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From: mark@tove.UUCP (Mark Weiser)
Newsgroups: net.works,net.rumor,net.unix-wizards
Subject: More on Sun responsiveness: not bad.
Message-ID: <189@tove.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Apr-85 21:30:33 EST
Article-I.D.: tove.189
Posted: Tue Apr 23 21:30:33 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Apr-85 04:44:23 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Maryland, Laboratory for Parallel Computation, C.P., MD
Lines: 37
Xref: linus net.works:743 net.rumor:548 net.unix-wizards:10070

In early February I sent out mail inquiring about what other people's
experiences with Sun sales folks had been, and listing some of the
troubles we had had here at Maryland.  There was quite a bit of posting
on the positive side and direct mail to me on the negative side
regarding experiences with Sun sales.  Everyone emphasized that once
the equipment arrived it was great, and that Sun's delivery promises
were generally trustworthy.  Since my message I can confirm that:  All
the late Sun workstations we had ordered (13 of them) arrived, the
first few only 2 weeks late, the rest AHEAD of Sun's stated schedule.
They all came up the first time and have been running fine.  I have a
much more positive feeling about Sun now, at least technically.  (Not
to mention that they have been hiring some of my favorite hackers.)

I still have a feeling that their sales force is a little
inexperienced.  Among other things, in response to my February mail
somone at Sun actually called an assistant Chancellor here at the
University of Maryland, complained that I was publically libeling them
and threatened to sue the University.  This is a silly way to handle
things, and is not the way to build good feelings between company and
customer.  I also have had to learn about new Sun products and prices
from the net and then call our sales rep and request literature, rather
than having them sent to me automatically as a valued customer.  But,
as I say, this may due to the problems of getting up to speed in the
Washington office, or the  relative size of U of Maryland's order vs.
some of the big government orders our local Sun office must contend
with.

But, gee, that workstation is great.  I'll be buying more.
	-mark
-------------------------- 
Spoken: Mark Weiser 	ARPA:	mark@maryland	Phone: +1-301-454-7817
CSNet:	mark@umcp-cs 	UUCP:	{seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!mark
USPS: Computer Science Dept., University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
-- 
Spoken: Mark Weiser 	ARPA:	mark@maryland	Phone: +1-301-454-7817
CSNet:	mark@umcp-cs 	UUCP:	{seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!mark
USPS: Computer Science Dept., University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742