Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!hpuamsa!frank
From: frank@hpuamsa.UUCP (Frank Slootweg CRC)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: HP Customer Support...
Message-ID: <7810022@hpuamsa.UUCP>
Date: 8 Dec 89 07:52:54 GMT
References: <203@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Organization: HP NL
Lines: 38


 A small point:

  Both "sides" (customers and HP employees) keep talking about SE's ("Can
not get a hold of the SE", "The SE does not know about all the patches",
etc.).

  The organization to contact is the *Response Center* (RC). The
engineers that work there are called RCEs (Response Center Engineers).

  SEs do (generally) not exist anymore for many years. They are now
called AEs (Application Engineers) and are part of the AEO (Application
Engineering Organization).

  The Response Center and the Application Engineering Organization are
(basically) seperate entities.
  The AEO is mainly involved in pre-sales support and consulting.
  The RC is the "maintenance" organization (at least for software). All
post-sales support (that is not consulting or the Account Management
part of a software contract (which is still done by the AEO)) is given by
or coordinated by the RC.

  So while the actual work *might* be done by other organizations (for
software sometimes, for hardware always (by the CEO)) the RC is always
the one to call for "maintenance" (software and hardware), i.e. "One
Point Shopping".
  If you are "chasing" your SE/AE for maintenance problems then you are
bound to be disappointed.
  *If* you do not get good support from the RC then you should "hit" on
the engineer(s) or their management.

  The situation I described exists in The Netherlands. Since this is a
(very) small country it is valid for most countries. For details contact
*your* local sales or support representative.

  Thanks for listening (again :-)),

Frank Slootweg, Hewlett-Packard, Dutch Customer Response Center.