Allied Telesis @ Yokota Rocks/Sucks

Received my first incoming call from the outside today that was not routed through the backup number.  Sounded pretty good though I did not talk too long with my sister.  I remain cautiously optimistic, though I am not making any bets.

I went walking through the Yokota Community Center today and spied a neat poster in front of the Allied Telesis booth talking about how their television service was the cheapest of other military installations.  Oddly, the pricing they were showing was a comparison only to Americable Japan’s pricing/offering for the Navy bases.  Wow!  Does this mean that they are doing price matching now for other military installations and their services?  Let me give that a shot.  I know I am not a professional when it comes to price matching vs. offering, but I think I can take a pretty good stab at it.

LG Dacom (Osan AB)

Internet:

• Internet Super (10Mbps) – $59.95
• Internet Premium (5Mbps) – $49.95
• Internet Basic (2Mbps) – $39.95

Americable Japan

Internet:

• Platinum (15Mbps) – $74.75
• Gold (10Mbps) – $59.75
• Silver (2Mbps) – $38.95

I recon it looks like someone needs to change their prices especially since both Korea and Japan have very similar costs per Mbps.  Seems like Allied Telesis is the only one in both countries that is trying to charge us at rates that even higher than those in the US.  Give us a break!  We not as simple as you try to treat us.

Apparently Allied Telesis does not believe in truth in advertising.  If you take a look at their web site setup for Yokota, you will only see the good Stars and Stripes articles with no mention of the current technical problems or even some more recent articles highlighting the technical problems.  Sure, as with any web site this is their right and of course prerogative to do as they will, but you would think that they would at least take into consideration their deployed members who may or may not have access to personal e-mail accounts to receive their messages.

I did a quick look around the net and came up with only 3 sites with the alternate phone numbers displayed.  I found information at CUGY, Starts and Stripes, and of course our own infamous site Allied Telesis Rocks/Sucks.  All three sites have supplied both critical and complimentary remarks to/about Allied Telesis in the past.

Sadly AAFES and Allied Telesis have under utilized their own finely tuned propaganda machines to pump out the information about the phone problems to more mediums that are accessible by others outside of Yokota.  Sure, the crisis is nearly over, but you would think that by now you would see something out there aside from 3rd parties spreading the news.  It is disappointing to say the least and it has been nearly 10 days now without inbound calling capabilities.

I just checked my phone to see if my phone was part of the first ones brought up and online and found out that my phone number was still “unallocated”.  So, we are starting up a new poll to find out where we stand on implementation.  The more Yes’s we get as we go through the week, the better things are going…hopefully.

Over a little less than 3 days, about 1% of the customers at Yokota Air Base have spoken and added their support for a request to be sent to AAFES begging them to correct the course of existing contractor, Allied Telesis.  We have had a wide range of comments added to the signatures collected, a few of which we would like to share with you because it took our debate about the service to another level.  These few example comments even took us off guard and made us reevaluate our own motivations as they were not even considerations we had when we first embarked on this initiative.

“The lack of service by Allied Telesis is pathetic. I’ve been sitting here with NO WAY For family who evacuated from Hurricane Ike and have no cell phones to contact me! ” — XXXXX

This is a very serious issue because there is more than one family who has been cut off from being able to communicate during this critical time, both leading up to as well as during the still on going recovery period.  Sure, there are dial-in numbers, but as even Allied Telesis has admitted, there is a finite number of calls it can handle.

“I have cancer and diabetes and need to be able to contact my daughter and with your phone service I am never sure I can. I want her to live off base so I can be sure to contact her when necessary which I can’t with your POOR SERVICE”– XXXXX

Our sympathy and support goes out to this mother and her family as my husband and I can truly understand with what you are feeling.

While AlliedTelesisSucks.org is literally a non-profit organization at the moment, any earnings we make through our small amount of advertising will be donated to the American Cancer Society with a matching contribution from our own organization to American Diabetes Association for the next three months to do what we can while respecting he and her family’s privacy.

As of today, AlliedTelesisSucks.org has also made a one time donation to the American Red Cross National Disaster Relief Fund in hopes that our support will provide some small relief to those affected by Hurricane Ike.

If you would like to join AlliedTelesisSucks.org in a show of support for these families, please sign our petition and request AAFES enforce their contract with Allied Telesis and if at all possible, please take a moment and join us by donating to the American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, or the American Red Cross National Disaster Relief Fund.  It does not need to be much, but as we all know, every bit helps.

This message was sent to all Allied Telesis customers this afternoon.  All I can say is that I have high hopes, but I am not counting on anything.  Their last provider was very hard to track down.  They did not even have a web site so it made it appear that perhaps the company was a fly-by-night company.  According to the information I found, they are located out of Hawaii which may explain why there were frequent drops in calls and odd issues with calls connecting from time to time.

NEW INFORMATION

Dear Valued Customer,

We have completed the operational testing of the technical solution to the inbound calling problem.  Improved quality and functionality have been observed and we think you will be pleased with the improvement.  We are at the beginning stages of implementation and expect this to take us through the weekend and into early next week to complete. 

Please understand our stateside, 1(408)519-8616 temporary inbound solution, does have limited capacity.  To reduce the impact on other Yokota residents, please limit your inbound call, or call them back to free up the system for other residents.   

Customers will receive credits applied automatically to their accounts.  The amount of the credit will be based on the time services were impaired and determined at the time your service is back to normal.

We recognize that this has had an adverse impact on you and your family.  We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused and thank you for your patience. 

While the fix is being implemented, stateside callers are able to reach you by dialing any of the following options:

1(408)519-8616 and at the announcement, your 11 digit number.  

            011-81-34-580-1937 and at the announcement, your 11 digit number.

            011-81-42-552-2510 and at the announcement, 97 and your 11 digit number.

From within Japan, dial 034-580-1937 and at the announcement, your 11 digit number.

You can continue to make outbound long distance calls, calls to other Yokota residents and calls to the DSN as well as 911.

We will continue to provide regular updates via email and on channels 16 and 23 of your Allied Cable TV service.

V/r
XxxXx C. Xxxxx
Yokota Business General Manager
Allied Telesis, Inc

Remember to sign our petition requesting AAFES enforce their contract and service promises to Yokota.  You can see it here:  Petition To AAFES