Alternatives to contact Support for Hardware problems?

[Steve Post]

The telephone didn't really work last time.
The last time I had a problem with a disk, I spent 4 hours on and off the phone trying to get the my problem into the brain of the tech support person. They did not seem to really speak English. In the end, the disk was correct. But my name, my company's name, and the operating system were all wrong. I will not fault support for it. I just want to have a way to avoid this in the future.

Web connection doesn't work.
The internet connection to ITRC barely works from work. (Please don't try to talk to me about fixing internet. Been there. Done that. The trip is just an elaborate way to spend a week NOT solving anything. I think it is MY firewall that I have NO control over.) ISEE doesn't see to work through it either.

Email works fine. But I don't know how long it takes to respond via email.

I don't want some gee-whiz super-duper fancy-smancy application that requires gobs of software and full internet capability. I just want to know if there is a way I can contact support and they really understand what I say.

What options are there? I'm expecting a simple link I can go to (once I get to a spot where the internet works again).

[Patrick Wallek · Accepted solution]

I now open all calls, hardware and software both, via the ITRC. I gave up actually calling the support 800 number 2 or 3 years ago. It was just too much of a pain in the a**.

If you have your support contracts linked to your ITRC ID, then you can open calls via the 'support case manager - enterprise edition' link on the ITRC home page.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

I am with Patrick on this one.

I found our content filter messed with ITRC because they use the 11 and 12 websites and it things that is cross site scripting.

I also started using a regular DSL connection instead of the corporate network for ITRC and that helped a lot.

My boss liked me to call the Response Center. That is because I have to go through two layers of Hebrew to explain my problem also in Hebrew. That is because he rightly thinks I need to improve my Hebrew.

Otherwise I'd be exclusive on the web.

Doing it on the web also creates a database that can be consulted for solving the same problems in the future.

SEP

[Pete Randall]

I'm with Patrick and SEP, too. I can't understand the vast majority of the support people when they call and I can't hear them because of the noise levels in my environment so I open all my calls via the ITRC and ask for "electronic response". They tend to call anyway but lately I've been explaining in the case itself that there's no point in calling me. That worked the last time and it makes it much easier. It's hard to write with an accent!

I still have to wonder why we have to supply a support contract. Every time I get a note like this: "Customer claims contract 103304925020 covers the tape drive part". Frankly I find that insulting. What the hell do they mean "Customer claims"? Don't they have access to the contract. Can't they see? I keep complaining about these things, but nothing seems to change.

Maybe if enough of us add our rants here, someone will take notice . . . . . . . . OK, so I was dreaming. Not likely.


Pete

[Pete Randall]

SEP,

The more I thought about having to communicate with the Response Center in Hebrew, the funnier I found it. Do they speak Hebrew with an Indian accent?


Pete

[Steve Post]

Hebrew in an Indian Accent? LOL! Ok. you guys made my day.

I was thinking I need to learn Indian myself. But I'd rather learn Japanese. It wouldn't help in technical support. But at least I can watch Japanese cartoons without subtitles.

The cross site scripting error sounds like my problem. My web errors happen when it wants to go to itrc12 or itrc11 (or something like that).

I think our office has a computer that is hooked up to the internet via nice, normal way. I'll just have to get access to it.

And if I still have a serious problem getting to HP via web? A 12 minute drive home is a lot faster then a 60 minute attempt at verbal communication.

Thanks!

[Olivier Masse]

I always open my calls from the ITRC too, whether hardware or software. And I put the most details I can. For software calls, many times the 1st level engineer will bump up electronic calls to the 2nd level without asking questions if it's a problem that they feel that they can't resolve at the 1st level.

The only exception was when I had Critical Systems Support at my previous job; in an emergency, it was quicker to call on the phone as you would get in conference with a 2nd-level engineer immediately. But without CSS you're better off avoiding the phone, in my opinion.

Also keep your contract data up to date. It helps to have your contract numbers, and link them to your ITRC profile as some have mentioned. However, actually obtaining the contract number is complicated; I usually have to wait for it to come in by postal mail, assuming the postal address was correct. Systems Insight Manager can be of help here to make your inventory; but it's a beast in itself which requires lots time to set up.

Good luck

[Steve Post]

Thanks.
I keep a copy of all my stdsysadm stuff on my pc. So I can send an ioscan of when the device works and when it fails. There was no way I could ever get that type of detail via phone. Just spelling my name s.t.e.v.e. was a massive chore.

I got with my network folks, and they have a spot for me to plug into for hassle free internet access. It tested out fine.

Thanks for the contracts note. I'll need to revisit it very soon.