Sandy Prompts FCC Hearings on Communications Outages

The Federal Communications Commission announced on Wednesday it will hold field hearings examining ways to keep communications systems up and running during natural disasters like Superstorm Sandy.

Lawmakers called for probes into communications outages after Sandy left as much as 25% of cell sites in its path inoperable when it hit the East Coast in October.

“This unprecedented storm has…

Sandy Takes Out Phone Networks

The high winds and flooding Monday night wreaked havoc across the North East, and telecommunications networks were not spared. Top providers say they are still determining the extent of the damage but their initial reports point to problems up and down the Eastern seaboard.

From AT&T:

As we continue to closely monitor our wireline and wireless networks for service disruptions, we are experiencing…

AT&T Tests Text-Message Translation

Just because you can’t speak another language doesn’t mean you can’t text in it. Mobile network AT&Tis trialing technology that lets customers send and receive text messages that are automatically translated from English to Spanish and back. A person simply registers a phone number as having a preferred language. Messages sent to that number in a different language are then automatically…

[1:42:39 PM] Erin Mo.: Welcome to AT&T online Sales support. How may I help you with placing your order today?

[1:43:41 PM] cust: I have pay as you go with $300 balance I now want to use apps but am not a big usert

[1:43:59 PM] cust: What best way to upgrade

[1:44:32 PM] Erin Mo.: That is a great question, Cust! I can definitely get you set up with an upgrade today! Thank you for being a loyal AT&T Wireless Customer!

[1:44:52 PM] Erin Mo.: You can choose any of our GoPhones to use to upgrade. We have a lot of them.

[1:45:06 PM] Erin Mo.: What were you wanting to do with your phone?

[1:45:25 PM] cust: use apps

[1:45:53 PM] Erin Mo.: What applications would you be using?

[1:46:11 PM] cust: I have not decided

[1:46:33 PM] cust: but one that pays for parking at meter

[1:47:28 PM] Erin Mo.: All right. We have a few of those. The first one that comes to my mind is the Samsung Galaxy S5 but we also have the Motorola Moto X and the HTC One M8. Are you interested in any of these phones?

[1:48:43 PM] cust: What are the montly charges how much ias phone and how ca I use my $300 credit

[1:49:21 PM] Erin Mo.: Well, we offer several different plans. I would recommend our $60/mo + taxes unlimited talk, text, and 2.5GB of data plan. THere are no extra charges.

[1:50:03 PM] cust: I saw a $25/month plan on your site

[1:50:10 PM] Erin Mo.: The Samsung Galaxy S5 is $649.99, the HTC One M8 is $669.99 and the Motorola Moto X is $399.99/mo.

[1:50:31 PM] Erin Mo.: We do also have a $25/mo plan but that comes with 250 minutes, unlimited text, and pay-as-you-go data.

[1:50:52 PM] cust: what about apps

[1:52:16 PM] Erin Mo.: THere is no limit on the applications. However to download without Wi-Fi access would cost you due to the fact that this plan does not come with data. Applications are separate from our plans. You would pay for those separately and download them separately.

[1:53:19 PM] cust: how do I get capability of wifi

[1:54:04 PM] Erin Mo.: The phone comes with it. You would simply need to turn the Wi-Fi toggle on, on the phone.

[1:54:26 PM] cust: I use an ipad

[1:55:29 PM] Erin Mo.: I'm a bit confused. To clarify, are you wanting this PrePaid plan for your iPad or your phone?

[1:55:55 PM] cust: I must say that you are really over sellin me ased on my needs I find that very offensive and inappropriate and would not trust a word you tell me I will contact amnother person

[1:57:31 PM] Erin Mo.: I'm sorry that you feel that way, Cust! I was not really trying to sell you more than what you needed. Could you explain to me what exactly you feel that you need?

[1:59:44 PM] Erin Mo.: Just checking in, do you have an idea about what you wanted for the GoPhone plan you were looking for?

[1:59:51 PM] cust: I have copied this conversatio and will provide it to appropriatee persons. You started at $60 went to $25, then tell me applications are separate, then you tell me I need to toggle a switch for starters

[2:00:30 PM] Erin Mo.: The Wi-Fi is not an extra charge. It is completely separate to your bill as are the applications. I'm sorry that you feel that way.

[2:00:46 PM] cust: Goodbye

[2:01:05 PM] SUPERVISOR: I do understand your concerns. I am truly not trying to oversell you, I am just trying to find the best plan with the perfect amount of data. I would hate for you to find yourself needing more data and incur the overage charges.

[2:01:14 PM] Erin Mo.: I do understand your concerns. I am truly not trying to oversell you, I am just trying to find the best plan with the perfect amount of data. I would hate for you to find yourself needing more data and incur the overage charges.

[2:01:17 PM] SUPERVISOR: Would you like to continue looking into our rate plans?

[2:01:24 PM] Erin Mo.: Would you like to continue looking into our rate plans?

[2:03:30 PM] Erin Mo.: I haven't heard from you for a while. Would you like to continue chatting?

[2:05:33 PM] Erin Mo.: I'm sorry we're having trouble connecting. I'm not able to leave the chat box open any longer. Please chat with us again anytime! Thank you for choosing AT&T. Have a great day.

What my supervisor was doing was called greening... yes for the text color. It appears green in my chat box. My replies appear black while the customers replies appear purple and the names appear blue. Anyway, he was talking to me without the customer even knowing that is happening. Happens all of the time with LivePerson chats. I also have a chatroom where I go to ask questions if I don't know the answer. So, when people over the chat or phone are saying "let me check with my boss or my information" I generally assume they are doing the same thing. I worked with Arise over the phone with Sears and I had a chatroom there as well. That's my "supervisor" whom I would talk to.