15-12-2004 10:48									#121
	Put an end to popups!

quote: Originally posted by Ted Striker Whoah!!!! I got an inside card I can pull! Thanks man! Actually it's severity 2 and I asked him to escalate it and he says he is going to have dev look at it but needed a trace file first. I think it's just lip service but I'll give him a few tries. I'll give this guy a few tries to crack it but if he doesn't get moving I'm gonna have to ask for some more critical attention. He says it's an app side problem and I agree with him but I need to see exactly where the problem is occuring so I can go back to the vendor and tell them EXACTLY where to fix their code.

This was opened against DB2, right?

If so, it's likely being done here at the same Lab (unless it's a local callcenter or L1...and it doesn't sound like it).

I know quite a few of the team, and eat lunch with a lot of them.

The #1 way to get it looked at faster is to talk about escalating. Sev 3 and 4 are essentially both synonyms for "bottom of the barrel", and they make no difference. Sev 2s should be good...Sev1 is damn quick, but they hate to escalate that high.

Another tip is to give them a deadline. Tell them you need to have a fix by (date) -- but try to make it reasonable. Once they have a schedule, they usually investigate it pretty quickly.

If you want, give me the PMR number and I can look it up in the system and see what they're doing with it.

	15-12-2004 10:50									#122
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Pekka I'd wear a rubber. No one knwos where Mr. Mrt has been .. last I heard was he robs ladies after having sex with them Anyway, guess who is getting 1000 pizzas on 26th! I'd remove the address..

i dont live there anymore

	15-12-2004 10:53									#123
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Asher This was opened against DB2, right? If so, it's likely being done here at the same Lab (unless it's a local callcenter or L1...and it doesn't sound like it). I know quite a few of the team, and eat lunch with a lot of them. The #1 way to get it looked at faster is to talk about escalating. Sev 3 and 4 are essentially both synonyms for "bottom of the barrel", and they make no difference. Sev 2s should be good...Sev1 is damn quick, but they hate to escalate that high. Another tip is to give them a deadline. Tell them you need to have a fix by (date) -- but try to make it reasonable. Once they have a schedule, they usually investigate it pretty quickly. If you want, give me the PMR number and I can look it up in the system and see what they're doing with it.

Yep, it was DB2

Thanks for the tip. I think I will let him know that we have a deadline, actually I need it fixed by the end of the week and I don't see that as being unreasonable.

I'll see how far we get tomorrow and then I'll send you the PMR if you want to take a look.

Thanks dog that is cool as hell!

	15-12-2004 10:56									#124
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

There are a ton of options to get it fixed ASAP.

Open at Sev2 (not 3 or 4). Then if needed, the hierarchy is:
- Sev 1
- Sev 1 24/7 support
- critsit (critical situation)
- Open a complaint against DB2 support

The last one is the real kickass one. We're dealing with a major DB vendor right now (which will go unnamed). They're missing a ship date due to a compiler issue, so they opened a complaint. Literally, overnight half of the whole development team was dedicated full-time to investigating that issue.

It was fixed within a day. (turns out it was actually bad code they had)

	15-12-2004 11:08									#125
	Increase Your PM Length

Wow, I have never heard of that last one

We used critsit once and had a bunch of people on board helping us.

Inside info

What are the keywords to use to get Sev 1 escalation even though our system isn't down? I can use the brute force ******* technique but I don't like using that on my fellow techies unless it's an absolute emergency.

	15-12-2004 11:20									#126
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by Ted Striker What are the keywords to use to get Sev 1 escalation even though our system isn't down? I can use the brute force ******* technique but I don't like using that on my fellow techies unless it's an absolute emergency.

If you ask for it, they have to give it to you. Usually it's process to try to discourage it, but if you're persistent they have no choice but to go with your severity.

The easy ways to get it done with no questions asked are flagging that it's a system down, or a looming deadline, or otherwise high-impact to your business.

The key to getting good service is to be nice to the guy at the other end (this goes both ways). I'm sure you already know that and practice that, since you're an upstanding kind of guy.

But nothing is worse than dealing with an ******* of a customer. They get minimum service. The Process specifies contact at most every 5 business days...well, that's what they get.

The nice and cooperative customers are awesome, and get really quick responses.

It's the same as everywhere else in life, I'd expect.

	15-12-2004 11:24									#127
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

And I expected you to be in bed, you have that important meeting tomorrow!!!!!

