Please Fix Novell Support

[fweigert]

Todd,
I am glad to hear that you guys are working to improve some of your processes. I had voiced my frustration with my sales engineer also and as a result had a conversation with one of your service managers. One of the outcomes of that discussion was the suggestion that because of the size and technical expertise of our organization we might be better off with one of Novell's premium service offerings. While I appreciate the advice and am considering this option I can't let you get off the hook that easy :-). There are still some things substantially wrong with the way things are today. I currently have an open incident that has been open for over 4 weeks and other than a 10 minute remote session and several email exchanges with screenshots and log files absolutely nothing has happened. After my conversation with the service manager the incident was escalated. I heard from backline last Friday with a request for more logfiles and screenshots and now it it almost Wednesday and I still have not received any response. This is now almost 5 weeks to troubleshoot a documented feature that is not working as designed. At this point I am not looking for further escalation or special treatment, I am only trying to point out that this not what a paying customer should have to expect.

As to the fact that your new frontline guys have deep Linux knowledge, that is great, but I also think that is part of the problem when it comes to OES support. I have yet to meet a “real” Linux guy (and I have met many) who believes that you need anything but native Linux to run a network. MS is the enemy, Novell (they really mean Netware) is “Legacy”. What you need is a couple of engineers who know where OES Services come from, understand why some of your customers hang on to them, and help them ease their way into the migration. The only person who knows what the big deal about the NSS file system is, is somebody who has actually used and supported it for many years. Hire (re-hire?) some good Netware engineers and teach them Linux, with all the great new Linux based products you have today you still need people who have passion for Novell's past (because that's what most customers still running Netware have), otherwise it is better to just draw the line and say goodbye to the file and print market.

Just my 50 cents :-)


Frank