Our AT&T sales rep got us a pretty good deal on a new MPLS implementation, but the install left a lot to be desired. Our previous MPLS install was handled by DPSciences and they did a great job of making sure all the technical aspects were handled and of making sure all the billing issues that accompany such an install were handled as well. However, for the new implementation AT&T used Sykes and they did a wretched job of managing the install:
- We weren’t given proper ETAs for installs. This resulted in the install at one site being done improperly and the install at a different site not being scheduled at all. This the led to a sticky billing issue where we were billed for circuits that were ready to be turned up, but couldn’t be utilized until the last circuit was brought up.
- I asked the Sykes tech if our Class of Service was brought over. The lack of response should have told me that something was up and it turned out that it wasn’t applied at all by their incompetent tech. The lack of response didn’t register any higher in my mind since their tech never responded to me about anything.
- They didn’t bring over an important custom configuration for one of our routers as I nagged them to do. How hard is it to save a router configuration and then apply it to a different router that’s the same make and model?!?
- It took a week of incessant nagging on my part in trying to figure out what was wrong with our new MPLS implementation before they eventually got back to me to let me know that there were routing errors only because one of our old MPLS routers was left on. Yes, I guess I should have known, but would it have killed them to let me know that couple days sooner?
As a side note, we had an AT&T MIS Internet circuit put in by ACS and they did a great job as well. There are plenty of other great AT&T outsource choices besides the apparently awful Sykes.
(UPDATE 3/3/11: Since so many users from AT&T have apparently taken an interest in this post I figured I would elaborate on the one aspect of the situation. On our original MPLS implementation, which had chronic maintenance issues, we had a class of service configuration to accommodate primarily voice traffic, and secondarily Outlook and RDP/ICA traffic. Despite e-mails and phone calls, Sykes decided not to bring this over and they closed out the install, meaning that I had to go through (several) change procedures before it was operating properly).