The sad demise of SBC

In another time I worked for SBC. But back then it was known as Southwestern Bell Telephone. I had always heard SWB had the best sales training program in corporate America. They were right. But what they were not so well known for was their obsession with integrity, with doing the right thing, and doing it correctly.

It was precisely the reasons I had no hesitation with signing on with them many years later for their Internet.

Once, hooking up a DSL connection, I was talking with one of their tech guys, who were ALWAYS friendly. ALWAYS. I remarked how I got an American, and he said on new setups they always route those calls to an American call center.

If you've ever tried to understand the Indian accent, you'll appreciate the special wisdom of that in the sometimes complicated situation of new-connection setups.

Now all of that is fast fading into history. The once proud, well-earned reputation of a shining example of how to do things right, is disappearing before our very eyes.

When did it start?

The beginning of the end was their decision to merge with AT&T and its culture of arrogance.

Oh the early commercials about the merger talked about how SBC would still be SBC. But they're not. It's obvious who controls things now, and its not SBC.

AT&T was one of those phone companies who provided your sensitive information to the federal government. Not just that, but were arrogant about it.

At the U.S. Senate hearing to investigate it, AT&T Chairman Edward E.Whitacre Jr. practically sneered in his answers to Sen. Rep. Arlin Spector, and he's a REPUBLICAN.

Now comes the news today of their arrogant boast that your calling habits and your surfing habits belong to THEM and not YOU, as snidely detailed in their new privacy policy.

The best way to describe it was by Melissa Ngo, staff counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, who said she was glad to see AT&T make their policy public since it would allow users "to make informed decisions about whether they want to pay to be tracked."

Then there's this.

SBC used to renew their annual contract with users at the then-current market rate. Not anymore. Not with AT&T in charge of things. Now you can renew at your present rate, but not a lower existing rate. Mine was $28.00 a month, compared to the current special for new customers of $12.99.

I was TOLD by the woman that that lower rate was for new customers only in a tone of voice that obviously could have cared less about what I thought about that. And that was the SUPERVISOR.

SBC, we barely knew ye.