Add one more terrific Dell tech support event

First off, let me reiterate what I've said before. If you are a
corporate account and you buy a Dell server, GET THE GOLD SUPPORT
PACKAGE!!! We always get the 3 year Gold Support when we get a Dell
server. Depending on the server we may get next day or 4 hour shipping
for parts replacement.

The environment is two Dell servers (2800 and 2850) sharing a PowerVault
box (two separate RAID arrays. The 2800 has a 3 drive RAID 5 array in
the PV and the 2850 has a 4 drive RAID 10 array.

I came into work yesterday AM to find the 2800 beeping an alarm at me.
The RAID 5 array was off line. In the process of trying to debug it, I
took the second array off line.

Finally called Dell Gold Support and had a tech (in Oklahoma) on the
phone. In 20 minutes we had the RAID 10 array on-line. This allowed us
to get our mission critical server back on line. In another 20 minutes
we had the RAID 5 array re-indexing. This took about 3 hours, but ended
up with all data preserved and completely back online.

The tech (Josh) was terrific, knew exactly what to do (never had to look
up anything or consult someone) and was patient. He hung on the line for
an additional 20 minutes until we were assured that the re-indexing was
far enough along to be confident it would finish...

In the past 3 years, I've had to use the Gold Tech Support about 1/2
dozen times and it has been amazing....

Plain old vanilla support may have degraded, but the extra cost support
contract is worth every penny (and more).....
--

Regards,
Hank Arnold
MVP - Directory Services

On Tue, 24 Jul 2007 04:26:34 -0400, "Hank Arnold (MVP)"
<> wrote:

>First off, let me reiterate what I've said before. If you are a
>corporate account and you buy a Dell server, GET THE GOLD SUPPORT
>PACKAGE!!! We always get the 3 year Gold Support when we get a Dell
>server. Depending on the server we may get next day or 4 hour shipping
>for parts replacement.
>
>The environment is two Dell servers (2800 and 2850) sharing a PowerVault
>box (two separate RAID arrays. The 2800 has a 3 drive RAID 5 array in
>the PV and the 2850 has a 4 drive RAID 10 array.
>
>I came into work yesterday AM to find the 2800 beeping an alarm at me.
>The RAID 5 array was off line. In the process of trying to debug it, I
>took the second array off line.
>
>Finally called Dell Gold Support and had a tech (in Oklahoma) on the
>phone. In 20 minutes we had the RAID 10 array on-line. This allowed us
>to get our mission critical server back on line. In another 20 minutes
>we had the RAID 5 array re-indexing. This took about 3 hours, but ended
>up with all data preserved and completely back online.
>
>The tech (Josh) was terrific, knew exactly what to do (never had to look
>up anything or consult someone) and was patient. He hung on the line for
>an additional 20 minutes until we were assured that the re-indexing was
>far enough along to be confident it would finish...
>
>In the past 3 years, I've had to use the Gold Tech Support about 1/2
>dozen times and it has been amazing....
>
>Plain old vanilla support may have degraded, but the extra cost support
>contract is worth every penny (and more).....


I'm happy for you but the key is you (your employer) is paying EXTRA
money for it but the "vanilla support" doesn't and sadly shows this
fact clearly. I don't think it should be this way but we'll see.

For me, many years ago the support was okay (never great tho) but more
recently my problem with them was that I couldn't understand their
accent... inotherwords there was a communication problem. I recall
seeing a CNN report that said one Indian call center was taking
linguistics which I think addresses the accent problem. I don't know
its results tho. Nowadays, I do my own support and try not to deal
with them unless it has to do with hardware failures under warrantee.

