RE: IBM Supportline Woes! -- MIDRANGE-L

What hours did you call??

Software is cheaper at 8-5 m-f as opposed to hardware at 24/7.  After 5 or 
before 8 can KILL you (been there and learned quickly from the bill and my 
director)

Just a thought.

I feel for you really.

-----Original Message-----
From:   Jeff Crosby [SMTP:jlcrosby@fwi.com]
Sent:   Thursday, March 26, 1998 12:49 PM
To:     Midrange List Server (David Gibbs)
Subject:        IBM Supportline Woes!

Wow!  Did I just get blasted by IBM Supportline!

I've been on an hourly supportline contract for probably 18 mos. or so.
During all that time, every problem I reported resulted in 1 or more
PTFs meaning I wasn't billed.  Or so I thought.  Today I got the
following 7 (!) invoices, all dated March 23, 1998:

==========

Inv#38F5809 - PMR 10492, Opened 19961226, Prime minutes 439, $1243.83

The verbeage says "CAWIN95 DATA TRANSFER HANGS AFTER 118 RE".  This was
_15_ months ago!  I remember this one because I never got an answer
until April, 4 months later.  I gave _them_ the answer because I read it
on the Midrange mailing list.

==========

Inv#38F5810 - PMR 35157, Opened 19970616, Prime minutes 30, $85.00

This was _9_ months ago.  This was an RPG problem on READE for which I
received some PTF, but I can no longer find the paperwork.

==========

Inv#38F5811 - PMR 35515, Opened 19970616, Prime minutes 315, $892.50

This _also_ was 9 months ago.  This was a PC5250 SDLC printing problem
for which I received PTFs for Host Print Transform: SF41242, SF40122,
SF38929, SF25960 and for PC5250: SF40414.  Five PTFs and I get billed?
And the person I was working with at IBM, "Linda", got fired during this
episode.

==========

Inv#38F5812 - PMR 64509, Opened 19970929, Prime minutes 36, $102.00

This was "only" 6 months ago.  I don't remember this one at all and
there is no explanation on the invoice whatsoever explaining what it is
about.

==========

Inv#38F5813 - PMR 24417, Opened 19970320, Prime minutes 30, $85.00

This was opened a _year_ ago.  The verbeage says "QUESTION ON SF23392".
I'm at V3R2 and there is no PTF by that number on my system, so I have
no idea what it's about.  I am assuming this has to do with V3R1!

==========

Inv#38F5814 - PMR 54176, Opened 19970830, Offshift mins 40, $153.00

This was 8 months ago.  The verbeage says "LING V3R2 GETAUTOMATIC
INSTA".  I have no idea what it is about.

==========

Inv#38F5815 - PMR 02898, Opened 1997122, Prime minutess 30, $85.00

Hey, this one was only last quarter!  The verbeage says "5763SS100".  I
have no idea what it is about.

==========

I called the IBM 800 number on the first invoice.  They could not help
me. (So why is the number on the invoice?).  I was referred to
"accounting".  Of course I got Vmail.  So then I naturally got a return
call at Noon local time while out to lunch.  When I called back in and
tried to get an explaination, I was told it was a "services" problem so
I have to talk to the "services" people who are supposed to call me.  I
start a week's vacation tomorrow.

Anybody want to help me explain these to my boss?  Anybody want to
hazard a guess how many weeks (or months) it will take to straighten
this out?  Every one of these (that I can remember) resulted in PTFs.
Why should I pay for those?  You know I could have had a monthly 8am-5pm
Supportline contract for less than the total of these bills?

Am I missing something here?  Do I have a leg to stand on?

--
-Jeff

jlcrosby@fwi.com
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end

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