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

[consultlinks at gmail.com]

I agree with the rest on this thread, you do have a lot of patience.  The turing test reference is hysterical. 

Manny. 
Sent By MVelez

-----Original Message-----
From: "Emerson, Tom \(*IC\)" <Tom.Emerson at wbconsultant.com>

Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 18:26:10 
To: SGVLUG Discussion List.<sgvlug at sgvlug.net>
Subject: [SGVLUG] Oh, the pain, the agony -- "online chat" support...


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.  <<Picture (Metafile)>> 

Since the "tech" didn't get the Eliza reference, I graded his Turing
test with an "F"...

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