Some reasons why you shouldn't work for a Sales Manager - VoIP / PBX Info Forum for Avaya / Nortel, Cisco, ShoreTel, Panasonic and other manufactuers Tech Tips Community

pbxn · May 28th, 2004

At one of the sites I support, they were struck by lighting, Tues. night. THe sight it seems did not have proper and or good grounding. (Something I suggested get inspected some months ago)
Anyway it is a 61C, and after the strike, 2 shelves went flat on their butt.
After working with Nortel, we determined we needed 2 Controllers, 2 SLP cables, and 2 card cages (as any of the 3 could have caused this issue)
So called the ole boss to find parts, hahahaha. Mind you this started @ 10:00 PM Tues. When I placed the call for parts it was @ 3:00 AM WED.
In the meantime, took apart the modules, removed power etc. to wait for parts. 9:00 AM comes no parts. The modules complete with card cages were to be driven via courier some 300 miles away, and the controllers and cables flown in from Nortel, some 300 miles away.
5:00PM yes I said 5:00PM modules showed up, still no controllers.
An hour later, I had already connected the new modules, ran power, card etc. Tried to turn up, still same issue, controllers read 00, with NPR327 (funny code:continue to try again, something like that) Still needed controllers, and cables.
8:00PM found out parts were placed on wrong plane, would be another hour. Hour later flight delayed. 11:00 PM they show up, sleepy by now. Replaced cables and controllers still same issue. Narrowed now down to NET cards. Went to other shop to pick up cards. Had two out of box failures. Placed call for new cards. 3:00 AM Thurs cards show up. Replaced, and restored both shelves in service by 3:30AM.
Mind you I support hospitals and we know how much they can be.
Inshort if my fearles leader ordered the controllers and cables from the same company that had a courier drive them to me, I would have been able to determine I needed Net cards a whole lot earlier. His reasoning, the parts that were flown in were 300.bucks cheaper.

May 28th, 2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbxn

His reasoning, the parts that were flown in were 300.bucks cheaper.

Great punchline! Ya gotta love it. Save $300 but spend even more in tech time and downtime!!

My favorite one here was when they decided to condemn a large trailer complex that had been around for 10 years or so; apparently the bean counters had decided that the cost of maintaining the offices was not worthwhile and health and safety folks said that there were mould problems. Along came the demolition ploughs and in a few days the temporary offices were smashed and the steel scavenged. A few months passed and a trailer rental company came knocking on the door saying that the monthly payents had been stopped so they wanted their trailers back.

I guess our left hand did not know what our right hand was doing and those tasked with removing the trailers took the cheap route of demolition because they never knew they were rentals. Needless to say, the trailer rental folks got some nice new trailers at our expense. Well I guess we really saved costs by getting rid of those trailers..... NOT!!

SD

tim_abney · May 28th, 2004

Great answers for people who think you don't have to know a business to manage it!!!

slagburn · May 28th, 2004

Great story... sounds like you're buying the beers when you wake up with all that OT coin.

Sorta sounds like someone needs a critical spares stock.

If that ever happend to me the chief would drag me down the back stairs by my feet and shoot me in the parking lot... after I returned every single part I didn't need, credited him for the parts, labor and his time not to mention he would would probably want the cost of the bullet up front.

**Chas2002** · May 29th, 2004

Quote:

he would would probably want the cost of the bullet up front.

Isn't that just the cost of downsizing?

Critical Spares is the way to go - Sure, some upfront cost - but saves hours of frustration at 3:00am trying to get parts, track parts, and install parts that you may not even need. There is a good PDF on the MERL CD that gives you the expected life of cards - I used that to increase/get approval of my Critical Spares list through management.

Also, if you have the Interalia XMU box and it's been installed for a while - you may want to purchase a battery for it. It's expected life time is about 40 months - and it died right on schedule.

Have a great and safe Memorial Day Weekend.

