide internal issues, etc.

Personally, I could almost live with the bizarre happenings at 
Broadvoice if there was an official channel of communication outlining 
what was happening and estimates on return to service.  While I recently 
on this list have been a supporter of them ("growing pains, not 
incompetency"), recent events, with zero communication, have worn me 
down.  My money is going elsewhere.

As a counter example, I recently switched to Sonic.net DSL service. 
They turned the service on almost a week before they said they would, 
and I called the support line to get some information that would 
normally arrive by mail but hadn't yet.  There was no queue!  After 
three rings, it answered, and the person who picked up was able to 
answer all my questions, was not hurried, and could even answer my Linux 
and Linksys questions, even though this wasn't "supported."  I think 
they must pay these people a lot more money than industry standard, as 
their "customer skills" were outstanding.  On a $45/mo. service, no 
less.  I called back when something wasn't working right, and got the 
same experience, with the problem fixed while I waited on the phone.

This has nothing to do with the maturity of the technology or newness of 
the industry, this was just a good investment in a customer service 
department of the business.

Where do the rest of you weigh in on this?

Are there any VOIP to PSTN gateway companies with this same sense of 
focus?  VOIP *isn't* mature and probably *isn't* ready for the masses, 
but we early adopters seem to be able to live with these things if there 
is appropriate communication going on.

Who's the leading contender for "customer service of the year" award 
among the dozens of providers that show up on the Wiki?

-Johnathan