Subject: (usr-tc) The 3Com Support Contract B*tch

From: Brian <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 20:43:06 +0000

What is the name of the lady at 3Com who likes to bust everyones balls
about support contracts?  I got a call today, totally threatening and
unreasonable, from a lady at 3Com.  I just want to get my facts straight.

Also, maybe a letter should be drafted, something like "We the undersigned
ISP's refuse to purchase support contracts until <someone> is no longer
associated with that division of 3Com".........then have something like:

ISP Name		Ports		Contract Value
--------------------	-----------	----------------
foo.com			1200		$  8000.00
blah.com		25000		$200000.00
.
.
.
.
				Total: $5,000,000

something like that.............anyways just a thought.

Brian

-----------------------------------------------------
Brian Feeny, CCNA       [email-masked]   
318-222-2638 x 109	http://www.shreve.net/~signal      
Network Administrator   ShreveNet Inc. (ASN 11881) 	      

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From: Jaye Mathisen <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 20:50:59 +0000

If it's who I think it is, probably LaChina Mc Something-or-other.

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From: Dave Lajoie <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 21:00:07 +0000

I remember seeing many complaints (and having some trouble with) Michelle
Catalano (sp?) but of late have had less problems in this area then most
posts report. I think Michelle is on vacation this week, although I may be
wrong.

Dave Lajoie
Remote System Administrator
North Country Internet Access
E-Mail: [email-masked]

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From: Dayton Internet <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 22:30:03 +0000

I thought Michelle was service contracts and LaChina was v.90

--Rich Adams, President, Dayton Internet Services Inc., Dayton, Ohio--
  [email-masked]

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From: Ted Mecimore <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 23:31:15 +0000

I would hope that 3Com is smart enough to follow this list and pick up on
our collective frustration at the 3Com support contracts folks. If they are
serious about making a run of the TC system they had best get it in gear. In
the past year we have acquired several other smaller ISPs. I am working to
move them from a mixture of platform (PM2, PM3, Bay 5399, Ascend, etc) to
TC. But with the level of support 3Com is offering it is a hard sale. We are
fortunate to have support from Source Technology and Intelligent Choice, but
if they are our best help we are in serious trouble...

Ted Mecimore
Operations Manager
Vista Technology
108 Meeting Street
Morganton, NC 28655

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From: Marius Kirschner <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 23:37:05 +0000

Based on their support (or lack thereof) I've already decided that our next
purchase won't be a 3COM unit.  Give me back USRobotic's support any time,
they were outstanding.

               ---Marius (Agora Online)

>-----Original Message-----
>From: [email-masked]
>[mailto:[email-masked]]On Behalf Of Ted Mecimore
>Sent: Monday, July 17, 2000 5:31 PM
>To: [email-masked]
>Subject: (usr-tc) Wake up 3Com!!
>
>

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From: Brian <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 00:38:25 +0000

nod, I have never in my career seen so much frustration against a company
regarding its support contracts.  I have seen this with the TC support
contracts for 4 years.

Brian

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From: Brian <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 00:38:37 +0000

> purchase won't be a 3COM unit.  Give me back USRobotic's support any time,

Hmm, I can't agree that USR's support was outstanding.  Days of listening
to Canon in D for 2 hours at a time are still very vivid in my
mind...........and you know, I use to like that song, there aren't many
classics I like, but that was one of them, and USR ruined it for me :)

Brian

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From: Paul Farber <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 00:43:42 +0000

People are still paying for support?  Man, I get 1-2 calls a week asking
me to participate in some sort of promotion, rebate, etc.

Cisco maybe able to get away with robbing ISP's for support contracts....
but I can't see how/why 3Com thinks they can.  There are to many
alternatives that are to good to pass up.

Paul Farber
Farber Technology
[email-masked]
Ph  570-628-5303
Fax 570-628-5545

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From: Mark Thornton <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 00:51:24 +0000

I would gladly pay for the support if it had the level of expertise and
response time you get with Cisco when you call with a network down
emergency. The cool grand I paid Cisco on my border router paid off on the
first shot out of the barrel because of direct answers and minimal downtime,
not to mention followup. 3Com wanted a lot more than that with no
improvement in the support. It is cheaper for me to wait for a part to
'fail' and buy a new one from a var that has a clue and get the install
support to resolve the 'failure'.

There are a lot of 'free' options out there but my experience is that 'free'
means don't call me if it doesn't work.

Mark Thornton
San Marcos Internet, Inc.
512-393-5300

----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Farber <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2000 5:42 PM
Subject: Re: (usr-tc) The 3Com Support Contract B*tch

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From: Charles Sprickman <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 02:04:17 +0000

On Mon, 17 Jul 2000, Ted Mecimore wrote:

> our collective frustration at the 3Com support contracts folks. 

I think that at this point this list is not really monitored.  There were
a number of folks here in the past (Krish, Mike... ?) that actually
participated, but I'm guessing they either left the company or are
instructed not to give away "free" support anymore.  I think that overall
this list has dwindled down to a few die-hard folks and that's it.  In 
the past you could post a "hey, how does everyone like v.blah.foo
code?" and get a string of responses.  These days, well...  Part
of that is probably due to the fact that the code has gotten a bit better,
and part having to do with market share.  It should be embarrasing to the
3Com folk that their modems still don't connect worth a crap to most
internal Mac modems (with the exception being the discontinued Quad
cards).

The only thing I've seen from 3Com people lately were posts from a few
green field or sales tech guys asking about how to turn the chassis on or
something along those lines.

In short, bringing up 3Com "corporate issues" here is probably a waste of
time these days...  Perhaps the 3Com message boards are where everyone's
at now?

Charles

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From: Jeff Mcadams <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 04:51:08 +0000

Also sprach Brian

>mind.....

Canon in D didn't show up until after the 3Com purchase.

I'd always put it on speakerphone and inflict the rest of the office
with it.  :)  They always knew when I was calling 3Com.
-- 
Jeff McAdams                            Email: [email-masked]
Head Network Administrator              Voice: (502) 966-3848
IgLou Internet Services                        (800) 436-4456

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