Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!cbosgd!mandrill!neoucom!wtm
From: wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att
Subject: Re: Query about the quality of UNIX/PCs and 3b1's (really 3b1 unix)
Message-ID: <909@neoucom.UUCP>
Date: 4 Jan 88 14:23:08 GMT
References: <9691@shemp.UCLA.EDU> <18017@clyde.ATT.COM> <997@bakerst.UUCP> <75@sialis.mn.org>
Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Lines: 42
Summary: AT&T blames motherboard for wmgr crashing the machine


Hi,

As Robert mentioned in his article, it is a good idea to ask for
the "ticket number" each time you call the hotline with a bug.
Also keep track of when you called the hotline.  That way, you have
something to go back to them with when they say that you never
called while the machine was in warranty.

Unfortunately, I almost learned too late about ticket numbers.  My
introduction was only recently when the machine crashed on a
Saturday and I called to log the occurance.  The person gave me the
number and asked me to call back Monday and give the ticket number.

Curiously, AT&T blamed my motherboard for the crashes I've been
getting from wmgr blowing up.  They tried to blame my modem, but I
persisted and finally won.  I did point out that it was the
internal modem that liked to hang, not my external modem.  The
hotline person wanted to blame the external modem for toggling the
CTS lead too often, but I pointed out that I had crashes when the
modem hadn't been doing anything for over three hours.

It is interesting that the normal problem resolution modality is to
toss in a new motherboard.  This is despite the fact that four or
five other people on the Net running 3.5.1 are having problems
similar to mine.  Oh well, I guess the electronics are cheaper than
expending human time -- obviously true for one person having a
problem.

When the hotline finally convinced itself that my motherboard was
to blame, they said that a person would be here tomorrow to
replace it.  That is pretty decent response.  It's just that
working up to the response is the laborious part.

So, all-in-all, AT&T service is pretty good, it is just convincing
them that is the difficult part.  If you'd ever had to suffer
through Digital's (DEC's) so-called service, then you'd realize
that AT&T's service really is nice.  Of course  getting service for
IBM PCs is virtually impossible from IBM; they make the dealer
channel do everything -- and I've seen stunningly incompetent
dealer attempts at service.

--Bill