RE: Service and Support - Part II

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Art Tostaine, Jr.
>
> Lot's of times if you "intended" to keep it on maintenance, but
> let it lapse, IBM will charge you for all of the months you missed,
> and then fix it on maintenance.
>
> For instance, 6 months lapsed x $200 month = $1200, better than the $2300.

This is reasonable, I think.  I heard from a source that shall not be named
that you could only buy maintenance in 1-year chunks, but if I can get a
couple of month's worth, I'd be willing to do it.  With this lease rollover
deal, I'd only need one month a year at the end of the lease, and that's a
reasonable amount.  I'm not trying to get something for nothing here, but
paying $2300 to replace a defective disk drive on a machine I don't own is a
little crazy.

It gets even crazier in light of the other conversation about disk drive
prices.  The 8.5GB disk is $1600 whereas the a 20GB drive is $85 at Best
Buy.  If part of that extra $1500 for the disk is meant to be longer life,
it's not working real well, considering I've lost two out of five in about
12 months.


> The CE refused to fix it.

My CE will fix it, he just says he has to leave an invoice.  Then I get to
take the invoice to IBM and see what I can arrange.  Again, I'll continue to
update the list as to the resolution.

Just for grins, does anybody reading this have a suggestion?  For example,
should:

1. IBM have a better warranty expiration policy
2. IBM have a clearer lease roll-over policy
3. IBM have a longer warranty, especially on disk drives

Anything else?  Maybe I'll toss these ideas together as a byline in my
WebSphere column at MCMagOnline.

Joe