Slow service results -- what do we do ??

[Christopher A. Welty]

In article <3733 at kalliope.rice.edu> 91erm at bigbird.cc.williams.edu (Evan Moore) writes:
>X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 8, Issue 19, message 4 of 9
>
>Hmmmm.  As we all know, Sun has been getting really low marks in the
>service department these days.  We all groan and moan, and really get
>peeved when Sun comes around to renew contracts.  But what do we do ??

I have found three basic flaws in Sun service:

1) Delivery.  Sun has the worst delivery record of any company we have
   ever dealt with.  They claim that they have fixed this problem by
   installed a new inventory control system or something.  I'll
   believe it when we get something on time.

2) Software support.  Say no more...

3) Saleslies.  I have complained many times that the salesforce,
   whether they themselves are knowlingly lying or are being told lies
   by their own company, lie a lot.  Especially when they are talking
   about 1+2 above.

We have found ways to begin dealing with these three issues.  For #1, ask
for a guaranteed delivery date.  They will do this, although it will push
back your delivery date by a month (who cares, they won't meet it anyway).
Ask for $$ per day late, also make sure you do this AFTER you cut the
deal, so they don't add the late charge they will inevitably pay to the
price of the equipment.  For #2, I read sunspots.  For #3, sunspots also
proves useful, as does the solution to #1, and also pressure to move to
other vendors.  Sun no longer dominates the price/performance arena as
they used to, DEC and Solbourne are making impressive and attractive
offers, which has kept our Sun office jumping.  They have become far more
helpful since we started considering others (capitalism is a beautiful
thing).

Christopher Welty  ---  Asst. Director, RPI CS Labs | "Porsche:  Fahren in
weltyc at cs.rpi.edu             ...!njin!nyser!weltyc |  seiner schoensten Form"