Re: Informix Support?

In article <jlumbleyEsHpzE.FL3@netcom.com>, Joe Lumbley <jlumbley@netcom.com> wrote: > >Is anyone else having a difficult time getting Support >to deliver services? Over the years, I've come to >expect to have to haggle and scream at the first-level >support folks, just to get them to admit/recognize that >I'm a support customer and that my systems are under support. >By now, I don't even get bothered enough to make an >issue of it. > >Today I got a call from one of my flagship customers, who >touts my company's and Informix's products in seminars and >tradeshows around the country. They're threatening to jump >ship because every time they've called for support in the >last year, they've had to do a goat dance to prove that they are >supported. Informix seems to have one hell of a time tracking and >validating their Support contracts. > In the last 8 years or so I have seen this topic come up a number of times. I simply don't have a clue as to why people are having trouble. Every time I have called for support . .. 1. They ask for serial number. 2. They use this number and look it up in the database 3. They then say is this "so and so" 4. They then create an incident number 5. They then transfer me to a tech support person If this person can't help then one of two things happen. . . 1. they call me back later or 2. they bump the incident to highter level. I simply have never had this fail in the last 8 years or so. Initially a few calls a quarter to a few call a year. Support is on 3 products for around $2,400 a year I think. We have always gotten renewals at the appropriate time and its never been screwed up. I can't believe this is just dumb luck. >As my customer said, "I've called IBM for support for ten years. >Each time, I just give them my customer number and I never have any trouble >getting to a technical person. With Informix, I waste as much time >with the accounting bullshit as I do with the technical stuff. It's >just not worth it." > >It seems to me that the crux of the problem is Informix's poor system >of managing renewals of support contracts. Anybody else with the same >issues? > >Joe > >-- >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Joe Lumbley(jlumbley@netcom.com) author of: "INFORMIX DBA Survival Guide" > >Slaving away on "INFORMIX DEBUGGERS Survival Guide", available early 1998 >from Prentice Hall/Informix Press. If you have debugging tips, tools, or >ideas to share, please send me some e-mail. >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Michael J. Kuhn Computer Systems Consultant phone:410-254-7060 Email: mkuhn@csd.clark.net, csd@clark.net mkuhn@rhlab.com c/o Baltimore Rh Typing Laboratory, Inc. phone:410-225-9595