Re: Client SDK 2.90 - where is it ? - now a little OT

"Data Goob" <datagoob@netscape.net> wrote in message news:EmaXd.470$Sw2.150@text.usenetserver.com... > Neil Truby wrote: >> But Informix is a comparatively recent migrant to PA, and it may well be >> that it works very smoothly for other "mainstream" IBM products, and the >> Informix users perceptions are unrepresentative. > Don't know about all of the other products either but some of the IBM > support > is excellent while other areas are a bit lacking. Support is basically > the > same provided you can play the guessing game correctly. ... Here in the UK the quality of Tech Support for Informix is still pretty good, but perhaps a little more hit-and-miss than it used to be. (Or is that just nostalgia?) The down-system and other backroom boys are still excellent, but there seem to be more "green" youngsters - some of them girls! - on first-line support than there used to be. This can be a little frustrating as it obviously takes longer to get the answers you need, but on the other hand I guess you've got to bring new people on somehow. Other areas of IBM vary wildly, as you say. Calling the general phone number with an enquiry, particularly an Informix one, is next-to-hopeless. The company is simply too big to be able to handle such calls effectively. The hardware support is generally pretty good too. However, disproportionate amounts of time are spent (in my view as someone with a genuine support contract) in pre-qualifying calls to make sure they are "entitled". There is a saying in English law that "It is better that a hundred guilty men go free than one innocent man is convicted", but no-one told IBM (or Tony Blair): in the IBM world it is better that a hundred genuine people are kept waiting for the support they need than one blagger gets away without paying!