Randy Keefer wrote:

> This lowered our costs to $15,000/yr.  But the best thing I learned was to
> change our 4-hour response time to next-day.  Now, before you start
> cringing, let me finish.  I found that with 4-hour response, our monthly
> costs were $1245/month.  But if I changed to next-day, they went down to
> $610/month.  Now I was worried about waiting a day for help, so I asked the
> rep if there is a way I could get boosted up to 4-hour in an "emergency".
> She said "Yes, but it would cost $300 to do a one-time bump to 4-hour
> repsonse time".  I thought "Hmmmmm.  I save $600/month, and if I need 4-
> hour response, I just have to give them a P.O. number for $300."  So, I
> went to next-day response, and had my acctg dept give me a standing P.O. #
> that I could use if I needed to bump up to 4-hour.

Yes, but don't be lured into false security.  Sure, the CE has to show
up within 4 hours, but you may be looking at 1-2 days for *parts* to
arrive.  With next-day, they can often "pre-emptively" order suspected
replacement parts, but with 4-hour, it depends on what is on the shelf
and the courier's schedule.

We were down for nearly THREE DAYS some years ago when our 960 burned
out the main power supply transformer, and would have been down longer
than that if they hadn't scavenged the transformer out of a machine in
the Atlanta response center.

4-hour response does NOT apply to parts.  Nor does next-day.

Jeff Kell <[log in to unmask]>

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