| Next business day advance replacements - in 7 weeks | Created: 05.08.2009 23:29 |
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I have quite a few switches at work from a certain big manufacturer, lets
call them Howling Packrat. Until recently that has always been the same
model for many years, nothing fancy, just gigabit switches with
48 ports. We generally
like them because they're pretty reliable and just work, unlike the
ones from the big C, where they force you to pay a fortune just to
get security updates and live in a hell full of crappy bugridden firmware.
However, the last one they delivered to us (before they released a new
model, a little cheaper but with less features) must have been manufactured
on a monday - it made nothing but trouble. After some power outage a year ago, that switch already showed really strange behaviour. It always booted into some sort of recovery mode that it is supposed to enter only when the firmware image is corrupt. However, that was not the case - from the recovery mode you could just enter the command to boot the firmware, and it would do that without any problems, and in fact we hadn't even tried to update the firmware ever, so corruption was unlikely. The problem disappeared as magically as it had appeared, while we were still trying to work out what was wrong with the help of a support guy, and without any configuration change. Last week, there was another short power outage. After that outage, the switch did not return. When I went to check it just sat there, all lights on. So I powercycled it, and it started to boot, and everything seemed fine. At least until 3 minutes later the rest of the network went down as well. As it turned out, the switch had completely forgotten its config, which of course put all ports into the same VLAN, and as an added bonus made a nice loop on any trunk port. Even after resetting the config (and saving) - on the next power cycle it came up with the default config again. That was where I had enough - I opened a support case and requested to replace the switch. That was on the morning of Thursday, the 30.07. And this is where the fun part starts. It started with the usual madness we have gotten used to, because it happens every time: About an hour after opening the case, a support guy calls. Of course, I checked the box that says "Do not call me, I prefer to be contacted by eMail", but that seems to have no effect whatsoever. And he does what they always do: Ask for the address where the replacement part is to be delivered. Of course, I already entered that when I opened the case, so he has the address right in front of him on the screen, but hey, nothing like wasting a little time for a useless phonecall. I mean I could have moved to another state within the last 60 minutes and taken the equipment with me... That is where the usual madness ends. What usually would have happened is that the replacement part arrives on the next morning. However, we waited in vain on Friday. Same on Monday. And on Tuesday. And on Wednesday. So I wrote to the case asking where my replacement was. Three hours later I get a call. And they called to tell me that my replacement would take a little longer. They were planning to deliver it on the 15.09., i.e. SEVEN WEEKS late. With that in mind, read how these switches are advertised (brand and product name slightly disguised): PH ContraEllipse networking products come with hardware warranties you would expect from PH. Our industry-leading PH ContraEllipse Lifetime Warranty features next-business-day advance replacement (available in most countries)**, and includes coverage for fans and power supplies for the entire warranty period. Ah, so "next business day advance replacement" does not mean you get a replacement on the next business day after something failed, it means you get a replacement on the next business day after the business day in 7 weeks!PS: In their defense - the replacement actually got shipped a few hours later, after I told them as calm as I could that waiting another 6 weeks for something sold as "next business day" was not acceptable. |
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