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UNIX Hints & Hacks |
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Chapter 10: System Administration: The Occupation |
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Sooner or later, or all the time, you will have to contact the vendors technical support group, called hotlines, help desks, response centers, and support desks. There are several ways to contact some of them; through an Internet Web page, email, or through a 1-800 response center number. Whichever method you choose, the result is the same. They give you a case ID or ticket number and you wait for a return call.
Web pages: Some vendors set up elaborate Web pages that will allow you to open up a case on the problem you are having and dispatch it to an engineer. After it is submitted, the engineer is paged directly to you. The wonderful thing about the system, when it is reliable, is that you can paste in as much information on the problem as you have, including log files, errors from the console, and more complete descriptions than dispatchers on the 1-800 support line put into their system. This system does have limitations.
The servers have occasional problems. Some pages are not tied into their database problem tracking system. So a case can actually take a long time to open. There have been instances reported where you cannot open a case because the system believes that the system is not under maintenance. Updating the database with latest contract information on the customers systems takes times.
Email: The email addresses support@company.com is almost standard between all companies for reaching someone in technical support. These emails go into a queue and are monitored as a manual process. (In most cases the process is not automated yet.) On the plus side, it is like submitting a form on a Web page. You have control over the information that goes into the email. However, this is sometimes the slowest process because it is manual. When a case is opened, the operators typically paste the full email to the case that they create.
1-800 response center: There are still a select few response centers left that are answered by humans, but they are becoming scarce. You will have to traverse the computerized menu system to reach a dispatcher who can log your problem into the technical support system.
Dispatchers are nontechnical people and will not put in any more information that they have to. If you do have the highest level of support, and you insist, you can talk them into putting you on hold and transferring you directly to an engineer. Otherwise they will try to just give you a case ID number and tell you someone will get back to you. What always happens is that after you explain the problem in great detail to the dispatcher, the return call you receive from the first-level technical support person is a question such as, "It says on the case the system hangs. Can you tell me what's wrong?" The dispatcher fails to put in the CPU failure error, so that it would be dispatched to a hardware technician. Meanwhile, two hours are lost on miscommunication.
A good idea is to open a case up, and then ask what the email address is to add additional information to the case. If you know it is a hardware problem, and you know who the support engineers are , call them up immediately and provide the case ID number and let them know what the problem is. They can go into the computer and push the case through fast.
If you are having problems with a mission-critical system and no one is returning calls from your local support or the response center. Then there is something holding everything up and it is out of your control. When this happens to you, immediately call your sales representatives. Their job is not only to sell you the products, but to keep you happy. They can start making phone calls and make things happen. If they are about to close a rather large deal with you, in the next few weeks, you will see someone knocking at the door to your computer room faster than you would believe possible.
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UNIX Hints & Hacks |
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Chapter 10: System Administration: The Occupation |
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