An excuse... Thunder and Lightning...
clobbered one of our servers last week.
It also toasted a 24 pair telco trunk line
serving our humble edifice. We're back
now stronger than ever...
As I stated, I'd begin the story about
E-Spire and STReport. It's not a long
drawn out story but for what it is its a
success story I'd like you to know
about. BellSouth really blew it with
us. They were charging us interest on
monies we were charged by LD carriers who had
NO business being on our Bellsouth bills...
But Bellsouth decided they needed to be
there.. So, in reality, these usurious
charges by Bellsouth and the slamming of our
dedicated lines brought about a meeting
between E-Spire and STR Publishing.
E-Spire provides STR with one more line
and number for less that Bellsouth was
charging. Bellsouth, in our opinion, is
just like the rest of the bell-head driven
companies. Gouge, Gouge, and gouge 'em
some more ...do it to 'em until they scream
and then throw a bone in the form of a
partial refund or, let 'em gripe to the
Public Service Commission that's the biggest
joke of all as far as the bell telephone
companies are concerned. The bell phone
companies sneer at the various state PSC
offices. How is this easily
known? Take a look at how many people
and businesses are deeply upset with the bell
phone companies... For every "satisfied
customer" there's at least twenty who
are utterly disgusted and ready to change (in
may localities... this is impossible, the
Bell's have a stranglehold).
E-Spire proved to offer and deliver
reliable service that gave us a savings in
costs. The best part of our
relationship is the service... no matter when
we had a problem, E-Spire was right there to
help resolve the situation and provide
solutions that made sense. Even when it
was Bellsouth's complete fault for outages
and drop-outs. Bellsouth tried to blow
it off the first time but after a few
incidents we began to believe the dropouts
etc., were purposefully done to
"encourage" our return to the
Bellsouth "milking barn." That...
will never happen.
Friends, I strongly recommend you check
into E-Spire's services and offerings.
They're good at what they do and realize they
must be competitive and reliable.
On another front, Compaq Corp., long known
for strength, quality and reliability, may be
in for some very rough times. They seem
to be beset with the "bean counter"
syndrome and/or, the Canary Syndrome ( A BAD
Case of the CHEEPS!). While the
accountants are busy counting and conserving
beans, the company itself may be headed to
hell in an abacus case. By that I mean,
Compaq's internal mindset is seemingly
austerity (Why the grab for Digital?) and not
marketing aggressiveness. In many cases this
is good but in Compaq's case it might
indicate the zealots of conservatism have
taken over. Dell is running rings around
them. Hold on to your stocks and bonds
for as long as you are comfortable doing
so. At the same time, take a good look
at DELL. There's a company that knows
the true value of online publications and the
"reach" they have. Anybody
notice Dell is at the head of its
class? Yep... El numero Uno.
Why? Because the Bean Counters are NOT
running the show. Compaq had better
wake up. If for no other reason than to
protect its stockholders and loyal customers.
Hey Compaq, take a few lessons from Dell.
I could be wrong but I don't think so... If
you think I am... by all means, let me hear
from you. |