A True Parable of Our Times

In the interests of advancing public insight and assisting any future chroniclers of our times, I have elected to publicly exhibit certain recent communications with a corporation which capture many essential elements of the contemporary consumer Zeitgeist.

The corporation involved is Bell Canada, a company whose business is all about communication. It is the main subsidiary of Bell Canada Enterprises, Canada's largest communications company (according to its website), and provides "local telephone, long distance, wireless communications, Internet access, data, satellite television and other services to residential and business customers through some 27 million customer connections."

Bell Canada offers High Speed Internet Access service through a corporate unit known as Sympatico. I am a customer.

The communications I've received from this communications company may astound and appall you. Please bear in mind that what follows is not just one man's experience, but something that highlights the contemporary condition. I am clarifying your world.

Satisfaction is not guaranteed.

BACKGROUND

Users of Sympatico's Internet service may have multiple email addresses. Customers can create and/or delete their email addresses themselves at Sympatico's "self-care" website.

I'd been using the address tomrsn@sympatico.ca for some time, but once it began receiving excessive spam I decided to delete it and create a new address which I'd use from then on.

After deletion, of course, the address tomrsn@sympatico.ca was no longer valid, and I received error messages on attempting to retrieve mail sent to that mailbox.

Question: What should happen if Joe, not knowing of my address change, sends email to tomrsn@sympatico.ca after I have deleted the address?

Answer: Sympatico's system should bounce back with an automatic response to Joe telling him: Your message was rejected — tomrsn@sympatico.ca is not a valid address. Otherwise, Joe will assume his message will reach me.

I'm spelling this out awfully painstakingly so as to be accessible even to the granny generation, but really, my dears, all this is utterly elementary in the Internet world.

Anyway, that's the problem here. No bounce-back is happening for messages sent to my defunct tomrsn@sympatico.ca address. There is something wrong with the Sympatico system.

Below is my correspondence with Sympatico's technical support people, wherein I attempt to bring them news of this problem.

As you chew on the meat of the matter, be careful to savor the incidentals as well. For example:

• The unwieldy Issue ID (KMM11316087V28510L0KM), suggestive of an ocean of customer issues the beleaguered company is attempting to track;
• The unceasing solicitations to partake of a Member Satisfaction Survey (as if one would be needed to find the reasons for dissatisfaction);
• The seemingly random glitch lines appearing in most of the messages from the company, which are actually unintended detritus left behind by the clumsy system which corporate representatives are using to insert boilerplate text. Thus "*****RRC:etimoreinfo,LID:mlacroix*****", for example, represents
  • the internal label for boilerplate text requesting "more info", and
  • the name of the corporate representative — M. Lacroix -- who has prepared the message.

  Representatives' names are probably supposed to be confidential, but several are exposed in this way.

The correspondence follows:

From Uriel to Sympatico

From: Uriel Wittenberg

To: Sympatico Tech Support

Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 4:29 PM

Subject: No bounce from deleted mailbox

Greetings. I deleted my <tomrsn@sympatico.ca> address today. But messages
sent to it are not bounced back.

I found this because I did not receive a bounce back to my <uw@urielw.com>
address, as I should have because of the message shown below (sent 1:45 PM).

Please advise!

Thanks,

Uriel

[customer ID]

----- Original Message -----

From: "Uriel Wittenberg" <uw@urielw.com>

To: <tomrsn@sympatico.ca>

Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 1:45 PM

Subject: hi

From Sympatico to Uriel

From: Sympatico

To: Uriel Wittenberg

Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 8:04 PM

Subject: Re: No bounce from deleted mailbox (KMM11316087V28510L0KM)

Hello Mr. Wittenberg,

You have reached Bell Internet Services, my name is Luke and I
appreciate the opportunity to respond.

You can not change the parent email account. Therefore even if you
remove it from Outlook Express it is still a valide email account in our
files.

Do not hesitate to contact us again.

NetAssistant* is a free service that delivers leading edge, diagnostic
and repair tools directly to your desktop. The program will detect and
fix problems on your computer related to your Internet connection,
e-mail or Web browser. You can also chat with a live Sympatico
representative 24/7 via NetAssistant.

Download NetAssistant today at:

http://download.sympatico.ca/netassistant/netassistant.exe

Thank you for choosing Bell and have a nice day.

Regards,

Luke

Electronic Customer Care

Sympatico Member Services

=====

We hope that you were satisfied with the service that you have received
via e-mail. In an on-going effort to provide the best possible Customer
service, we invite you to take our Member Satisfaction Survey. We are
continuously looking at ways to improve our service and we would
appreciate your comments and feedback.

http://eccsurvey.sympatico.ca/

======

Save yourself time and visit our Internet Tips, Technical Support and
Account & Billing pages to see if we already have a solution to your
problem.

http://service.sympatico.ca/

From Uriel to Sympatico

From: Uriel Wittenberg

To: Sympatico

Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 10:40 PM

Subject: Re: No bounce from deleted mailbox (KMM11316087V28510L0KM)

You have misunderstood the problem.

