For the BT knockers

Villagers who suffered broadband nightmares for up to two years have
seen an end to their problems thanks to the dedication of three
Openreach engineers.

I'd better not name them without their permission so let's call them
Tom, Dick and Harry - brought joy to the residents of Oaksey near
Cirencester by giving up their own time to solve the mystery. Tom said:
?I?ve never come across anything like this before in my 39 years in the
job. ?We were determined to get to the bottom of the problem and were
absolutely elated when we finally did - but not as elated as the
residents.?

Electrical interference
Up to 50 villagers had suffered slow or no broadband connections as soon
as darkness fell - despite ongoing investigations by Openreach and a
number of internet service providers including BT. ?We believed it was
some kind of electrical interference - sometimes these faults can be
caused by customers? fluorescent lighting or the transformers used to
power Christmas lights,? Tom said.

?Because it happened every day as soon as darkness fell, we tried
eliminating the floodlights used by the local golf course as well as the
street lights.? Tom and Dick finally narrowed the problem down to a
fault with a resident?s security system. ?When we isolated the faulty
transformer, Harry said it was one of the highlights of his career,?
said Tom.

Openreach operations manager Fred Bloggs added: ?Tom, Dick and Harry
showed exceptional dedication by giving up evenings and weekends to
solve the problem. ?The villagers were overjoyed, and to be honest so
were we - customer service on that scale is what makes our jobs
worthwhile.?

Nothing wrong with BT Openreach..salt of the earth actually. Its BT
retail, Purveyors of Adam and Jane.... that need to be shut down completely.

On Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:11:36 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> Nothing wrong with BT Openreach..salt of the earth actually. Its BT
> retail, Purveyors of Adam and Jane.... that need to be shut down
> completely.

And they probably disciplined those guys for wasting time.

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

[Default] On Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:11:36 +0000, a certain chimpanzee,
The Natural Philosopher <(E-Mail Removed)>, randomly hit the
keyboard and wrote:

>Nothing wrong with BT Openreach..salt of the earth actually. Its BT
>retail, Purveyors of Adam and Jane.... that need to be shut down completely.

It's the curse of any large bureaucracy, public or private.
Individuals generally want to do their best; not all of course, but
those that do within a small group will be applauded & succeed. Within
a large organisation, that praise is not forthcoming, those who do a
bad job are not taken to task and those in charge are those who can
play politics, so there's no incentive to do a good job.
--
Hugo Nebula
"If no-one on the internet wants a piece of this,
just how far from the pack have I strayed"?

On Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:31:40 +0000, Bob Eager texted:

> On Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:11:36 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>
>> Nothing wrong with BT Openreach..salt of the earth actually. Its BT
>> retail, Purveyors of Adam and Jane.... that need to be shut down
>> completely.
>
> And they probably disciplined those guys for wasting time.

And put them on final written warnings for poor productivity and being
off route according to their GPS fix.

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
(E-Mail Removed) says...
>
> [Default] On Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:11:36 +0000, a certain chimpanzee,
> The Natural Philosopher <(E-Mail Removed)>, randomly hit the
> keyboard and wrote:
>
> >Nothing wrong with BT Openreach..salt of the earth actually. Its BT
> >retail, Purveyors of Adam and Jane.... that need to be shut down completely.
>
> It's the curse of any large bureaucracy, public or private.
> Individuals generally want to do their best; not all of course, but
> those that do within a small group will be applauded & succeed. Within
> a large organisation, that praise is not forthcoming, those who do a
> bad job are not taken to task and those in charge are those who can
> play politics, so there's no incentive to do a good job.

It's the POTENTIAL curse of large organisations. It's not a given.
The degree to which the curse applies is in inverse proportion to the
competence of the top management - particularly the CEO.

The present BT board has allowed the corporate curse to proliferate.
Livingstone is particularly to blame - as long as the figures look OK,
he doesn't care. As all ex-corporate warriors are aware, the figures can
be distorted to prove anything (usually justifications of annual
bonuses).

BT Retail is largely Ian Livingstones's creation, and it shows.

Gaius wrote:
> In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
> (E-Mail Removed) says...
>> [Default] On Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:11:36 +0000, a certain chimpanzee,
>> The Natural Philosopher <(E-Mail Removed)>, randomly hit the
>> keyboard and wrote:
>>
>>> Nothing wrong with BT Openreach..salt of the earth actually. Its BT
>>> retail, Purveyors of Adam and Jane.... that need to be shut down completely.
>> It's the curse of any large bureaucracy, public or private.
>> Individuals generally want to do their best; not all of course, but
>> those that do within a small group will be applauded & succeed. Within
>> a large organisation, that praise is not forthcoming, those who do a
>> bad job are not taken to task and those in charge are those who can
>> play politics, so there's no incentive to do a good job.
>
> It's the POTENTIAL curse of large organisations. It's not a given.
> The degree to which the curse applies is in inverse proportion to the
> competence of the top management - particularly the CEO.
>
> The present BT board has allowed the corporate curse to proliferate.
> Livingstone is particularly to blame - as long as the figures look OK,
> he doesn't care. As all ex-corporate warriors are aware, the figures can
> be distorted to prove anything (usually justifications of annual
> bonuses).
>
> BT Retail is largely Ian Livingstones's creation, and it shows.
+1

It is a classic example of a large business that has had a CEO shooed in
who has lots of theoretical accounting and marketing quals. but no
actual common sense.


