AB - Tyranny!

A reasonable price for tech support is proportional to how much c.rap you're in at the time...

I've had both bad and good experiences with tech support. Siemens in the UK are famous for just blaming any problem on the fact that the serial number on your programming cable means that it isn't the latest cable and you need to buy the latest cable in order to continue the technical support discussion... Mitsubishi in the UK do the old "leave your number and we'll phone back"... I'm still waiting for about three phone calls from a year and a half ago...

But occassionally you get through to someone who really knows their stuff and goes the extra mile.. I don't think any of the statements saying "XXXX manufacturers support is terrible" are true...

A more correct statement would "I've just had a terrible experience using XXXX manufacturers support"..

Tech support staff, like the rest of us, have a difficult job and, as someone mentioned, deserve a bit of sympathy again...



Just £2 a month will buy a technical support person a new headset for those important calls... Just £2 a month will get their squeaky chair fixed... Just £2 a month will enable them to train someone else to help out.. Show a technical support person how to fix a drive and he'll be able to take a few calls but your £2 a month could tell him how to fob people off because they've got the wrong cable and then he'll be able to take ALL the calls...

(I'm rambling again aren't I...)
 
CaseyK said:
Or at least Tech Support on a 900 number, perhaps $25 a call or per hour...........
Click to expand...

Now THAT I like.

Anyone know why AB doesn't offer something like it (assuming, of course, that they don't...doh!).

It sure would help at 3:00 am when you make that call only to find out your contract expired last month...

Steve
 
OK then - something like the cell phone mess in the USA.

Pay as you go support at a high rate

Or pre bought minutes (daily, weekend, all-day) at various rates

Or yearly coverage (possibly including free updates)

Then updates available for a seperate fee (with details on the advantages of upgrading to the next level)

And especially fixes of bugs available for free.
 
As much as I hate to say so, this whole structure of Bernie's sounds like a winner to me.

Have Credit Card, Get Support. Right Now.

It doesn't have to be cheap, just available.

Steve
 
Steve Etter said:
As much as I hate to say so, this whole structure of Bernie's sounds like a winner to me.

Have Credit Card, Get Support. Right Now.

It doesn't have to be cheap, just available.

Steve
Click to expand...
Steve,
It is a weekend now, try to call AB and ask if you can get support now for product XXXX (pick one)
Answer will be: one time support is available just give us your CC number. Just don't be surprized with price. I used it few times when needed support over a weekend.
 
I used to work for a company who did the same thing nighthawks company does, and his boss is not trying to cover his own ***. AB will not provide support to anybody who repairs and sells used equipment. Sometimes its the only way AB stays in on some facilities, due to its higher cost on hardware. Dont get me wrong, Im and avid AB fan, and its all i use at my facilities, but when a integrator is selling some hardware, but AB still gets in on software most of the time, is AB really losing anything when the clients original option is to buy GE or Brand X most of the time and the lower cost of used AB equipment changes there mind?
 
Love that animation

Thanks to ERIC, again, for the smash AB ainimation!


CaseyK said:
A little something to help ease the stress!



Alan-Badly.gif




With a "Special Thanks" to it's creater, "ERIC"
Click to expand...
 
geniusintraining said:
nope....they keep sending it back, saying I don't use their support enough as it is :p
Click to expand...

You could pay for the OP's tech support! That way you are paying double, and he gets the support he needs. Everybody's happy!

🍻
 
LoL, the OP started a hot thread then disppeared.

I still don't understand the Original Post. Is that AB will NOT sell a support contract to them or AB just refused to provide free support? I used to work for a competitor to AB's higher end system but they had no problem selling us the OEM package and even brand us as "gold" AB vendor, haha.

What about AB's local distributor? Many local distributor will provide free support if you are a good customer and they will also conference call to AB for you.

It also sounds like OP is working for a OEM of sort, if that's the case buy not buy AB OEM package for ~$6k/year, that way you get all the AB's software + support.

I said this before, AB just charging what the market will bear, just like everyone else.

As for the $ per call idea, that's good but then some will complain again if AB charge $750 per call. You guys know how much Microsoft charge per call 6 years ago? $60 for a Windows issue, that's right! There are so many Microsoft MCSE you can throw a rock out the window and hit 2 of them on a cloudy day!

My guess is that if AB offers such a service it would be about $500-$1000 per call to be worth their while.
 
Hi Folks, it's me again... found out that maybe RSDoran is right, only not quite -- my boss is not the one that is jerking my chain, it is the local AB rep that is jerking his. I have heard certain unflattering phrases applied to the character of the people in this dealer's office from other sources, so it seems to be a localised problem.

Still, I feel that unfair is unfair. Maybe I should contact the Attorney General's office and really shake things up!
 
You can purchase your AB products from any distributor willing to sell them to you. You are not limited to the one you are currently dealing with. Contact a different distributor and ask them to quote you a service contract. Distributors generally have a "gentleman's agreement" to refrain from actively promoting themselves in each others territory, but if a customer from outside a distributor's franchise area asks for a product, the distributor will generally not turn down a sale.

However, AB (and any other PLC manufacturer) would rather have their distributors competing with Siemens, Omron, GE, etc than with each other, so don't expect the out-of-area distributor to be able to offer any special pricing.
 
This is slightly off topic, but in the same vein as the AB tech support being discussed.

Strange but absolutely true: We were bidding a project and needed pricing on some Milton Bradley drives. They would NOT give us pricing because no one in our company had been trained on the drives yet. We said if we get the project we would send someone to training but still no price from them. So we went with another drive manufacturer and got the job (and were trained on their drives).

Oh yeah; soon after we called for drive pricing, Milton Bradley's system integration department called our customer to see about quoting the project themselves.

It's kinda tough when your supplier is also your competitor.
 
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