Oh Dear,
Judging from the response we appear to have touched something
of a nerve. I have to agree that when I eventually get through
to the right people, they are most helpful. Getting through
the system can however be frustrating and at times absurd..
"Yes I have just bought a million dollars worth of kit. No it
does not have a part number label, that is because I had to build
it largely myself from a kit of less than well documented parts. Yes
it is all 100% brand new DEC, bought from an approved reseller. Yes
the price included support and maintainance. No, it is not a printer.
No, it does not run Windows NT..."
...and so the saga continues. With a little patience this is not
a serious problem but if I am not on site and some Professor
calls DEC saying his mouse doesn't work (Dilbert in real life) then
this sort of response can prejudice future purchasing. Professors
are not renowned for their patience or their logic :-)
Stuart McKenzie draws my attention to a failing that is all too
prevalent, not just at DEC/Compaq... the response...
How can we NOT fix this? Is it on support? Is it close to after hours?
Is it software and the client has said hardware, or doesnt know?
...should be...
A client has a problem. It may well be affecting his use of our machines.
How can we help them fix it in the shortest possible and practical time?
Alan Rollow points out that there are approved channels for this
this type of comment, I wonder why we never bother to use them?
Keep up the excellent work chaps.
k.mcmanus_at_gre.ac.uk -
http://www.gre.ac.uk/~k.mcmanus
-------------------------------------------------------------
Dr Kevin McManus ||
School of Computing & Math Science ||
The University of Greenwich ||
Wellington St. Woolwich ||Tel +44 (0)181 331 8719
London SE18 6PF UK ||Fax +44 (0)181 331 8665
Received on Tue Nov 10 1998 - 16:52:54 NZDT