I did not attempt to change the parent email account.

The main email address is [an address different from tomrsn@sympatico.ca].

I deleted an extra email address I'd added to my account:

<tomrsn@sympatico.ca>

From Sympatico to Uriel

From: Sympatico

To: Uriel Wittenberg

Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 12:13 AM

Subject: Re: Re: No bounce from deleted mailbox (KMM11316915V43841L0KM)

Hello Uriel Wittenberg,

You have reached Bell Internet Services, my name is Michel and I
appreciate the opportunity to respond.

*****RRC:etimoreinfo,LID:mlacroix*****

Your message does not contain the information we need to efficiently
troubleshoot. To help you remedy this issue, please try to answer as
many questions below as possible:

- What email program are you using?

- What is the exact problem you are having?

- What operating system are you using? (Windows 98/ME/2000/NT/XP, Mac

which OS version?)

- Is your computer connected to a network or through a router?

- Is your computer running firewall or anti-virus software?

Upon receipt of this information, we will be able to assist you further.

I trust that I have answered all of your questions or concerns regarding
your email problem. Do not hesitate to contact us again.

NetAssistant* is a free service that delivers leading edge, diagnostic
and repair tools directly to your desktop. The program will detect and
fix problems on your computer related to your Internet connection,
e-mail or Web browser. You can also chat with a live Sympatico
representative 24/7 via NetAssistant.

Download NetAssistant today at:

http://download.sympatico.ca/netassistant/netassistant.exe

Thank you for choosing Bell and have a nice day.

Regards,

Michel

Electronic Customer Care

Sympatico Member Services

======

We hope that you were satisfied with the service that you have received
via e-mail. In an on-going effort to provide the best possible Customer
service, we invite you to take our Member Satisfaction Survey. We are
continuously looking at ways to improve our service and we would
appreciate your comments and feedback.

http://eccsurvey.sympatico.ca/

======

Save yourself time and visit our Internet Tips, Technical Support and
Account & Billing pages to see if we already have a solution to your
problem.

http://service.sympatico.ca/
========

[Note: The repeated items, which appear in each message from Sympatico Tech Support, are edited out of the remaining messages below for clarity.]

From Uriel to Sympatico

From: Uriel Wittenberg

To: Sympatico

Sent: Saturday, May 14, 2005 12:06 PM

Subject: Re: Re: No bounce from deleted mailbox (KMM11316915V43841L0KM)

This is unbelievable. Please READ my message and THINK about the problem.
Don't just copy and paste irrelevant questions. I've supplied ALL THE
INFORMATION YOU NEED.

From Sympatico to Uriel

From: Sympatico

To: Uriel Wittenberg

Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 1:35 PM

Subject: Re: Re: Re: No bounce from deleted mailbox (KMM11318498V91475L0KM)

Hello Uriel Wittenberg,

You have reached Bell Internet Services, my name is Kevin and I
appreciate the opportunity to respond.

Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience and confusion our
previous message may have caused.

It can take up to 72 hours for the mail server to update an address
after it has been cancelled. I have just tested the account in question
and received the following error message:

"tomrsn@sympatico.ca was not allowed by the SMTP server: 550 Invalid
recipient: <tomrsn@sympatico.ca>"

This address has now been cancelled fully and anyone attempting to send
something to this address will receive this message.

I trust that I have answered all of your questions or concerns regarding
this inquiry. Do not hesitate to contact us again.

Thank you for choosing Bell and have a nice day.

Regards,

Kevin

Electronic Customer Care

Sympatico Member Services

*****RRC:etfapology,LID:kehuxham*****

From Uriel to Sympatico

From: Uriel Wittenberg

To: Sympatico

Sent: Saturday, May 14, 2005 1:43 PM

Subject: Re: Re: Re: No bounce from deleted mailbox (KMM11318498V91475L0KM)

At last someone has actually read my query! Thanks Kevin.

Seems to me however your system doesn't work as it should. Messages sent
during those 72 hours don't reach me — AND the sender gets no notice. Those
messages just go into a black hole. That shouldn't happen.

From Sympatico to Uriel

From: Sympatico

To: Uriel Wittenberg

Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 2:35 PM

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: No bounce from deleted mailbox (KMM11318753V95426L0KM)

Hello Uriel Wittenberg,

Thank you for your reply. It's Kevin again from the Bell Internet
service. I appreciate the opportunity to respond.

Your comments and suggestions are well-taken. Please accept our
apologies for the frustration and inconvenience you have recently
experienced with our email service.

I have taken the liberty of passing this to our Development Team for
review. If feasible, they will factor this type of feature into future
server updates.

Thank you for choosing Bell and have a nice day.

Regards,

Kevin

Electronic Customer Care

Sympatico Member Services

*****RRC:etfdev,LID:kehuxham*****

From Uriel to Sympatico

From: Uriel Wittenberg

To: Sympatico

Sent: Monday, May 16, 2005 3:44 PM

Subject: Re: Re: Re: No bounce from deleted mailbox (KMM11318498V91475L0KM)

Hello Kevin,

Contrary to your advice, it is NOT the case that "anyone attempting to
send something to this address will receive this message."

