RE: UK: ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

[Jeff Bull <Jeff.Bull@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It is nice to know that during the misery I suffered for two years workingf
 or an IBM BP, I was not alone.  It seemed that every time I HAD to contact
IBM, and I never contacted them for pleasure, the account
manager/administrator
or whatever, had changed again.  I am quite a laid-back, patient and
tolerant
kinda guy, but IBM-bureaucracy made my blood boil.  However, I did get my
own
back, I received a sheaf of invoices from them, via my accounts department
who
wanted me to verify them and authorise payments totalling £40+K; not one of
the
invoices had a purchase order or lease number on them, the only reference to
what they were for was simple text like 'IBM hardware' or 'IBM software'.  I
put them in an envelope, sent them back to IBM and ask them to annotate the
invoices with our PO, or the appropriate lease numbers; that was the last Ie
 ver saw of them :-)  Hung by their own petard.

Jeff Bull

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Pluta [mailto:joepluta@PlutaBrothers.com]
Sent: 04 April 2002 18:00
To: midrange-l@midrange.com
Subject: ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!


I have NEVER had such a hard time trying to give a company money.  I own a
model 150, and lease a model 270.  I'm trying to see if I can upgrade my
model 150 to V5R1 and I'm getting so much static it's not funny.

First, I get sent on a 15 minute wild goose chase through Partnerline until
they figure out that the 150 is mine, not theirs.  Now it's back to IBM
Direct.

There I get a trainee who tells me the machine isn't supported.  Her trainer
then got on the line and told me to go to my "business partner or VAR" with
a tone of voice that clearly indicated that I should know this and not
bother him.  I tried to explain that I bought the machine from a 3rd party
who originally bought the machine from IBM, and that I had no business
partner, but by now the guy was getting realy snippy.  His next words were,
"Now sir, listen to me before you go raising your voice."

At that point I said I wanted to speak to his supervisor.  Since then, I've
spent the last ten minutes on hold off and on waiting for someone to give me
a business partner name.  After telling them I'm from Illinois, I eventually
get a name and number... for a BP in Cleveland.

They've finally just given up and told me to go to the web site and find my
own d@mn partner.

And IBM wonders why they don't make as much money as they could?

Joe

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