jtkjk1

We do not have a contract on our 81c or 61c. If we can not fix it internally we call a vendor at time and material. In the last 5 years we have only had to call the vendor when the fault required more/different parts than we had in stock. This has only happened twice and both times were lightning strikes.

I don't see any advantage to having a maintenance contract.

ABabbitt

Phone dude,
We also do T&M. It seems to work out fine(much less is spent than on a maint contract). Of course it's all relative to the amount of risk you want to take with your system. (as with anything in life)

Going without a maint contract though meant they needed to send me to more training. So if your company ditches the maint contract make sure you have the basic knowledge of your switch to do MAC, basic maint stuff (and make sure you have all the passwords). Make sure you select a good vendor for T&M though. Someone you can trust and who will respond to your needs if you aren't a contract customer.

And of course if you go without a maint contract you may come to rely on this board a bit more, so becoming a subscriber might be worth your time and money.

AB

PP

Speaking from the vendors side I think T/M is crazy, Nortel has way to much software corruption. And if you don't know DEBUG you are screwed.
Also I don't know of a company out there that treats there T/M customers the same way as paying maintenance customers.

jtkjk1

I have been on the Vendor side and I still think a contract is worthless. The only times I have had to bring in the vendor on T/M they have been here within an hour. We buy lots of equipment from our vendor and they treat us well.

No need to know DEBUG....you call your vendor (T/M) and they call ETAS who fixes the problem. We have had no corruption in either of our switches.

mrmike

I am with you PP. Especially since I work for a vendor. ETAS can fix everything.
Your vendor can fix most things. ETAS is much more expensive than your vendor.
In fact, unless you have a pin number, your not going to get to ETAS.

jtkjk1

Don't need a pin number with ETAS. That is what you pay the vendor T/M for. They open the ticket with ETAS.

The only people who benefit from contracts are the vendors and sites with untrained techs.

da_phone_dude

Thanks for all the information.
ABabbiitt always the salesperson!! LOL I am not worried about the software. I used to work for a vendor as well. I personally dont have a use for a maintenance contract either. I have a question for those without the contract. Do you have something in place with a vendor? A T&M contract? Or do you just call and ask?
Thanks.
Oh and I will consider the subscriber issue!
:laugh:

jtkjk1

We actually have a T/M agreement in place with one vendor and the other one we just call and ask.

ABabbitt

Phone,
We just call and ask.

AB