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From: thompson@PAN.SSEC.HONEYWELL.COM (John Thompson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: re: 400t upgrade to 425t !!FLAME!!
Message-ID: <9103291827.AA07711@pan.ssec.honeywell.com>
Date: 29 Mar 91 18:27:01 GMT
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> It looks as if HP/A has a major problem getting timely, fairly distributed
> upgrades to its customers.  I leave it to the readers, should I:
>    A) Become a raving maniac (as in very, very mad) in my dealings
>       with HP/A personnel, killing the messenger (as it were).  I
>       have never found any of my contacts to be other than nice people, so
>       I don't like this possiblilty.
>    B) Find the person(s)/group(s) responsible (how do I do THAT!?) and
>       FLAME ON THEM.
>    C) Resign myself to the observation that old customers are less important
>       than new ones.

I suppose it depends (this was probably a rhetorical question, but....)

1) What's your discount rate?  If you're getting the 50, 60, 70, ... percent
   discount that some universities get, I (as a truly paying customer) could
   understand HP/Apollo giving preference to the people paying real $$$.
   (I don't know if HP/Apollo gives discounts that are really steep -- I have 
   only heard _secondhand_ tales of steep discounts from vendor X to university Y.)
2) Do you have delivery problems from other vendors as well?  If HP/Apollo is
   giving you poor treatment, and ACME Computers is out there giving you the
   best service in the world, then you should tell HP/Apollo that fact.
3) Have you talked w/ your local reps about this?  You can complain without 
   raving.  Since all the local people seem nice, ask them for the names/numbers
   of people that are higher up.  In this case, I believe that a lot of the
   problem was w/ delivery from Motorola -- the 040 is still not as solid as
   HP/Apollo (or we peons here at Honeywell) would like to see.  (The O/S is
   also rather shakey on them -- don't know how much is the O/S and how much
   is the hardware foundation.)

-- jt --
John Thompson
Honeywell, SSEC
Plymouth, MN  55441
thompson@pan.ssec.honeywell.com

Me?  Represent Honeywell?  You've GOT to be kidding!!!