Hi everybody,
not sure if anyone else has experienced this. I have been reaching out to Rockwell Techconnect this morning to try to ask a simple question about the error on my Panelview Plus 7 10".
The first time, I was on hold 16 minutes and then the call just dropped (lol, how fun is this). Now I'm on my second call, 9 minutes of wait time and counting and haven't spoken to a single person yet.
I noticed that they changed their wait music and menus (the ringback music and info like 'all our operators are busy, please visit us online' is more frequent.) It seems that they changed their telephone system recently, and I'm not sure if this wait time is due to that or if it is just a busy day.
Interested to hear if anyone has had a similar experience. Thanks all.
I think the old Rockwell guys on the forum can attest to this, but it's not something you can just bring people on and train them to know the ins and outs in a matter of a few weeks. Which means the wait times have to do with how quickly their support people can solve problems and move on to the next one, it could be worse though. When i've tried contacting ABB, or Omron, they've waited 48 hours to get back to me like it's no big deal.
Apple does support, but their products are always new products with a huge base of support behind them, and they drop their old products much faster so there's no need for old support.
With rockwell and other PLC manufacturers, I feel like there are 3 tiers of knowledge.
Lowest - The guy who just looks up your problems and tells you what article hes looking at and what it says to do. sometimes has a basic knowledge of controls but really is just looking things up.
Mid - The guy who knows more recent controls, uses the KB, but doesn't know the quirks and the ins and outs of problems. So when you call with that weird issue that has to do with a specific firmware, you'll be solving a problem that has been solved by the older guys a few times already, and may spend 2 hours on the phone whereas the older guy would have had it done in 10 minutes.
Ken Roach level - The guys that have been around since the early days and knows their stuff. They can remember old problems and old solutions, and also have a great knowledge of newer products that easily makes them the best to get on the phone.
Unfortunately, from the talks I've had with support the few times i've called for some very odd issues, I've only ever gotten the older guys a few times. Even had a couple of them ask me if I ever thought of doing phone support for rockwell also, because they seem to have a hard time finding people with a solid knowledge of software and hardware that can think through problems.
The real kicker is that some products have been completely discontinued for support because the guys who had the knowledge to support those products retired, and it just isn't worth it to try to teach anyone the old products just to provide support for them. This is going to be the case for other products as well, just wait for the next wave of retirees and people who leave the support work and there won't be any support for Micrologix or SLC in 10 years simply due to not enough people having experience with them.