Re: Suftware Subscription strikes again.

Larry,

Well said.  I have the same problem up here where I am, 52 miles north of
San Francisco.  3d party maintenance response times are at least 4 hours.
If you are down in the financial district in SF, it is only minutes.  That
makes a big difference!

The other is the quality of person you get in terms of knowledge from a 3d
party.  Its been my experience that you do not get their good well trained
folks right out of the gate.  Its only after the problem has went beyond the
person initially taking the call that their well trained folks get
involved......And if they are all down in SF......   :-)

I see your $0.02 and raise it $0.02!  :-)

Regards,

Mike Shaw
Senior AS/400 Technical Support
North American Mortgage
Santa Rosa, CA
----- Original Message -----

> > Hardware Maintenance thru IBM?
> > I'd look elsewhere for a maintenance contract.
>
>   That's your opinon and one you may certainly hold, but I would differ!!!
In my
> experience (and my father's who worked for one of the biggest 3rd party
> maintenance companies for 20 years) Non IBM maintenance is a crap shoot.
In one
> area you get good CEs with management that backs them up and parts are
available.
> In another you get a CE that can't recognize an AS/400, has never been
trained
> and couldn't get parts if his life depended on it!  The IBM CEs here spend
time
> fixing whilt the 3rd party guys are on the phone explaining to some guy at
> 'central' what type of card is in what slot..... I have sat with customers
while
> the CE spent as much as 4 hours on the phone just getting authorization to
order
> the parts!!!  Then they gotta come from Phoenix or some far away place
(great if
> you live near there, sucks here in Michigan!!)
>
>   I don't know about the rest of you but when my or my customer's AS/400
does,
> however infrequently, fail I want a CE that's trained and the right parts
NOW!
> Here in West Michigan most parts are in stock and those that aren't get
taxid
> from Detroit or Chicago in 3 or 4 hours - the time it takes many of the
3rd party
> guys to process the paperwork. In all my midrange years IBM has never
flinched at
> orderding in parts, while the 3rd party guys are still re-seating cards
and
> guessing.
>
>   My .02, it's your system.
>
>   - Larry
>
> --


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