Hi,
Recently I had to use the support of two different vendors we have started using more in the last year or so.
I have had my share of dealing with support at random large enterprise software and hardware vendors. And I have had my share of “uhh…have you turned it on and off again” with a 50000$ server. Which I was not so willing to reboot just so a first level support agent could go through his script (yes, I am a evil customer!).
So, the first case was with a hardware vendor. I had mentally prepared my self for a fight with first level support. I opened a case, gave them as much detail as I could and went on with my day.
In about 30 minutes someone contacted me (this was not a system down issue so I just opened up a “normal” ticket) and gave me access to a site where I could upload the relevant hardware logs. Around 20 minutes later I got a response from a very knowledgeable person which gave me a solution. Case closed in less then two hours.
Another case I had recently was that I have been installing and configuring new machines to host our databases. I had a question that I needed to get an answer for so I could finish building out the master which I would use to duplicate to our new fancy database virtual machines.
My experience with our previous OS vendor for our database servers have been horrible, slow responses and pretty much all had the classic “have you tried to turn it off and on again”. So, a case was opened where I layed out my question. Again, I prepared my self for loads and loads of script-based answers and even pretty much gave up any hope that I would get some answers.
Well, to say the least I got a reply in about two hours asking for some more info, and after providing the info I had a well backed answer from a very knowledgeable person in another 20-30 minutes. This was a support ticket with a very low priority.
My faith in support has been restored. HP and Oracle, keep up the good work!
Bgrds,
Finnur