[infra178]

The reason why the customer service at most ISPs sucks is because arbitrary rules are imposed on them by local governments. For example, if the average call can't be over 9 minutes long, don't expect help with a problem that takes half an hour to diagnose. If the same rules aren't being imposed on Google, then there's a problem.

[Avenger42]

I thought they just wouldn't go over 9 minutes due to internal rules (e.g., you'll get written up if your average call time goes over a certain level). Do you have a source for the "local governments" claim? I'd be very interested at yelling at my city council for imposing stupid rules like that.

(My main source for this goes back to Joel's article on Measurement[1].)

[1] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/news/20020715.html

[mayneack]

What's the context to that 9 minute example?