RE: CODE ordering and support woes -- CODE400-L

Although it has been stated many times on this and the IBM Websphere newsgroups, it bears simple comment here.

The CODE400 process of ordering is astounding poor and the support for the product is equally poor.

IBM, if you would pick up the phone and call for yourself, and tell us of the experience...

It is even more frustrating for a Business Partner to experience this. This is one of the best products for development in our realm of RPG, Java and Websphere, it is strategic to IBM to move developers here, but a product with this much overhead of ordering and getting it to work is killing any chances of success.

Finding someone who knew anything about and then ordering the product consumed well over 20 hours of my time.

We have attempted installs on 10+ developers, with 1 successful machine running. We have spent far too many hours to get nowhere, and demoralized developers along the way, and have suspended the rollout out.

With the major install problems, and no stated plans for fixes other than 'we are working on it', I have a hard time seeing the future here.

It is also amazing the amount of IBM interaction on this news list, but virtually none on the IBM newsgroup ibm.software.websphere.Studio400 , which is the link IBM offers for support on the website.

-----Original Message-----
From: hockings@ca.ibm.com [mailto:hockings@ca.ibm.com]
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2001 8:40 AM
To: CODE400-L@midrange.com
Subject: RE: CODE Designer woes

Hi David,

I must admit that I do work in the "ivory tower" so I've never had the adventure of reporting a problem to IBM Software Service. My understanding is that it should just be a 1-800 call away but I realize that life is seldom that simple. I'll ask my "regular sources" to see what I can find out.

Mike

Mike Hockings, P.Eng.
WebSphere Development Tools for AS/400 - CODE/Designer & WebFacing !
IBM Canada Ltd. Laboratory
hockings@ca.ibm.com
voice 416 448 3199, fax 416 448 4414

Please respond to CODE400-L@midrange.com
Sent by: owner-code400-l@midrange.com
To: <CODE400-L@midrange.com>
cc:
Subject: RE: CODE Designer woes

Mike,

I know I speak for everyone when we say we appreciate your work on this list...

One problem though...about reporting through proper channels....
Have you ever tried it???

It took me over three months to find someone who would even send me the CDs for my V4R5 upgrade... I spent probably 15-20 hours in total on the phone with various IBM entities, and in the end I never got anyone to agree that it was there job to listen to my problems...

About a week after I gave up, and decided to buy it again on the web site, I received a 'mystery package' which included 3 generically labeled CDs.

Some kind soul decided to help me through unofficial channels!

I would LOVE to see something posted here about what exactly we are SUPPOSED to do to get these problems reported officially...

Can you, or someone you know, post the appropriate contact details here?

Thanks again,
David

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-code400-l@midrange.com [mailto:owner-code400-l@midrange.com]On Behalf Of hockings@ca.ibm.com
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2001 1:38 PM
To: CODE400-L@midrange.com
Subject: CODE Designer woes

Thanks to all who have sent me stuff about Designer problems. I will get to it all but just not _today_.

Don't let this prevent you from contacting IBM Software Service (or whatever it is called) with your problems as well. Why? Well, our (that is development's) resource allotments are driven by many things. One of these things is the level of problems that require our attention. If no-one reports problems through "proper channels" then the bean counters say "no problems reporte"=="no problems" hence no development resources or time is allocated to fix them...

Mike

Mike Hockings, P.Eng.
WebSphere Development Tools for AS/400 - CODE/Designer & WebFacing !
IBM Canada Ltd. Laboratory
hockings@ca.ibm.com