Conference 7.286::digital

4733.0. "Possible lawsuit against MCS" by STAR::JACOBI (Paul A. Jacobi - OpenVMS Development) Thu Jul 18 1996 19:41

    Could somebody from MCS please help this customer to avoid a lawsuit? 
    This was found today posted in the comp.os.vms Usenet newsgroup.


    							-Paul

From [email protected] Thu Jul 18 17:32:07 1996
Path: nntpd.lkg.dec.com!pa.dec.com!decwrl!spool.mu.edu!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!news.mathworks.com!mvb.saic.com!info-vax
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Digital Support = Breech of Contract
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 1996 13:54:16 +0000 (CENTRAL)
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Attention:      Digital Customers (or past customers)
                
A LEGAL ISSUE FOR DIGITAL/STATE ATTORNEYS FOLLOWS:

For all those crackpots who thought I'm a little
complainer with a problem out here, and Digital is
just doing fine - WHATEVER IT TAKES.  There is now
a reason for the extremely poor response time Digital
is giving to (some of) its customers.

(I've had a call logged for 24 hours; 3 hours it's
been critical.  At 10:30AM CDST the call was 4th in
the queue; at 1:30PM CDST the call is 3rd in the
queue.  My new NT AlphaServer under 60 day warranty
is still down all this time = no classes.)

DEC MCS/CSC Manager Gary Robinson just informed me,
after I made the initial inquiry, that Digital has 
changed to a multilevel customer support contract 
arrangement for its customers.  The change occured 
within the past month, though no one at Digital 
thought it prudent to inform its loyal customers -
at a top midwestern university in the Steel Capital 
of America where names like US Steel and even AMOCO
once depended on Digital.

Digital now offers "platinum", "gold", "silver" and
"basic" quality of service levels to its customers;
the quality of service degenerates according to the
quality of the precious metal analogy.  The quality
of service obviously depends on the cost of the
contract, which depends on the metal ....

Higher level contract calls will preempt lower level 
contract calls in the support queue, though both 
could be classified as critical to business operations.

The idea here is that if you gambled your business on 
Digital equipment, and you want your business badly
enough to pay Digital more money than a percentage of
their other customers, then Digital will answer its
telephone and provide customer service according to
contract.

In the past, I received response from Digital Windows
NT support techs within 1-2 hours of the call.  We
engaged Digital in a contract to deliver customer
support that was satisfactory for a time.  After that
contract arrangement was established, Digital has now
re-arranged its business services to diminish our
quality of service until more money is paid.

This is a breech of contract, in my opinion, and a
very questionable business practice.  Perhaps it
should be referred to some expert state attorneys.
I am more than happy to make that referral, as it 
isn't the first time Digital has somehow refused to
respond to this customer.


paul white
purdue university calumet
hammond, in

(Opinions are my own, not my employers.  I am under
contract, and any external attempt to have me fired is 
interference under Indiana law - subject to civil
prosecution.  Just trying to do my job right.)

I'll send this to Vara Saunders who handles the premium services.
liesl

    Note set /NOWRITE, due to concerns about statements that may have
    legal risk for Digital.  In general, it is extremely unwise to discuss
    potential or actual pending lawsuits against Digital in a notesfile.
    
    				Steve