Making A request to IBM (Was: Re: How does one compile to assembly?)

[Robin Wilson]

In article <1991Mar17.160744.19508 at nrcnet0.nrc.ca> ng at cfd.di.nrc.ca writes:
>In article <2656 at sapwdf.UUCP>, wohler at sapwdf.UUCP (Bill Wohler) writes:
>|>   yes, an e-mail bug address would be very nice.  thanks for listening.
>I was very supprised that the IBM tech support (defect support, whatever)
>does not have an internet email channel such that customers could send
>test case of bug reports. We have to do it in a very, very inefficient,

This is not true.  IBM Defect support does have an email route in via 
uunet.  The following address will work, but you will have to talk to 
the IBM Defect Support Person handling your problem to get his/her ID:

			<ACCOUNT>%aixserv at uunet.uu.net

I myself used to receive email from customers via this route.  (Now I have
moved on, and this route won't work for me any more.)  The person in Defect
Support may or may not know about this setup (try to remember that most of
these people have worked at IBM their entire careers, and they have not 
been exposed to USENET or the Internet).  If the support person doesn't 
know about it, ask them to talk to one of the local "gurus" about it.  It 
does work.

There are several problems though... 

	IBM will not accept test cases more than a few hundred bytes in 
length, because they download all of this stuff from uunet over a very
slow modem link.

	Many of the support personnel have never used the facility, so many
are not aware that it is available.  (If you are having trouble with 
someone in particular, send me a note (at the email address pensoft!robin)
and I will contact the person and inform them how to use the utility of
email.)

	If you send binary testcases they will have to be uuencoded.  This
highlights another deficiency in the support personnel... Nobody knows
about uudecode.  Make sure you tell them "EXPLICTLY" how to recover the
files you sent.  Assume that they person is new to unix, and unaware of
the various commands and utilities.  If they act like they know what 
their doing, adjust your instructions accordingly.  NOT ALL OF THE LEVEL
2 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN THERE SINCE DAY ONE... MANY ARE NEW EMPLOYEES STRAIGHT
OUT OF COLLEGE.  They are learning just like most of you people had to, 
so give them a chance.


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