Site Commentary
As everyone knows, I really do not hold back anything good nor bad when I am posting comments on this site. I have in the past commended Allied Telesis for their service and customer support when it meets and/or exceeds the standard by which they are contracted. I make no bones about it though, I and many others feel that Allied Telesis has been getting away with highway robbery at times either for their lack of compliance with their contract or for their lack of accountability to the community in terms of pricing and/or service standards.
Recently, there was an allegation made on this site stating that I delete comments of a positive nature about Allied from this site. Allied Telesis Rocks/Sucks.org comment management policy is as follows:
We welcome all comments of a positive, neutral, and negative nature from all parties on this site. We reserve the right to edit, modify, and/or delete any comment that is derogatory and/or defamatory without cause in nature or determined to be of an individual not stationed on Yokota Air Base. Comments from AAFES and Allied Telesis employees are always welcomed and highly encouraged and will be posted in their entirety or shorted for content, but only after both Allied Telesis Rocks/Sucks.org and the commenting party have come to an agreement as to how to best post the comment.
That being said, we recently had some comments posted to our petition portion of the website that will be deleted, as obviously do not belong on the petition, but still merit being read by all parties.
From: Not A Drama Queen
Date: June 1, 2009 @ 22:40:56I know this comment will be deleted like any positive comment on this site has before, but I wanted to say that I am surprised no one mentions how great the Internet has been doing on the West Side area of the base. A lot of people have noticed much faster speeds over the last month or so. I wanted to thank AT for that. This service is still a lot better than almost every other base I have ever been at, which makes it kind of makes this site seem like a bit of a day time soap opera freaking out about temporary phone outages. It happens with all companies.
Anyways, I think AT is doing a great job improving their services!
We also received a response to this message from an opposing point of view.
From: Unbelievable
Date: June 4, 2009 @ 17:23:10To not a drama queen,
I live on the West side and you must be delusional. The service has not been improving, in fact it has gotten worse. Having to reboot every day and waiting forever for a simple page to load is ridiculous. There is no reason to thank AT for anything. So unless you are friends with the owner or getting services “for a special price” I would say you should take your comment else where. We are not trying for a soap opera. What we are trying for is service that is fair. Not a rip off that we are all forced to take because of our location. If a lot of people have noticed the faster speeds, where are they and why am I not getting it? What other bases have you been to that are so horrible? I know it can’t be any bases in Japan as I have seen most of their services. I think you should take your chipper comment and prove it to us who have crappy service all year through. People like you aggravate me because you come in while people are trying to accomplish something and run your mouth. Take it somewhere else please. We are trying to get better service for all of Yokota. Although, if yours is so perfect, please let me know so that if the service does start improving we can tell them to skip your house.
Personally, I applaud you for placing a positive and obviously heartfelt comment on this site. I would ask you to consider doing it again in the future if you feel that we are off base about something or another. In fact, we would be interested in offering you the ability to write for our site, but you must contact us directly. It is always good to have an opposing point of view. I would ask you though to examine what you are saying a bit more closely as the comment of “It happens with all companies.” appears to be misguided or rather misleading. All phone service providers must meet the requirements under FCC regulations. Allied Telesis manages a pseudo system that leverages VoIP and POTS jointly to meet the customers service requirements. It would be one thing if VoIP went down as it did for several days as it did before because VoIP is universally recognized to be an inconsistent service. This is why services such as Vonage and others have a 9-11 support disclaimer when you sign up for their service. Conversely, POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) must meet a minimum service capability because of situations such as power outages, fires, natural disasters, etc. The FCC spells out explicitly the minimum requirements for said services and even military installations must meet a minimum standard of service that is akin to the FCC regulations.
That being said, you should recognize the importance of having a phone to call 9-11 for emergencies and other situations that enter the safety and security realm. Cell phones, while increasing in popularity, are not a suitable substitute for a land line during natural disasters as cell towers are easily overwhelmed by the sharply increased call volume. This can be seen time and time again during any natural disaster both in the states and in Japan.
On a personal note, living where we do on base we see almost weekly EMT’s responding to an incident involving a young children in housing. How would you like to be the parent of that child and pick up the phone to call 9-11 to be greeted with no dial tone? I do not think that anyone would feel that it is okay to not at least have 9-11 service available at a minimum.