Time Warner Telecom is not a Rational Actor

Here's the timeline of fail so far:

Day 1
- Email Sales Rep and ask for:
  - 3 Numbers to be ported in
  - 3 Numbers to be released
  - T1 Trunk Group to be converted to ISDN PRI
  - Above to be done after business hours if possible
- Sales Rep replies back and says that this is all possible with the following stipulations:
  - A one-time $50 fee will be charged for the Trunk Group to PRI Conversion
  - She must have a copy of some paperwork (which she attached) signed by an authorized agent of our company
  - She must know what time "after business hours" covers
- I reply back with:
  - After business hours begins at 2000 hours local (local time is EDT, this becomes important later)
  - Signed paperwork
- Sales Rep replies back with:
  - All Is Good with the paperwork
  - After 2000 hours local time is an acceptable time to perform the conversion

It's all looking good so far, everything makes sense and nothing unexpected or retarded has happened.

Day 12
- I get an email forwarded to me from my supervisor from Time Warner (why they sent it to her, I have no idea) informing me that the order will be executed on 01-JUL-09 at 1100 hours local time
- I email the Sales Rep that I worked with earlier and the person at Time Warner who sent the offending email (Sales Rep's Boss) with a note that this time is unacceptable, since I was told that the change-over would occur after hours
- Sales Rep's Boss asks me what time I want the change-over to occur
- I forward the email I sent Sales Rep to Sale Rep's Boss that contains the appropriate information
- Sales Rep's Boss tells me the outage is scheduled for 2000 hours EST
- I get confused by this, since I was expecting the outage to be at 2000 hours EDT
- I email Sales Rep's Boss for clarification on whether 2000 hours EST was supposed to be 2000 hours EDT, or if it was really 2000 hours EST (0100Z)
- Sales Rep's Boss has no idea, she says it's 2000 hours EST and indicates that she doesn't know "Z" times

Okay, so we had to repeat ourselves once -- that can happen, sure it would be better if they had communicated this information for us rather than relying on me to catch their errors. Still not horrible.

01-JUL-09T2000Q (EDT)
- Nothing has happened, this is somewhat unexpected but it is still what they said would happen -- I don't panic.
01-JUL-09T2000R (EST)
- Still nothing
01-JUL-09T2145Q (01-JUL-09T2045R, i.e., 45 minutes past due date)
- I attempt to call the numbers I have for Sales Rep, Sales Rep's Boss, and the department that handles orders
  - No Answer
  - No Answer
  - Closed as it is outside office hours
- Finding no numbers to call, I call Time Warner Telecom's NOC and attempt to create a ticket for this lack of performance
- Technician indicates that orders are not part of the NOC's responsibility
- I plead with the technician to help me find someone who can solve my problem as I have no way to contact them directly
- Technician indicates that she will call the "on-call" person for the Time Warner Telecom Orders Department and puts me on hold for about 15 minutes
- Technician returns and indicates that the "on-call" person did not answer, but she left a message for them to call me back
02-JUL-09T0100Q (i.e., 4 hours after the due date)
- I call Time Warner Telecom's NOC again and get the same technician
- I ask if she had heard anything from anyone regarding my previous call
- She replies indicating that she thought I had already been contacted and puts me on hold to leave another message with the "on-call" personnel.
- I try to create an actual ticket on the issue, but the technician indicates that she can't create tickets related to pending orders on circuits that have pending orders
02-JUL-09T0300Q (i.e., 6 hours after the due date)
- I call the Time Warner Telecom NOC again
- I get someone new, who makes an actual ticket for me
02-JUL-09T0305Q
- I get a call back from the person who created my ticket indicating that:
  - Time Warner Telecom had decided not to make the change today, and they didn't contact me because they got confused by the automated answering service we use after hours that asks for either an extension (mine's in every single email I send) or the name of the person (also in every single email I send)
- I email Sales Rep, Sales Rep's Boss, and my Supervisor indicating that I would like to know what time this action has been rescheduled for

Okay, that's some more fail right there. But wait, there's more.

02-JUL-09T1030Q
- I get a call from Sales Rep asking for my phone number. . . .
- I get an email from Sales Rep's Boss telling me she is sorry that they did this.
- I get an email from Sales Rep's Boss telling me that Verizon released the 3 numbers that Time Warner Telecom was supposed to take over last night and that I needed to approve this so that Time Warner Telecom could take it over
- As I was busy working on higher priority issues, I had someone else contact Time Warner Telecom to approve this change
- Time Warner Telecom wanted to perform the entire order (i.e., the migration of the T1 Trunk Group to an ISDN PRI and the porting of the numbers)
- Not feeling confident in Time Warner's ability to follow orders, I test the fax lines and verify that they are still working and tell the person I delegated this action to to stop working it
06-JUL-09T0900Q
- I am notified that the three numbers that had not been ported over have stopped working
- I have the person who was working the issue last week try to convince Time Warner that they should port those numbers over, but not not touch our T1 setup
- They notify me that should be done at some point between now and tomorrow at 0800Q
07-JUL-09T0815Q
- A technician from Time Warner Telecom calls and asks me if he can port those three numbers over and convert our T1 Trunk Group to an ISDN PRI
- Sleepily I tell him to only port the numbers, and not to touch that T1 trunk group.

At this point, I am very tired of telling Time Warner Telecom to do what it is that they said they were going to do.

07-JUL-09T0830Q
- I get a call back from the technician indicating that the numbers have been ported. Way to go, you finally did your job! Well, half of it. A week late. After some unexpected downtime and causing the customer to wait around until 0300Q. And asking me repeatedly if you can do what it is that I have authorized in writing. The T1 Trunk Group to ISDN PRI conversion is scheduled to happen at 13-JUL-09T2000Q.

13-JUL-09T2000Q
- Coming soon.