Someone named Michael Reynolds from DDA Computer Consultants sent me unsolicited email this morning. I’m not sure who he is, but he did invite me to post the following comments here, so I will, with my comments below:

Ugliest site in the world or sour grapes? Because it’s you, I’m guessing the latter.
That is what the client asked for when it was designed …..Are you slamming the good people at Vesey’s?? I hope not. That site was a beast and we were it’s trainers — we used technology that isn’t supported anymore, we had changes upon changes asked of us that would have made moving the Great Wall of China two feet to the west seem easy and if you had won that contract you would really have understood what a money pit it became for US, not the client, MMG — also, how many e-commerce sites that early in the game paid for themselves in months???? I’ll tell you, a well-designed, functional site that allowed the toughest demeographic in the world(old people) to navigate it and purchase thousands of dollars of product within the first few days of it being ‘live’. I consider that quite a feat, wouldn’t you?
Oh, and the Cyborgs you mention from Island Tel support work 7 days a week — I know most of them and I’ve pointed out your kind words to them so if you see an Island Tel van coming down Queen Street today..well, keep to the sildwalk.
Those union boys can be nasty, right Jimmy?
Also, I have had two full days of downtime with Eastlink here in the last few weeks so I wouldn’t be so quick to ‘dis’ Island Tel and the people who work there. You should try to deal with MTT, at least in PEI there are a couple of places to find everyone you need — here they have people scattered throughout at least 8 locations in Halifax/Dartmouth alone.
Why don’t you put this on your site, quit your belly-aching and get to work! Hey, I have an idea…Have you and Jack McAndrew ever thought of joining forces? You could be called the “Irrational Rag Squad”. Yes, The IRS, I think that would be painfully correct.

Mr. Reynolds makes a good point, albeit in a somewhat derisive manner: there are some good people working at Island Tel, and my negative comments about the Island Tel system shouldn’t take away from that. I’ve always said that if you let the people who come to my house and install the equipment make the management decisions, they’d have a much better company. It does seem, however, that the higher you climb up the ladder, the greater the level of obfuscation and unfriendliness. That all said, I was treated poorly and rudely, and I’ve simply tried to report that as accurately as possible, with hopes that my small voice in the wind can affect some change. (Does that leave me safe on the sidewalks or not?)
As to my comments about Veseys.com, well, I stand by them: the old design of the website was a visual abomination. Whether that was the company’s fault, or the designer’s fault, or customer’s fault, I’m glad to see it replaced by the comparatively wonderful site that silverorange has produced.
As to Mr. Reynolds’ suggestion that I team up with Jack MacAndrew, I will take that under advisement ;-).