[AusNOG] Experience with pipe since tpg

[Skeeve Stevens]

Happy to respond publicly since Pipe/TPG seem to hate me these days (hi
guys!).

<Note: This is my *opinion*>

Pipe was an amazing company with very good engineers and service.  They had
their hiccups, but who doesn't.

They had a pride in what they delivered and their engineers talked proudly
about what they had built and were running.

Pipe-by-TPG is very different.  The service is gone to crap.  They don't
care anymore about much.  The standards of service have gone to an all-time
low with their staff caring little for quality.

Recently we gave them 7 days notice of attending one of their DC's to do
work, told them exactly what X-Connects we wanted and where.  Turn up on
site, and nothing is done.  Ring the NOC who after looking around for 15
minutes, found the request and respond with 'Oh, guess no one did it'.  I
told them we had expensive engineers waiting to do a job and had a plane to
catch back in a few hours.  They asked if we could come back tomorrow...
what?  After some pressure they said they would send someone out.  I asked
how long.. they said 2 hours.  I asked 'how about now?' and the phone guy
asked someone nearby if he could go now.. to which the response I could
hear was 'Can I get lunch of the way?'  What? I said NO, this is urgent and
their fault it wasn't done.  They said fine, they would be there in 45mins.
 3 hours later the engineer turned up.  I wish I could say this was an
isolated experience. Welcome to the new Pipe.

This is a small community and when staff leave Pipe, and I known quite a
few people in technical, sales, etc... all have horror stories of what it
is like to work for them - most of which are too scary to share.

That said... apart from slow provisioning times, and the occasional
provisioning screw-up, the fibre network, once working rarely has problems
- but I guess they didn't build that.

While the above may be a typical example, we have to remember that TPG is
primarily in the business of end-consumer products and that is what you are
going to get.

Today will be an interesting day as TPG take control of AAPT.  AAPT hasn't
always been the best, and my experiences lately have made me wonder if TPG
had already taken over... but I do expect things to get a lot worse as
their influence spreads throughout the organisation.  Personally, I hope I
am wrong, but only time will tell.


...Skeeve

*Skeeve Stevens - *eintellego Networks Pty Ltd
skeeve at eintellegonetworks.com ; www.eintellegonetworks.com

Phone: 1300 239 038; Cell +61 (0)414 753 383 ; skype://skeeve

facebook.com/eintellegonetworks ;  <http://twitter.com/networkceoau>
linkedin.com/in/skeeve

twitter.com/theispguy ; blog: www.theispguy.com


The Experts Who The Experts Call
Juniper - Cisco - Cloud - Consulting - IPv4 Brokering


On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 4:04 PM, Matthew VK3EVL <hitman at itglowz.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> A colleague has asked me what pipe is like since tpg took over. As I don't
> deal with pipe These days I thought I'd ask here.
> Probably best for replies off list as I know its a very subjective
> question. Main thing I'm looking for I guess is what support and service
> levels are like compared to pre-tpg. Better, worse, around the same.
>
> Have a good weekend.
>
> Cheers
> Matthew
> _______________________________________________
> AusNOG mailing list
> AusNOG at lists.ausnog.net
> http://lists.ausnog.net/mailman/listinfo/ausnog
>
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