RE: Oracle Support Services

I think you're right on the money with this one. There are a lot of people asking Oracle support what color a white horse is, and they get tired of spending money on it (okay, they get paid a lot for the support, but it's not intended to replace the documentation, just supplement it when something unusual happens...which is pretty darned often). We have an understanding with our client rep, which I believe he has passed on to support, that we research everything before we go to them. It's a matter of pride for me to have everything laid out when I get support on the phone and have a list of all symptoms and several possible lines of research. Quite often, since I'm responsible for a lot of the 8i feature implementation at our shop, I will have to explain what I'm talking about to the tech, who then calls someone else who really knows what I'm talking about (this happens a lot with things like LogMiner). I'm probably cursing myself by saying this, but I've never been on hold longer than about 3 minutes (and no, I don't use the old log it as a downed production system ploy. That'll get you on the 'cry wolf' list in a hurry). As far as I'm concerned, if your TAR isn't resolved as another aspect of a known bug or turned over to development for review, you problably haven't researched the issue well enough with online resources (Metalink, Technet, Northernlight.com and the newsgroups/listservs).

I complain often and bitterly about Metalink. I managed to successfully log a TAR through it the first time the other day. Every other time it has timed out and/or crashed. I always send a negative feedback when I get bad behavior from Metalink and I definitely recommend that everyone on this list do the same. The only way we are going to get Oracle's attention on this is by complaining online and letting sales people know that we're unhappy when it comes time to negotiate support plans. We have Silver support, and thus pay a freaking fortune for support (for the actual time consumed Oracle is probably getting tens of dollars a minute), and I demand better than what Metalink currently provides.

Someone in another thread brought up another annoyance with Metalink. They shut down TARs, sometimes without actually talking to you at all, and you have no appeal on that closed TAR, the decision is final. That way their support log is clear and your problem is shown to have been 'solved'. Even if you immediately open a new TAR they look good for having 'fixed' a problem on the previous one. This is unacceptable behavior and should be stopped. We are the only people who can stop it. So next time Metalink does something incredibally stupid, let them know in no uncertain terms!

Regards,
Chris 'Fight the Power' Gait
Arlington, VA

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric D. Pierce [mailto:PierceED_at_csus.edu] Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 7:14 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L Subject: Re: Oracle Support Services

What the heck is an APARS?

Anyway, in the final analysis did it matter, or would you have been able to do the install anyway without the info? Was the install critical, or was your request for the info a "backburner" item?

Maybe one of the reasons that oracle support is unresponsive (along with the fact that they are greedy and don't want to spend more on support?) is that they are dealing with a lot of hand holding and other relatively piddly stuff. Customers ought to also understand their responsibilities in any business relationship, which might include waiting a little longer than they like for non-critical support info. ep

> ----- Original Message -----
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
> Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 12:10 PM
>
>
> I just used MetaLink to enter a TAR for the first time. I just wanted an
> answer to a simple question. It went like this:
> DAY1: I submitted the following request."Please list the AIX APARS needed
...

-- 
Author: Eric D. Pierce
  INET: PierceED_at_csus.edu

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