IBM Technical "support" (was Re: Risc System/6000

[J. Eric Townsend]

In article <1565 at awdprime.UUCP> @cs.utexas.edu:ibmchs!auschs!woan.austin.ibm.com!ron writes:
>All I can say is that my earlier numbers were correct and nowhere will
>you find a cheaper buck/MIP ratio from a major manufacturer, and our
>service will be second to none.


*FLAME ON*


Yep.  Great service...  IBM had one of their people out here for two
weeks reading RT manuals to us.  Too bad he didn't know enough unix
to know how to use cp, vi, or any other utility.  Too bad we'd already
read the manuals and were ready to bet money that it was not only a
hardware problem, but it was IBM's fault it was a hardware problem.

Eventually, they just replaced everything, and reinstalled the OS
about 1/2 dozen times.

We just wanted to try out the MS-DOS emulation program from under
X-Windows.  It took them 2+ weeks of tech time for them to get it
working.

2 Weeks.

Having 24 hour support "till we get the job done" is one thing.
Having *COMPETENT* 24 hour support, that *knows* the system in
question is another situation all together.

The only good technical support I've ever gotten is Sun for hardware
(replacement parts overnight) and DEC for Ultrix support (they
let me talk to people who know more than how to spell "Ultrix").
I've yet to get any sort of IBM service that was even satisfactory.

However, I've been lucky enough to known IBM employees in research and
development that have helped me out with problems on the side, but
I don't think that counts as part of "IBM Service" since they would
probably get into trouble for helping me...
--
J. Eric Townsend
University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics (713) 749-2120
jet at karazm.math.uh.edu
Skate UNIX(tm).