Sletten Kenneth W KPWA wrote:

> But then as Jeff noted, some of the biggest other players have
> really got their web site act together.  He mentioned CISCO as
> one of the obvious leading high-end contenders;  DELL is
> another....   Stan has already listed specifics;  all I can add is
> something I've said before:  HP support managers need to:
>
> (1)   Take a *detailed* walk through  cisco.com

To do them justice, you must have a 'support' login.  They have a few
layers from public access, customer support, preferred support,
consultant, reseller, etc.  The customer support levels get you full
access to their problem database (find a bug and you can attach
notifications for changes to it), online call submittal (lots of room
for the call, plus facility to 'attach' files to corroborate your
report), e-mail response/follow-up options, satisfation surveys (very
brief 10-questions) done by e-mail on support calls, full pricing data,
configuration wizard for all products, contract manager, tracking of RME
replacement parts and order status, availability checking (what is lead
time for delivery of this device), full manuals and documentation,
software updates, patches, release notes, etc.
Not all of those goodies are available for public access.  But it is
immediately clear what you are getting for your support dollars.  E-mail
response to problem reports are measured in hours typically.

Some of the functionality is available from HP.  Printer drivers, for
example, you can generally find and download.  Patches you can often get
without too much hassle.  Custom Patch Manager for HPUX isn't bad
either.  But they are all slow, often painfully so.  The call submission
is bad, especially hardware.  After filling out the web form to submit
hardware calls 2-3 times and clicking the 'call me now' the engineer had
no idea who I was or what the call was about and I
had to repeat the information "upload" by voice, until I discovered if
you ask them to pull the reference number you get, they can find it.
Could have been a temporary operational issue, but persisted for months
after the much-taunted 'call me now' clickable button option
made it's debut.

Jeff Kell <[log in to unmask]>