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  • Subject: Re: HELP w/ IBM bureaucracy
  • From: Philipp Rusch <Philipp.Rusch@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 00:38:05 +0200
  • Organization: EDV Beratung Rusch / EDP Consulting Rusch / Germany

Hello Dan,

Here in Europe (Germany) we have the situation the other way round:

if one of my customers gets a box from, lets say, "a hardware broker"
and this is built up from parts from outside europe (U.S.), this machine
has, as you already know, a serial number starting with (S)10 .....
So the european machines are all (S)44 ... systems.
Normally, this is no problem, IF you find a BP, that is smart enough to
press IBM bureaucracy to book the software features of that customer
number to that type of serial number, no matter of the 10's or 44's they
start with. I have gone through this a several times and we now have
a situation in germany, where IBM is glad to sell any machines and this
should not be a problem at all.
And, BTW, software for all EMEA countries is distributed from denmark
and I have never heard that a S10... System number has to be served from
U.S. because of the IBM books showing it as of U.S. origin !
This is ridiculous and no customer service at all !
Last note from me: the new systems (170s from end last year, 270s and new
8xx systems) all have a S65... type of serial number over here, must be some
code for the plant they come from.

Regards from germany, Philipp Rusch

 -----------------------------------------------------------------
| EDV Beratung Rusch          EDP Consulting Rusch                |
| Philipp Rusch               Mailto: Philipp.Rusch@rusch-edv.de  |
| Am Errlich 9                WWW   : http://www.rusch-edv.de/    |
| D-61191 Rosbach,                                                |
| Germany                                                         |
| Phone: (+49) 6003 3972      Mobile : (+49) 172 89 86 230        |
| Fax  : (+49) 6003 3795                                          |
|                                                                 |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------


D.BALE@handleman.com schrieb:

> I've got a situation that's starting to rear it's REALLY ugly head.  This
> situation occurred prior to my arrival here and the principal player in our
> organization with which this situation occurred is long gone.  As you read
> this, please note that I AM NOT JOKING!  Everything I present below is
> "factual" as has been told to me by IBM.
>
> We have two AS/400s (both 9406-510's running V3R7) at two of our branches
> whose serial numbers begin with '44'.  According to IBM, '44' indicates that
> the box was manufactured outside the U.S. and a serial number beginning with
> '10' indicates that the box was manufactured inside the U.S.
>
> The problem is that IBM's records show these two systems as beginning with
> '10' with the correct last 5 digits of the serial number.  This apparently was
> not a problem with all of our previous dealings with IBM since I was told
> that, normally, IBM only refers to the last 5 digits of the serial number,
> ignoring the first 2 digits.
>
> Several weeks ago, with my new responsibilities to manage all of our AS/400's,
> I attempted to use SNDPTFORD to order SF98370 (PSP).  The system dialed up
> IBM, connected, but was returned a message from the IBM connection that "
> Service requester not registered with IBM Service." (CPF8C3B).  After various
> calls to our marketing rep, the branch's C.E., and several other IBM'ers
> patched through on conference calls, over several weeks, this is what I'm
> being told:
>
> Basically, IBM is, for reasons unknown to me or anyone at IBM that I've talked
> to, unable to change their systems to show that the serial numbers on the two
> affected boxes are, in fact, 44* boxes, and not 10*.  What they *are*
> supposedly able to do is to "flip a bit" that stays "on" for a period of time
> (have not been told how long a period of time that is) that will allow me to
> use IBM to order cume PTFs and MF PTFs (we do not have a software contract
> with them, and I am unable to find paperwork that would tell me whether we
> have any with a BP from whom we may have obtained the system from   man, this
> s*cks!).  Also, there is a unexplainable delay for when the "bit" is turned
> on; I was told I'd have to wait SIX weeks for the "bit" to be turned on!!!
>
> Upgrading the OS on these boxes supposedly wouldn't solve the problem either,
> even with the subscription service, since IBM will still see our boxes as 44*
> instead of 10*.  If I were to attempt an upgrade to V4Rwhatever, I would have
> to make absolutely certain that I had a wide enough window for the "bit" to
> remain turned on, or else I'd have to wait another SIX weeks to turn it back
> on.
>
> It gets better.  Last week I politely complained to our marketing rep that
> this was causing undue hardship on our company and wanted someone, anyone, at
> IBM to fix this problem once and for all.  It was then that she told me that
> we wouldn't want to do that because if we do, all future software orders for
> these two boxes would have to be handled from overseas, which she strongly
> suggested that I would not want to do.  Even if it could be done that way, she
> said, doing so would cause us to lose the ability to transfer our licenses
> over to any new AS/400 we would replace the existing AS/400s with (something
> that will probably happen within the next two years).
>
> Again, and in the words of Dave Barry, I am not making any of this up!  This
> whole issue has the potential to explode to the point where my company
> discards the AS/400s with a more generic solution at the branches.  In fact, I
> have already been called upon by my managers, as part of their new due
> diligence responsibility, to make the case for replacing the AS/400s we have
> with new iSeries boxes instead of a more generic server.  I have made what I
> believe is a compelling case with them to stay on the iSeries architecture,
> but IBM certainly isn't making my job any easier.
>
> Has ANYONE had to deal with this type of problem before?
>
> PLEASE, try to keep to the topic with useful dialog!  With that in mind, all
> thoughtful replies are solicited and deeply appreciated!
>
> Dan Bale
> IT - AS/400
> Handleman Company
> 248-362-4400  Ext. 4952
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