Chas2002

slagburn · May 31st, 2004

With that theory they could downsize my entire office for about $10 at WalMart... they would save millions which they would then spend on consultant from Canada to tell them via conference call from his living room why productivity has dropped.

Some organizations don't believe in critical spares until they have a crisis at which point they usually wonder why they never thought of it. At my place of work we spend countless man hours having meetings discussing critical spares and more importantly who is supposed to pay for them, meanwhile crises come and go and I've found myself with a nice little spares collection that very few know about.

June 1st, 2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by slagburn

With that theory they could downsize my entire office for about $10 at WalMart... they would save millions which they would then spend on consultant from Canada to tell them via conference call from his living room why productivity has dropped.

No. No. No. Us Canadian consults never go for the namby pamby videoconference route unless hostile redneck unions are involved. We demand that they shuttle us down there on a private Lear jet complete with expenses for lavish meals so that we can tell them face to face why productivity has dropped (and to collect the cheque - never trust them to mail it!).

SD

pbxn · June 1st, 2004

Well I hope after all of this, my requests will be heard. It is very difficult requesting anything with a Sales boss. We have some spares, but none of which covered what I needed that night. Perhaps the big pow wow, on who why and when this week will turn out better results. I know I did my job, and my post mortum report doesn't paint a pretty picture for my "boss's" effectivness in a pinch.
It is funny, I am restricted to next to no OT, because he is crunching the numbers, the cost in this outage I think may have costed him more than my time and a half, and doubletime. This will bite him back come maint/ contract time.
Slag, I'd buy the beers for all in a heartbeat, but between the trumpted up taxes, and my lightheadedness at the pump these daze, I will be lucky to by myself a sixer.
I will check out the life expectancy on the Merl cd this week Chas. Thanks for reminding me of that nice little bit of valuable information.
We do have the Interallia's, and I am sure the batteries are on their way out.

slagburn · June 1st, 2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbxn

Well I hope after all of this, my requests will be heard. It is very difficult requesting anything with a Sales boss.

That's why I don't request... I just take.

But that's not how to information that I'm going to give out for free on a website...

My boss hangs out here and he has told me on several occasions that he's lucky he doesn't have an employee like Slagburn.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SD_WILSON

No. No. No. Us Canadian consults never go for the namby pamby videoconference route unless hostile redneck unions are involved. We demand that they shuttle us down there on a private Lear jet complete with expenses for lavish meals so that we can tell them face to face why productivity has dropped (and to collect the cheque - never trust them to mail it!).

SD

You must not know my Canadian consultant... granted I'm not paying him millions nor can I afford to fly him around on a lear jet but all he does is double invoice me all the time and hold conference calls from his living room. Maybe he reads this website and has put two and two together, he has been in LA a bunch on other buisness and had never come by to say hi.

[/quote]

June 2nd, 2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by slagburn

You must not know my Canadian consultant... granted I'm not paying him millions nor can I afford to fly him around on a lear jet but all he does is double invoice me all the time and hold conference calls from his living room. Maybe he reads this website and has put two and two together, he has been in LA a bunch on other buisness and had never come by to say hi.

Slagburn... let's think about this for like 3 seconds. This guy works for you. Your desk is littered with beer bottles and gun shells. Now if you were any sane individual would you not want to keep some distance between yourself and some nut with an alcohol dependance, a gun fetish and who goes by the alias "slagburn"!?!?!? Hmmmmm????

I think we can safely say that this consultant has a healthy sense of self-preservation..... especially when he suggests to your company that they replace you all with remote controlled robots equiped with butt-sets and BIX tools while outsourcing the MACs and maintenance to a group of 13 year-olds with a pair of computers and a satellite dish tranceiver in the jungles of the Congo for $2 day.

SD

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Things you would love to say at work....	PD	Off Topic	1	August 5th, 2003 01:35 PM
INNMUG - Top 10 Reasons to Attend Global Connect	SD_WILSON	Technology	4	May 29th, 2003 06:47 AM

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)