> On Sep 8, 2017, at 1:01 PM, Jesse 1 Robinson <[email protected]> wrote: > > We've had the extended version for so long that I can't remember life without > it. What I do remember is that several years back, our software license folks > 'forgot' to pay the SoftwareXcel bill. We were suddenly unable to report > problems via ServiceLink. It got straightened out in a few days, but it was > jarring to go unsupported. > > And yes, we have periodically used the Q&A service, though we could probably > get along without that. It's nice to be able to report a 'problem' without > knowing in advance whether it's a defect in the product or a defect in our > understanding. > > I don't know the boundaries between basic and extended. Jesse,
About 25 years ago, we were in the middle of purchase an IBM system. We had some questions on it (mostly operational). We asked our so called IBM-Rep to find out the answers. He told us, we would have to sign a $25K service contract to get the answers. I looked at him and said if we have to pay IBM for simple questions, we will go elsewhere. I called up a friend at IBM and he was happy to supply the answers and suggested some other issues we should look at. I told him the next time he was in town, dinner was on me. Total cost to the company was $73 and it was deductible. We never asked IBM another question. We also went to 3rd party suppliers for disk/tape etc. I just used my black book of friends and the total cost of the was $25 for a bottle of wine. I made sure our IBM rep know where we went for questions that IBM should have been happy to answer, we went elsewhere. I also made sure that we severed all ties to IBM after that except for maintenance of software. We turned our backs on IBM. That is what short-sightedness of IBM has brought on. Ed > > . > . > J.O.Skip Robinson > Southern California Edison Company > Electric Dragon Team Paddler > SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager > 323-715-0595 Mobile > 626-543-6132 Office ⇐=== NEW > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
