RE: How to open an APAR

Batthish,

I, in fact, DO have a supportline contract. However, every time I report
what I think is a defect, one or both of two things happens:

1.I am requested to research the problem myself and provide addtional
documentation as to the nature of the beast, along with "experimenting" on
various "fix" scenarios, all of which takes a great deal of my time and
rarely results in a solution.

2.I am presented with a bill from IBM support for the time the IBM'ers spent
on the phone with me.

Neither of these solutions is desirable, and just serves to increase our
level of frustration.  When I review the correspondence in the newsgroups, I
see, often, that I am not the only one reaching this level of frustration.
It is SO frustrating that, in the end, I resort to less than functional
work-arounds, just to try and get something accomplished in my day (which is
not supposed to be spend testing IBM software that SHOULD be working), and
also I end up NOT reporting the problems as I don't have the time nor do I
have the inclination to fight with IBM Support Line's billing department,
documenting and justifying why I SHOULD NOT be paying that particular bill
since the problem is not a usage problem but a product defect.

Look, this is a potentially GREAT piece of software, and I am happy that
someone continues to work on it an make it better. But the problem reporting
channels need to be improved.

Thanks for letting me vent...

Ric LuBell
-----Original Message-----
From: batthish@ca.ibm.com [mailto:batthish@ca.ibm.com]
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2001 12:17 PM
To: CODE400-L@midrange.com
Subject: How to open an APAR


Hi folks,

This is the information which I have on how to have a problem reported to
IBM  (I think that the phone numbers are only for the US):

If customer wants to report problem via voice and talk to someone,
Customer has to call AS400 Software Support on 1-800-237-5511 .
Customer must have a supportline contract (monthly or hourly).

Alternatively,
Customers may submit defect problem via the Internet, no contract is
required.
The AS400 Customer uses the as400service.ibm.com website Problem Reporting
to report a defect.  The PMR comes into the NETCMC queue, which is
monitored by the AS400 Internet Support Facility,
entitlement checking will be done, then routed to the appropriate technical
queue.
- If the customer has a contract, it will be selected.
- If the customer does not have a contract, Unentitled Support Line will be
selected.

Alternatively,
PROBLEMS SUBMITTED VIA FAX
Customers may submit problems via FAX to 1-800-288-9584.  All incoming
FAXes will be reviewed by Call Services Center (CSC) personnel to determine
if the FAX is for a PTF request or a new or existing problem.
The CSC will do entitlement checking, FAX back an acknowledgment, create a
call record if appropriate and queue the call to the proper Rochester or
non-Rochester location, using a call routing tool.

thanks,
Violaine Batthish
CODE/400 Project Lead
batthish@ca.ibm.com          IBMCA(BATTHISH)

CODE/400 page:  http://www.ibm.com/software/ad/varpg
WDT/400 Support :
http://www.ibm.com/software/ad/wdt400/update_downloads.html


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