Compare 'Adam and Jane' - my all time most nasuseous campaign with 'Good
honest Yorkshire broadband'.

Broadband is a commodity, like bread. Not a luxury
shiny-thing-make-it-all-better device, like an I-Plonker

(I see Jane has lost Adam, the kids and the baby, and is mistily
dreaming of virtual shoes and watching old movies, these days: That poor
actress. She will never work again).

On 17/11/2011 12:04, Gaius wrote:
> In article<(E-Mail Removed) >,
> (E-Mail Removed) says...
>>
>> [Default] On Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:11:36 +0000, a certain chimpanzee,
>> The Natural Philosopher<(E-Mail Removed)>, randomly hit the
>> keyboard and wrote:
>>
>>> Nothing wrong with BT Openreach..salt of the earth actually. Its BT
>>> retail, Purveyors of Adam and Jane.... that need to be shut down completely.
>>
>> It's the curse of any large bureaucracy, public or private.
>> Individuals generally want to do their best; not all of course, but
>> those that do within a small group will be applauded& succeed. Within
>> a large organisation, that praise is not forthcoming, those who do a
>> bad job are not taken to task and those in charge are those who can
>> play politics, so there's no incentive to do a good job.
>
> It's the POTENTIAL curse of large organisations. It's not a given.
> The degree to which the curse applies is in inverse proportion to the
> competence of the top management - particularly the CEO.
>
> The present BT board has allowed the corporate curse to proliferate.
> Livingstone is particularly to blame - as long as the figures look OK,
> he doesn't care. As all ex-corporate warriors are aware, the figures can
> be distorted to prove anything (usually justifications of annual
> bonuses).
>
> BT Retail is largely Ian Livingstones's creation, and it shows.

Yep - and I recall him making an announcement some time back that BT
were moving away from overseas call centres because customers preferred
to speak to someone in the UK.
It's happening gradually with their phone service but BTinternet still
relies on our friends in India. Which is one of the main reasons why I
went over to Plusnet (the other being the high cost of internet service
from BT retail).
It's also ironic that BT bought out Plusnet but at least had the sense
not to merge it with BTinternet.

George

George Weston wrote:
> On 17/11/2011 12:04, Gaius wrote:
>> In article<(E-Mail Removed) >,
>> (E-Mail Removed) says...
>>>
>>> [Default] On Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:11:36 +0000, a certain chimpanzee,
>>> The Natural Philosopher<(E-Mail Removed)>, randomly hit the
>>> keyboard and wrote:
>>>
>>>> Nothing wrong with BT Openreach..salt of the earth actually. Its BT
>>>> retail, Purveyors of Adam and Jane.... that need to be shut down
>>>> completely.
>>>
>>> It's the curse of any large bureaucracy, public or private.
>>> Individuals generally want to do their best; not all of course, but
>>> those that do within a small group will be applauded& succeed. Within
>>> a large organisation, that praise is not forthcoming, those who do a
>>> bad job are not taken to task and those in charge are those who can
>>> play politics, so there's no incentive to do a good job.
>>
>> It's the POTENTIAL curse of large organisations. It's not a given.
>> The degree to which the curse applies is in inverse proportion to the
>> competence of the top management - particularly the CEO.
>>
>> The present BT board has allowed the corporate curse to proliferate.
>> Livingstone is particularly to blame - as long as the figures look OK,
>> he doesn't care. As all ex-corporate warriors are aware, the figures can
>> be distorted to prove anything (usually justifications of annual
>> bonuses).
>>
>> BT Retail is largely Ian Livingstones's creation, and it shows.
>
> Yep - and I recall him making an announcement some time back that BT
> were moving away from overseas call centres because customers preferred
> to speak to someone in the UK.
> It's happening gradually with their phone service but BTinternet still
> relies on our friends in India. Which is one of the main reasons why I
> went over to Plusnet (the other being the high cost of internet service
> from BT retail).
> It's also ironic that BT bought out Plusnet but at least had the sense
> not to merge it with BTinternet.
>

there may be method there: but a competitor, and let them run side by
side. Whomever wins gets more budget and the loser gradually dies.

once everyone is on 'plusnet' merge the remains scrap the BT internet
team, and rename it BT Plusnet.

> George

On 17/11/11 13:34, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> there may be method there: but a competitor, and let them run side by side.
> Whomever wins gets more budget and the loser gradually dies.
>
> once everyone is on 'plusnet' merge the remains scrap the BT internet team,
> and rename it BT Plusnet.
>

Not necessarily. Different products for different markets. Just the same as
the markets for a supermini hatchback (Ford Ka, Toyota Aygo etc) and a Van
(Transit etc) are different.

But companies (eg Ford) will be active in both markets selling both products.