I got not bounce-back after sending the test message shown below.

So ------- THE PROBLEM STILL PERSISTS AS OF NOW.

----- Original Message -----

From: "Uriel Wittenberg" <uw@urielw.com>

To: <tomrsn@sympatico.ca>

Sent: Monday, May 16, 2005 12:35 PM

Subject: hi

hi

From Sympatico to Uriel

From: Sympatico

To: Uriel Wittenberg

Sent: Sunday, January 16, 2005 5:15 PM

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: No bounce from deleted mailbox (KMM11334208V77536L0KM)

Hello Uriel Wittenberg,

You have reached Bell Internet Services, my name is Sal and I appreciate
the opportunity to respond.

*****RRC:etineedpass,LID:smukbil*****

In order for us to troubleshoot further, we will need you to provide us
with your account password. Once we have this information, we can
escalate the issue to our Network Department.

Regards,

Sal

Electronic Customer Care

Sympatico Member Services

From Uriel to Sympatico

From: Uriel Wittenberg

To: Sympatico

Sent: Monday, May 16, 2005 5:20 PM

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: No bounce from deleted mailbox (KMM11334208V77536L0KM)

You want me to email you my account password?

Please phone me for this at [...]?

From Sympatico to Uriel

From: Sympatico

To: Uriel Wittenberg

Sent: Sunday, January 16, 2005 8:21 PM

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: No bounce from deleted mailbox (KMM11334813V85670L0KM)

Hello Mr. Wittenberg,

You have reached Bell Internet Services, my name is Marc and I
appreciate the opportunity to respond.

*****RRC:eticallus,LID:mfrappier*****

I understand you don't want to give us personal information.

In this case, to better assist you, I suggest you call our Technical
Helpdesk at 310-SURF (7873) in Ontario and Quebec or 1 (800) 773-2121 in
other parts of Canada.

From Uriel to Sympatico

From: Uriel Wittenberg

To: Sympatico

Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 2:57 PM

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: No bounce from deleted mailbox (KMM11334813V85670L0KM)

Marc, this should be EASY TO UNDERSTAND.

I DELETED my address, tomrsn@sympatico.ca.

When I now send a test message to that address, THERE IS NO BOUNCE-BACK
indicating it's an invalid address.

Surely you don't need my PASSWORD to investigate this problem.

From Sympatico to Uriel

From: Sympatico

To: Uriel Wittenberg

Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 5:23 PM

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: No bounce from deleted mailbox (KMM11339989V52119L0KM)

Hello Mr. Wittenberg,

You have reached Bell Internet Services, my name is Joseph and I
appreciate the opportunity to respond.

I apologize for the inconvenience this issue may have caused you. You
are right, your email address tomrsn@sympatico.ca is still active. The
reason is that the database linked to your selfcare tool is down.
I suggest therefore to try it later.

From Sympatico to Uriel

From: Sympatico Member Services

To: Uriel Wittenberg

Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 10:49 AM

Subject: Your recent call

We're listening

Dear URIEL WITTENBERG,

Thank you for letting us know about the technical problems
you were experiencing. Bell Canada values your business and
is committed to providing our Sympatico customers with
excellence in customer service. We're continually evaluating
our business and looking for more efficient ways to serve
our customers. Your continued support helps us to achieve
this goal.

If you feel your concerns were not addressed directly, or if
you ever have another question, don't hesitate to let us
know. That's why 310-SURF (310-7873) exists. It's there to
help us help you.

As a special thank you for being such a loyal customer, we
would like to offer you $10 of FREE downloads from the
Sympatico Music Store, powered by Puretracks(TM). Just click
on the link below to receive it.
http://memberservices.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/ca.exe?wts:pid=60&sid=eg&epid=70988266&a=1275182500&b=153101

Thanks again,

Your representatives

at Sympatico Member Services

EPILOGUE

All communications about this issue up to the last message shown above were via email. Waits, holds, and general inefficiency normally deter at least this customer from wishing to phone the company. But after the last message above, on May 20, I phoned the Bell Vice President's Group, which is supposed to provide special assistance for overcoming obstacles. I spoke with a fellow called Roger who readily grasped the problem and said he'd transfer me to the "executive office for complaints," where they had the power to initiate a technical investigation into the issue. The transfer brought me to an automatic attendant. I left a message and await callback.

As of now, messages sent to tomrsn@sympatico.ca still produce no bounceback.

Kevin, above, said he had received an "invalid recipient" message upon sending to tomrsn@sympatico.ca. To explain, that is because he was sending from Sympatico's own email server. I get the same result when using Sympatico's server to send a test message. On sending from any server other than Sympatico's, however, no such message results. Of course, most Internet users in the world aren't Sympatico customers and don't use a Sympatico server, so none of them would receive an "invalid address" notification on sending to tomrsn@sympatico.ca.

Article Author: Uriel Wittenberg

Visit Uriel Wittenberg's author page — Uriel Wittenberg's Blog