IBM support (sick) story

[Ed Ravin]

I've reported a grand total of two problems to IBM support so far.  Here
are the results:

#1) getty messes up permissions for bi-directional ports.  After crawling up
the chain of IBM support staff, I was told they'd call me back.  They did, and
said they had no further information.  I then went back to this newsgroup,
when I found a few other people with the same problem and one IBM person on
the newsgroup gave me a fix number. I called up IBM again to ask for the fix,
and after a few days I received the diskette.  But it's clear that the "fix"
isn't really a fix, and only defers the problem (changing one kind of security
hole into another).  Also, the "fix list" in /usr/lpp/bos INCLUDES the APAR
number that I've got on the diskette that's supposed to be an update!  Sorry,
IBM, I don't trust this update disk and I think I'll live without it.

#2) sna services attachments hang up and exit on certain line events (like
FRMR or loss of DSR) and I think they shouldn't be doing that.  One call
to IBM so far got my problem reported.  They said they'd call me back when
they knew something.  Haven't heard from them yet.  My officemate called and
they offered to send us two updates to SNA Services.  But we've been through
that with the PC RT, and we no longer install updates like that unless the
support staff can explain to us why we need it.

I also asked for help over comp.unix.aix, and I got exactly one response, in
email.  It was from a guy working at Rabbit, telling me to buy my sna
software from a company that supports their products.

Final score: IBM 0, Usenet 1.

At other companies whose support I've dealt with in recent years, the first
person you talk to has at least enough understanding about computers to
answer the FAQ's and direct you to someone more technical or more specialized
if your problem was beyond him/her.  At IBM, they insist on having the lowest
qualified people possible answering the phone in order, so you have to
fight your way up the chain to talk to someone who might be able to answer
your questions instead of being just an "information operator" who can look
up keywords or fix numbers in a database and read back what shows up on his/her
screen.

-- 
Ed Ravin            | This random number tells the computer that you are 
cmcl2!panix!eravin  | a member in good standing.  It is not related to your
philabs!trintex!elr | membership number.   --- Sierra Club