A little horror story for your Monday morning delectation.

Some will recall my message a couple of months or so ago,
concerning our need to acquire an HP3000/928 for Y2K
renovation and testing.

It took the local HP office nearly two weeks (13 days to be
exact) to effectively respond to requests for information and
quotations.  And then the response was essentially 'You're
not a sufficiently important customer for us to service
directly.  You'll have to go to one of our channel partners.'

I was sourcing the machine for a health care network that
turns over around $300 million a year.  And this was the first
time in around 15 years that I haven't been able to get
pre-sales consultation, quotations, and place an order with
a preferred supplier!

Well, nevermind all that, I don't particularly care where the
machine comes from, so we duly did our homework on configuration
and placed the order with a recommended 'channel partner'.

And the machine finally arrived--two weeks later than the
agreed-on delivery date, missing half its ordered memory,
missing a front panel for the HA disc rack, missing its
UPS, and most important of all, missing the specified and
quoted IMAGE/SQL.

Connecting it to the network proved to be a frustrating
experience.  The ID panel on the back of the CPU had been
scavenged from an HP9000, thus it had a fixed metal tab
covering the UPS port, and exposing a supplementary
AUI and RJ45 network connector.  The AUI port on the
console lan card was dead.  After much fiddling around,
and a repeat visit from the installing engineer, it was
discovered that the console lan card was internally jumpered
to use the BNC port (which by that time had a neat terminator
on it).  We got that setting back to addressing the correct
AUI port, then started to load IMAGE/SQL.

The DAT tape drive delivered with the system threw a fit
and caused repeated system failures.  We'll have that replaced
in the next day or so.

Meanwhile, the front panel for the HA rack arrived .... missing
its mounting bracket.

Then the UPS arrived .... not entirely useful since the port
on the CPU is neatly covered by the aforementioned immovable
metal tab.  (Well, I guess I could take into the engineering
workshop next door and cut it off.  But should I have to do that
sort of thing?)

We're three weeks late and thundering down the track toward
31 December 1999.  I'd like to believe HP cares about the HP3000 and
its customers.  But experience is proving it harder and harder to
hold that opinion.

Is this typical of other subscribers to HP3000-L?

Ron Burnett
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