In TELECOM Digest V23 #578, Geoffrey Welsh <reply@newsgroup.please>
wrote (in part):
> ... am I right to suspect that Avaya is intentionally and
> systematically interfering with legitimate attempts to cancel
> contracts, perhaps because they feel they have nothing to lose
> and continuing payments to gain? In our case they lost an
> opportunity to sell a maintenance contract for the very same
> system in a different location, and a lasting impression on
> me that will make me try to avoid dealing with Avaya ever again.
> I share my story in the hopes that someone will learn from
> our mistake and not get hooked the way we did.
I suggest you tell your story to the Avaya Customer Response Team at
800-784-6104 or 908-953-6000 ('1' for "customer", then '9' for
CRT). Or, email them at <executiveoffic@avaya.com> (note the missing
'e' at the end of "office"), giving all the identifying numbers and
information and a description of the problem and your experiences
with it.
Avaya has been going through a lot of changes in recent years. In the
process, the nature of the problems customers have with them and the
way of getting help with those problems have changed somewhat, too.
The best way I have found to deal with any billing or contract renewal
issues (if your account executive or business partner or a few phone
calls don't get the required resolution) is to go straight to the
Customer Response Team.
In my 15 years of dealing with Avaya (and Lucent and AT&T), I've found
that numerous aspects of their billing and sales, and a few portions
of their web site, can be agonizingly difficult to deal with.
However, I have found their equipment, software, documentation,
service, and support are almost always exceptional.
I've dealt with other companies whose best efforts come from their
marketing, sales, and billing operations, while their actual products
and services languish in mediocrity or worse. If I have to choose the
lesser of two headaches, I'll take the billing problems.
(This is my own experience and opinion and does not necessarily
reflect any organizational endorsement of Avaya or any other vendor.)
Paul A Lee Sr Telecom Engineer <palee@riteaid.com>
Rite Aid Corporation HL-IS-COM (Telecomm) V: +1 717 730-8355
30 Hunter Lane, Camp Hill, PA 17011-2410 F: +1 717 975-3789
P.O. Box 3165, Harrisburg, PA 17105-3165 W: +1 717 805-6208
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Has anyone ever observed how
approximatly half of the employees at any given company are there
solely to correct mistakes made by the other half? And a large
number of those hired to correct mistakes have to correct the
errors of the first bunch of correctors (i.e. customer response
teams, etc). I wonder how things would go if companies thoroughly
and completely trained the fifty percent of the work force they
would need if they did it that way to start with? PAT]
Paul A Lee (palee@riteaid.com)