Train Thoughts

Unbelievable.  I keep reading how fierce competition is between CDN providers, but I can’t even get a hold of a sales person to give me a quote from Level 3 or Limelight.

First, you really have to search to find a contact number for sales on the Level 3 site.  Even on the CDN page on their site there isn’t a phone number.  Then, once I called it, I sat on the phone for 10 minutes and said forget it.  No lead form, no nothing.

Then I call Limelight Networks. Kudos.  The sales phone number is right there.  I call it up and get a message box that says “The mailbox is full.”  Man, that’s bad.

So Akamai.  They have a nice lead form I filled out last night, but no call back today.  So I look for their number to call them.  It’s something like 1.877.3AKAMAI.  I have a blackberry and hate it when companies use words in their phone number because blackberries don’t have (abc) on the keys.  So, I do a chat.  They ask be a bunch of questions about how much usage we’ll have, but can’t get me a quote.  Says he’ll pass it on to an internal representative that will call back in 24 to 48 hours.

Right as I’m pissed, I get a cold email from Internap.  Pretty spamy, but great timing.  I reply and the guy calls back in 5 minutes.

But, I’m still bothered that it was so hard to get a hold of Level 3, Limelight Networks, and to get a quote from Akamai (Think they’d have pricing ready).  Level 3, add a prominent Sales link with a phone number.  Limelight empty your voice mail or even better, answer the phone.