	15-12-2004 11:28									#128
	Remove this text

I was brushing, then I was done and checking Poly again.

I meant I was done with Fez.

	15-12-2004 12:20									#129
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

quote: Originally posted by MRT144 how about you meet me halfway between LA and Seattle, in San Francisco. You can come **** me at 1199 Flying Fish St. Foster City CA, 94404. Show up on december 26th around noon.

Hell no.

	15-12-2004 12:24									#130
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Giancarlo L.A sucks. The city is in bankruptcy because of the democrats. The infrastructure is a disaster.

Fez sighting!

	15-12-2004 13:57									#131
	Full PM-box? Change here!

@ Thread

	15-12-2004 14:53									#132
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

quote: Originally posted by Asher If you ask for it, they have to give it to you. Usually it's process to try to discourage it, but if you're persistent they have no choice but to go with your severity. The easy ways to get it done with no questions asked are flagging that it's a system down, or a looming deadline, or otherwise high-impact to your business. The key to getting good service is to be nice to the guy at the other end (this goes both ways). I'm sure you already know that and practice that, since you're an upstanding kind of guy. But nothing is worse than dealing with an ******* of a customer. They get minimum service. The Process specifies contact at most every 5 business days...well, that's what they get. The nice and cooperative customers are awesome, and get really quick responses. It's the same as everywhere else in life, I'd expect.

I PMed you the PMR!


And you are right, when it comes to customer support, being nice goes a long way. When I get a tech that does an outstanding job for us, I ask him to send us their manager's name and then I email them telling them that their tech did a good job for us.

I think that DB2 and Veritas have the best support so far that I have dealt with. Informix support was amazing but I haven't used them in years.

Sun support has been hit or miss, very inconsistent.

When I first got out of school I did alot of installations, and when someone called up and was an ahole, I immediatley put them at the bottom of the list.

I think with this tech that I was a little impatient, because I felt he was trying to immediatley push the solution off as being in the app, when I knew for a fact that there were fixes that could have been tried at the server level. So after I asked him to look again, he found them.

Unfortunatley those fixes didn't work for us in the past and didn't work this time.

He seemed to be in a rush too, maybe a big vacation is coming up!

Oh well, hopefully we will get this problem fixed.


Threadjacks:

1) Flame war with Fez
2) An Insider's Guide to IBM DB2 Support

	15-12-2004 17:18									#133
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

May I ask a question, ON TOPIC?

What are "crips"?

	15-12-2004 19:04									#134
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

A gang.

-Arrian

	15-12-2004 19:09									#135
	Suffering from ads?

@ axi

I wanted to ask the same question

	15-12-2004 19:48									#136
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Could we have the commie element Gianfez exiled to, let's say, Īle du Diable?

	15-12-2004 20:07									#137
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by axi May I ask a question, ON TOPIC? What are "crips"?

A black gang which deals in petty theft, drug dealing, armed robbery, and who has the stupid habit of doing drive by shootings on other gangs mostly The Bloods. This gang is mostly confined to the shittiest parts of LA.

	15-12-2004 20:31									#138
	Full PM-box? Change here!

Well, maybe the long obnixious threadjack/Fezzing has come to an end...well, no hope of that really.

Anyway, On topic, As long as the City provides alternative housing for the displaced families, good for them. Overall to do so would probably cost them less than having the families go into the homeless system. I know that would be true here in NYC.

	15-12-2004 20:32									#139
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

I know this might sound dreadfully simplistic, but why not arrest the actual criminals and leave the innocent people alone ?

... or is this a variant on guns don't kill people, but buildings kill people ?

I wonder - if several crimes occurred in an upper class gated community in California, would all the residence be evicted ?

	15-12-2004 20:43									#140
	Put an end to popups!

If this happened in an upper class gated community, I'd bet the people would just move. They could afford to.

	15-12-2004 20:58									#141
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

This would not happen in a gated community-that is the point of the gate.

	15-12-2004 21:05									#142
	Inflate your Upload Space

I see Fez has returned.

	16-12-2004 03:55									#143
	Increase Your PM Length

My beautiful thread. Look what it has become.

	16-12-2004 04:02									#144
	Put an end to popups!

quote: Originally posted by Verto My beautiful thread. Look what it has become.

It was such a good issue too. You should have gotten Fez insurance.

	16-12-2004 04:23									#145
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Oerdin It's actually around 1100.

1300, and he's not just talking about Americans.

	16-12-2004 05:34									#146
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

This thread is