[SGVLUG] Oh, the pain, the agony -- "online chat" support...

[Bourbon Odenthal]

LOL.   OMG that was funny.  So clueless.  Thanks for sharing it.

-bb

On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 6:26 PM, Emerson, Tom (*IC)
<Tom.Emerson at wbconsultant.com> wrote:
> For a while now, my DSL was down (which is/was a good thing -- kept me from
> being up late at night for a while...)  I finally got around to
> investigating, and after pacbell/sbc/att/whomever "fixed" my phone/DSL line,
> I fired up my server(s), including my e-mail server (picks up mail via POP
> and makes it available as IMAP) and soon enough I was getting an e-mail from
> Yahoo telling me to "enable SSL" in my outlook express client...
>
> Ummm -- yeah, right -- I use fetchmail, and a quick search of the web for
> "fetchmail" and "ssl" gave me the instructions on what to do.  Now that I've
> done that, it appears that AT&T's certificate is "not trusted" -- I suspect
> it is simply because I don't have their root CA's certificate [VERY
> likely...] but I thought I'd give their support a whirl since they started
> it.
>
> So, checking the e-mail, I see it says "don't reply -- this came from a bot"
> [or words to that effect], so it's to the support web pages I go...
>
> The support pages (at some point) popped up a box that said "e-mail support
> is no longer available for high-speed DSL users, use online chat instead"
>
> [grrrr] ok, start at the beginning again, get the "chat" client fired up,
> and I "notify" them that their SSL cert is invalid -- here is the "chat"
> that ensued...
> <!-- div { line-height: 18px; }-->
> Please wait while we find an agent to assist you...
> Thank you for contacting AT&T Internet Services, my name is Aaron McQuillan.
> One moment while I review your information.
> Aaron McQuillan: Hi, Tom Emerson! I hope you are doing fine.
> Aaron McQuillan: As I understand your concern, I see that you are having
> issues with your email SSL update. Is that correct?
> tom emerson: hello. I've been getting an e-mail urging me to switch to SSL
> for POP; I've done that, and in my logs I see that my system cannot validate
> your SSL certificate
> Aaron McQuillan: I understand your question and I'm glad to assist you with
> your inquiry.
> tom emerson: osnut:/etc # fetchmail -v -f /etc/fetchmailrc
> fetchmail: 6.2.3 querying pop.att.yahoo.com (protocol POP3) at Fri Jan 9
> 17:14:57 2009: poll started
> fetchmail: Issuer Organization: Equifax
> fetchmail: Unknown Issuer CommonName
> fetchmail: Server CommonName: pop.att.yahoo.com
> fetchmail: pop.att.yahoo.com key fingerprint:
> 66:89:36:BA:15:CD:9B:DA:BE:39:02:34:5C:0B:C1:30
> fetchmail: Warning: server certificate verification: unable to get local
> issu
> Aaron McQuillan: How do you normally check your emails? Is it through AT&T
> Yahoo! email on the web or through other means like Outlook perhaps?
> tom emerson: I run my own e-mail server at home. I've configured it to use
> Fetchmail to pull e-mails from your system and make them available via imap
> tom emerson: since fetchmail was previously configured for "regular" pop
> e-mail [and my DSL was down for a while] I was unaware of the recent push to
> go to SSL until this week. Now that I've enabled it, I'm getting the
> error/warning shown above
> Aaron McQuillan: Are you getting any sending / receiving error?
> tom emerson: Here is the efetchmail: Warning: server certificate
> verification: unable to get local issuer certificate
> fetchmail: Issuer Organization: Equifax
> fetchmail: Unknown Issuer CommonName
> fetchmail: Server CommonName: pop.att.yahoo.com
> fetchmail: Warning: server certificate verification: certificate not trusted
> rror message:
> tom emerson: whups, that pasted funny -- here it is a little clearer:
> fetchmail: Warning: server certificate verification: unable to get local
> issuer certificate
> fetchmail: Issuer Organization: Equifax
> fetchmail: Unknown Issuer CommonName
> fetchmail: Server CommonName: pop.att.yahoo.com
> fetchmail: Warning: server certificate verification: certificate not trusted
> Aaron McQuillan: Thank you.
> Aaron McQuillan: I can give you the servers and ports used by AT&T.
> tom emerson: and that will help me how?
> Aaron McQuillan: Incoming mail (POP3) is pop.att.yahoo.com and Outgoing mail
> (SMTP) is smtp.att.yahoo.com.
> Aaron McQuillan: Outgoing mail (SMTP) port is 465 and the box next to This
> server requires a secure connection (SSL) is checked.
> Aaron McQuillan: Incoming mail (POP3) it should be port 995 and the box next
> to This server requires a secure connection (SSL) is checked.
> tom emerson: fetchmail is configured via a plain text file -- there are no
> "boxes to check"
> Aaron McQuillan: As much as I want to assist you but we only have limited
> resources for this kind of issue. We have a special department with
> specially trained agents who handles this unique issue of yours and we call
> them the ConnecTech / Support+ Department.
> Aaron McQuillan: Tom Emerson, Fetchmail is a product that AT&T Internet
> Services does not support, I can offer you AT&T ConnecTech / Support+
> (866-294-3464), a fee-based technical support service that can assist you.
> If you'd like, I can refer you to AT&T ConnecTech / Support+ to explain more
> about the service and to resolve your issue, or we have some information
> about many of these common products on the Member Facing Support Site at
> http://help.sbcglobal.net. Another option is to contact Fetchmail directly.
> If you'd like I can provide you that contact information.
> tom emerson: sure, please let me know how to contact fetchmail directly.
> Aaron McQuillan: Ok.
>
> [note: INCREDIBLY long pause here...]
>
> Aaron McQuillan: I believe you can find the contact number of Fetchmail thru
> fetchmail.com
> Aaron McQuillan: Is there anything else I can help you with?
> tom emerson: hmm.. fetchmail is open source software, "fetchmail.com" goes
> to a generic search page -- fwiw, I was using the page at
> http://fetchmail.berlios.de/fetchmail-FAQ.html#K5 to configure my system
> Aaron McQuillan: I am sorry but I do not have the number here for Fetchmail.
> tom emerson: that's OK -- I think I have what I need for the moment -- say
> hello to your aunt Eliza for me
> Aaron McQuillan: Will there be anything else?
> tom emerson: no
> Aaron McQuillan: Thank you for using AT&T Self Support Tool. I attempted to
> speak with you but there was no response from your side, if you have any
> further queries, please feel free to connect back to us. We will be more
> than happy to assist you.
>
> Since the "tech" didn't get the Eliza reference, I graded his Turing test
> with an "F"...