Over the weekend I sent the following e-mail message to DTN.

“Finally I've found a way to communicate with DTN, and wouldn't you know it was only through the advertising department. I've been a subscriber to the market satellite service for going on 15 years. The recent "test" of the elimination of financial and futures was beyond stupid. I've tried to call many times, but the waiting line is too long for anyone to be able to sit on hold in a business environment. DTN has either become too big, or management has become too stupid.

“Now I see that my level of service will sewer tomorrow and I spend 95% of my time watching one page that has 24 lines of data. What am I being forced to do, give you more money for my 24 lines of feed? Obviously I'm not too happy.

“Ted Slanker
903-732-4653
and yes, I'm still at the same damn address as I've been at for the past ten years so don't ask again.”

Of course I didn’t get a reply. Today I called again and got through. The fellow said go to forums so here I am. What a lot of crap to get through to “service providers.”

This weekend’s elimination of the trickle of financial and currency quotes is stupid.

The news format is typical Big Business overload. The news is now worthless. When Steve Winnograd was there the news was fun, informative, and something I looked forward to everyday throughout the day. Now I don’t bother. Frustratingly, the news headline overload of trivia has probably squeezed out data streams that I could use. I’ve seen companies and people do stupid things (done a few myself over the years) but this set of moves is really classic.

Ted Slanker

P.S. The long, impossible to remember password is another classic example of Big Business getting out of touch with their customer. Just like "If you want zip, push 1, if you want zap, push 2, if you want those guys, push 3, if you want anything just keep pushing numbers. We're here to serve. Push 0 to repeat menu."

Hi Ted.

It is ironic that you sent this at the same time that I was writing a response to your email. Since you have posted it publicly, I will respond here instead.

In the case of your email and lack of response, it was sent to our advertising sales group. Obviously, those emails don't have as high of priority (because we aren't selling ads anymore) as emails to our support group (support@dtniq.com, support@iqfeed.net). Because of this, the response was delayed. We also received a higher volume of calls and emails today due to the removal of financial futures from the slower satellite channel.

The decision we made to remove the financial futures/currencies data from our slower satellite channel was not an easy one. However, we felt it was the best way to ensure our customers would continue receiving reliable, fast data. With the increased volume of the financial futures, we didn't want that data to impact the delivery of quotes, news, and weather information to the 80,000 plus customers who don't need financial futures. For the users who do need the financial futures data, we can continue to provide it in real time during heavy markets on our faster satellite channel or the Internet.

There seems to be a misunderstanding that the new news feeds are somehow related to the financial futures data being moved. There isn't any relation between these two changes. The news changes were made specifically in order to provide our customers who demand real time news, a better service. I realize, and agree, that Stewart and the newsroom staff provided a nice summary of the markets. However, as the market has changed, so has the marjority of our customer's needs. Although you say we are a classic case of "Big Business getting out of touch with their customer" - the majority of our customers say it is a case of a caring business listening and acting upon their requests. Not everyone has been happy with the change, but in the end, we are providing the news our active trader customers want and need.

Regarding the "long, impossible to remember password" I assume you are referring to the one for this forum. This is for security reasons and to ensure you use a valid email address when registering. You are more than welcome to go change the password to something that is easier to remember by going into your Profile.

When it comes to phone support, we are also working to streamline the process. We used to have multiple groups to call regarding billing, technical support, sales, etc. These groups are now merged into one group that can hopefully answer any account question you have. I, like most others, don't like voice mail prompts, and I am working to remove them from our systems within the DTN.IQ/IQFeed/Spectrum and Real-Time product lines.

In the end, we are trying to expand how we communicate with users. We are able to support users via phone, email, real time chat and forums. We want to hear the positive and negative, and do everything we can to provide the best service at affordable prices.

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Jay Froscheiser
DTN Market Access, LLC.