Re: ORACLE TECH SUPPORT. NONEXISTENT

In article <2s27hc$c8f_at_lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>, jlove_at_ivrit.ra.itd.umich.edu (Jack Love) writes:

Coming from an environment in which both products are used, I would have to say that I see little evidence that customer satisfaction is better with Sybase than Oracle. I have been following this thread fairly carefully, I am not an employee of either Oracle or Sybase, and I would have to state that while I am not entirely satisfied with Oracle support, I cannot think of another software company which over an extended period of time has given me better support.

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(***SPEAKING FOR MYSELF***!)
I have to heartily echo these sentiments. There have been many times that I've been ticked off at ORACLE for taking too long to get back to me, or keeping me on hold too long, or misclassifying my (VERY rarely used) Level 1 (Production Down - Dead In The Water) TARs as something else, but overall I have to say I've been satisfied with the support I've gotten.

Granted, some folks might say "Oh, you're always working on megaprojects, so sure, they listen to you", but I haven't been, always. I've been working with Oracle since V5.x; many projects involved various Federal agencies and large corporations / contractors, but some involved relatively tiny or even nonexistent business for Oracle.

I will never forget the guy at Oracle who provided me with product data and analyses when a critical public sector project looked like it was heading for disaster (choosing a DBMS that didn't have the faintest chance of achieving even basic operational parameters.) When it's a matter of losing a few reservations for library books, or an occasional student transcript, or somebody's catalog merchandise order comes up wrong (not to malign any of these worthy RDBMS applications), that's one thing; when it is literally a matter of life and death, it's another.

A FedEx envelope arrived the next day with some much-needed answers, as well as questions I hadn't thought of.

For whatever unfortunate reason, support in this business from whatever vendors seems to still be uneven. I might point out that Oracle too has embarked on re-engineering of its client and customer support functions, heavily based on customer input, and as I work with these folks from day to day, even I can notice changes which seem generally for the better in the WWTS arrangement.

RTSS does need some substantial revamping; it's a pipe dream but to wish that an interface could be made available for us mere DBA mortals that improves its ease of use with respect to say, access to focused bug/fix reports relevant to our particular Oracle port(s). Preferably via standing queries we could construct, and then have the answers be sent to us via fax or email.

I also don't appreciate intrusions into this newsgroup from people who obviously have a specific <marketing> axe to grind vis a vis other RDBMS products .It's declasse to say the least, and if such folks want a better reason, contemplate the spectre of a few of us following you back to whatever fora you use to support your own products. And being equally as helpful and sharing. Received on Wed Jun 08 1994 - 02:50:02 CEST