45682
submission
Penguinisto writes:
Do we dare hope? It seems that come tomorrow morning, The US Supreme Court is about to examine the "Obviousness" of software patents, thanks to an upcoming patent case by eBay. If the justices actually decide to do something about this, it could slow down the patent trolls (but then, it could embolden them too... depending on how things turn out).
35998
submission
Penguinisto writes:
So — if a big corporation wherein there is someone (in the IT department) you need to get hold of on the phone doesn't have a publicly published number, how do you get hold of them? Usually this isn't a problem, but sometimes it just gets ugly in trying to get hold of someone else's IT department...
Okay, here's the background: I'm a mail admin who is currently t-shooting a bit of a problem between my SMTP relay servers. A handful of recipient clients have an ISP (Verizon) that keeps bouncing mail. All other recipient ISP's I send to receive mail just fine; the problem most likely lies in how Verizon filters inbound mail.
Now here's the problem: After trying to get hold of someone (anyone!) there who actually knows how Verizon's SMTP servers run, I've run into a series of brick walls. Almost every number they post or provide online funnels you straight into their call center, where I have been told all kinds of fun and wild things I could do to troubleshoot my little SMTP problem (e.g., and I'm not kidding: "Maybe you should check the POP settings on your mail servers.") Asking for a supervisor gives no joy thus far — usually I'm informed that they cannot cough up the phone number of the people I need to speak with (usually because they don't know it). Their corporate website contact info either bumps you back to the call centers, or flat-out gives no results (their corporate HQ number is almost always too busy or their voice system gets confused and throws you back into the tech support queue). Emailing them (in my case, from another SMTP server entirely outside the affected domain) results in the sent mail falling into a black hole, where literally a week has gone by with no response. Databases like GetHuman are good sometimes, but sometimes it gives the same results.
So, here's the question: How on Earth does an ordinary sysadmin get around this problem when it arises (I know I can't be the only one to have come up against this)? Call Centers I know are usually contracted-out to third parties, so there is a huge disconnect between tech support and the people you actually need to get hold of. Is there something I'm completely ignorant of here, or are there just companies whose organization is so mucked-up that they completely neglect to take these things into account?
