Re: SWMA question

I believe the "after market fee" is charged to stop people from avoiding paying for SWMA until they absolutely need/must have it.

The SWMA also provides a known cash flow that IBM can go to the bank with and get a loan or at least use the numbers to juice up their stockholders report.

Jerry



On 7/2/2012 3:26 PM, Shannon ODonnell wrote:

I don't understand why there is a penalty in the first place.

That is, I get that IBM is trying to encourage customers to renew their SWMA
and they "penalize" them for waiting.

I get it, but I don't understand it.

To me, this seems like an arbitrary, and capricious, tax on the customer,
and it gives business' yet another reason not to stay on the i5 (I forget,
is that the name everyone is foaming at the mouth at the moment and jumping
all over anyone who dares to use AS/400, iSeries or some other
name?...wouldn't want to offend...).

IBM is saying to their customer, "Listen bub. You have 60 days to renew
your maintenance agreement. If you don't do it in that time frame, then we
are going to arbitrarily tax you on it. And we'll keep piling on the
penalties until you finally agree to pay. That'll keep your dumb ass in
line! Teach YOU! To play with the big boys!"

That is so dumb.

Now, if the client was still USING IBM's software maintenance service to get
upgrades, software support to resolve issues, etc...and they had not PAID
for the service they were currently using...then I can see a penalty
interest. Just like any bill that you owe for goods and services rendered.
But if you're saying pay me a penalty on something you're not even USING,
whenever you decide you want to use it AGAIN! On something that is already
so expensive that you are already looking for a reason to get rid of...then
that makes no sense to me at all.

So..."Who should pay?"

No one.




-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris Bipes
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 4:38 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: RE: SWMA question

Can't help you but I never use an individual email for such things. We use
distribution lists such as purchasing@ or renewal@ . We always have more
than one individual in the list. We missed renewals and paid for it before.
Not just from IBM either.

What is wrong with the picture? Well 1. IBM did not follow through. 2.
Their business partner did not keep track, 3. Their Accounting / IT
department did not tack it.

Who should pay for the mistake?


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Paul Nelson
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 2:27 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: SWMA question

List,

Do any of you know the person at IBM who deals with business partner
relationships? I have a customer whose hardware and software maintenance
agreements expired last winter.

I just learned about it when I tried to order their V7 upgrade. I tracked
down a clerk at the BP, who told me that she had emailed a renewal notice a
month or so before the expiration date, but hadn't heard back from the
customer.

She told me the person to whom she had emailed the invoice, but got real
quiet when I told her that guy had been gone for almost a year prior to her
email. She got even quieter when I asked if she had bothered with a
follow-up phone call.

She just sent me a copy of the quote for setting up an new agreement, and
the penalty is 116% of the agreement amount!

What's wrong with this picture?

--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe, unsubscribe,
or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx Before posting, please take a
moment to review the archives at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.