bl.qwest.net
Monday, June 23rd, 2008[EDIT]
So it’s now Oct 2008 and would you believe that Qwest is still to resolve this problem or contact me. My client ended up just sending the information to a different email address. Oh well.
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[EDIT]
Well instead of 2 days I’ve given it 2 weeks and guess what? That’s right, not even a peep from Qwest in the form of a response to my emails. So now I’m just really frustrated with the incredibly poor customer service of the Utah telephone monopoly.
[/EDIT]
So one of our customers was having issues sending email to a qwest.net email account.
Here’s the error that she received:
SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO:<*******@qwest.net>: host mx2.qwest.net [207.109.18.197]: 554 5.7.1 Service unavailable; Client host [**.**.***.***](My IP Address) blocked using bl.qwest.net; IP **.**.***.*** (My IP Again) is locally blacklisted
So I first tried calling Qwest’s general support number. That was my first mistake. The incompetence level of tier 1 is astounding. If it doesn’t show up on their screen and there buddy on chat can’t figure it out their pretty much useless and instead of escalating you, try to blame the problem on somebody else.
Eventually they came to the conclusion that this was not their problem and told me that I needed to contact the people over at Qwest Office support. So I made the mistake of believing them and contact Qwest Office support. Per their instructions at http://www.qwestoffice.com I first tried sending an email to support@qwestoffice.com to which I of course received no reply. At least the message didn’t bounce though. Then I tried calling 866-881-3689 their 24 hour support number. I explained the problem to them and they told me that mx1.qwest.net is maintained by the DSL department and I would have to contact them with the problem. I was then transferred to DSL Support.
At this point I’m really getting frustrated. Nobody like to be bounced around.
After some time reexplaining the problem again to the people over at Qwest DSL they respond that “That problem is because that address has been ported over to Qwest Office and that’s what’s causing the error and that if I contacted the Qwest.net customer and had them place a support request that the problem could then be resolved.”
Great finally at least an answer albeit a terrible one. Why should I have to contact my client and have them contact their client just to have the qwest.net customer have to spend 2 hours on the phone trying to troubleshoot with qwest a qwest problem?
Well the story doesn’t end here. Being the astute administrator that I am, I think that answer that they gave me makes no sense. I wasn’t getting an address not found error. I was getting your server has been blacklisted error. So I get smart and send the qwest.net customer an email from my Gmail account. Would you believe that the message went through. OH MY GOODNESS, TIER 1 WAS WRONG AGAIN!!!! What a surprise that one was.
This post is really getting long. But I think that’s the point that I’m trying to make. Why doesn’t qwest have a page that google can spider so I can actually find a way to contact the qwest internal blacklist adminstrator. Hopefully that’s what this page turns into.
So now I call up my trusty Qwest Sales Rep. He of course doesn’t handle the support side but told me to try the live chat help line on http://www.qwest.net site. So that’s what I’m doing now while I’m writing this post. Here’s how that went.
User Jon Heaton has entered room
Qwest Analyst Donny has entered room
Analyst Donny>
Thank you for contacting Qwest QuickAssist - DSL Technical Support. My name is Donny and my tech ID is DH1. I apologize for the issue you are having. That is something I can help you with and I’ll attempt to get this resolved for you as quickly as possible.
Can you please provide me the following pieces of information so that I can begin a ticket as well as gather network information on your issue:
Your DSL phone number and email address.
Jon Heaton>
I don’t have a DSL phone number. I am a Web Hosting Server administrator and my customers are having difficulty trying to send emails to qwest.net customers. Your server is bouncing my emails back saying that my server has been locally blacklisted.
Jon Heaton>
This is more than likely a Tier 3 support problem.
Analyst Donny>
I would be happy to try to contact Tier 3 if you believe it’s a Tier 3 issue, however it may be some time before I can do that for you. Here in chat we work with several customers all at the same time and making calls to Tier 3 often takes time. If you would like to wait, I would be happy to work on that for you. Otherwise, I may suggest calling into us directly and have a tech work directly with you.
Jon Heaton>
I would be happy to wait. I’ve already spent 2 hours on the phone today with Tier 1 support and I’m tired of dealing with them
Jon Heaton>
At least this way my ear won’t get sore.
Analyst Donny>
I’m in Tier 1 sir.
Analyst Donny>
I see.
Analyst Donny>
I’ll be with you as soon as I can.
Analyst Donny>
Here is the response from Tier 3 regarding your issue: Analyst David(Mon Jun 23 13:07:17 MDT 2008)>He can send an email to postmaster@qwest.net with examples — the headers will be helpful as well & our postmaster group will remove him from the blacklist if apporpriate & reply to let him know
Jon Heaton>
ok just a minute I’m sending the message.
Jon Heaton>
The message appears to have been delivered. Do you know approximately how long it should take for them to process the emai from me? Or to respond to me?
Analyst Donny>
It can take up to 48 hours.
Jon Heaton>
Ok. I’ll let my client know that it is Qwest’s fault that they cannot sending their advertising proofs to their client for up to 48 hours from now while we wait to have this request processed. I’m sure they won’t be happy with this but I guess there is nothing more I can do about this.
Analyst Donny>
Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Jon Heaton>
That’s it thank you.
Analyst Donny>
It has been a pleasure working with you today. Please bookmark the High-Speed Internet site at http://www.qwhelp.com You can also download the QuickCare program from there.
Order all of your new services such as DirecTV, Cellular Service, VoIP, or Telephone Services at http://www.qwest.com/residential/refer/index.html Use the REFERENCE CODE of ‘dxhans5′ and you will be offered the best deals and promotions running right now on all of our services.
Again, my name is Donny and my tech ID is DH1. Thank you for contacting Qwest QuickAssist and have a good day.
I really liked the sales pitch there at the end. So I’ve sent the email to postmaster and am now patiently awaiting 48 hours for the reply. What do you bet I won’t ever see a reply just like the support request to Qwest Office? Oh well. I hope I get this figured out and this is at least useful to somebody else later.