"RnR" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Tue, 24 Jul 2007 04:26:34 -0400, "Hank Arnold (MVP)"
> <> wrote:
>
>>First off, let me reiterate what I've said before. If you are a
>>corporate account and you buy a Dell server, GET THE GOLD SUPPORT
>>PACKAGE!!! We always get the 3 year Gold Support when we get a Dell
>>server. Depending on the server we may get next day or 4 hour shipping
>>for parts replacement.
>>
>>The environment is two Dell servers (2800 and 2850) sharing a PowerVault
>>box (two separate RAID arrays. The 2800 has a 3 drive RAID 5 array in
>>the PV and the 2850 has a 4 drive RAID 10 array.
>>
>>I came into work yesterday AM to find the 2800 beeping an alarm at me.
>>The RAID 5 array was off line. In the process of trying to debug it, I
>>took the second array off line.
>>
>>Finally called Dell Gold Support and had a tech (in Oklahoma) on the
>>phone. In 20 minutes we had the RAID 10 array on-line. This allowed us
>>to get our mission critical server back on line. In another 20 minutes
>>we had the RAID 5 array re-indexing. This took about 3 hours, but ended
>>up with all data preserved and completely back online.
>>
>>The tech (Josh) was terrific, knew exactly what to do (never had to look
>>up anything or consult someone) and was patient. He hung on the line for
>>an additional 20 minutes until we were assured that the re-indexing was
>>far enough along to be confident it would finish...
>>
>>In the past 3 years, I've had to use the Gold Tech Support about 1/2
>>dozen times and it has been amazing....
>>
>>Plain old vanilla support may have degraded, but the extra cost support
>>contract is worth every penny (and more).....
>
>
> I'm happy for you but the key is you (your employer) is paying EXTRA
> money for it but the "vanilla support" doesn't and sadly shows this
> fact clearly. I don't think it should be this way but we'll see.
>
> For me, many years ago the support was okay (never great tho) but more
> recently my problem with them was that I couldn't understand their
> accent... inotherwords there was a communication problem. I recall
> seeing a CNN report that said one Indian call center was taking
> linguistics which I think addresses the accent problem. I don't know
> its results tho. Nowadays, I do my own support and try not to deal
> with them unless it has to do with hardware failures under warrantee.


I had a good experience with Dell sales yesterday. I ordered a 20.1
widescreen monitor a couple of days ago. I wasn't sure if it came with a
DVI cable so I called to ask. The guy that answered (in Austin, TX gave me
his name and private extension in case I had any questions in the future. I
thought that was pretty cool. I got to see if he would answer a short while
later. I was showing a friend my new monitor on Dell's website and it was
$30 cheaper than when I ordered it. So I call my new sales buddy and I'll
be darned if he didn't answer the phone on two rings! He wasn't able to
give me the credit since the monitor already shipped but he connected me
with customer care. That hold time was a bit longer (20 minutes) and when
the overseas guy answered he was only able to get my name and order number
before the call disconnected. I'll call back today when my free cell
minutes kick in tonight.

alien

Hank Arnold (MVP) wrote:
> First off, let me reiterate what I've said before. If you are a
> corporate account and you buy a Dell server, GET THE GOLD SUPPORT
> PACKAGE!!! We always get the 3 year Gold Support when we get a Dell
> server. Depending on the server we may get next day or 4 hour shipping
> for parts replacement.
>
> The environment is two Dell servers (2800 and 2850) sharing a PowerVault
> box (two separate RAID arrays. The 2800 has a 3 drive RAID 5 array in
> the PV and the 2850 has a 4 drive RAID 10 array.
>
> I came into work yesterday AM to find the 2800 beeping an alarm at me.
> The RAID 5 array was off line. In the process of trying to debug it, I
> took the second array off line.
>
> Finally called Dell Gold Support and had a tech (in Oklahoma) on the
> phone. In 20 minutes we had the RAID 10 array on-line. This allowed us
> to get our mission critical server back on line. In another 20 minutes
> we had the RAID 5 array re-indexing. This took about 3 hours, but ended
> up with all data preserved and completely back online.
>
> The tech (Josh) was terrific, knew exactly what to do (never had to look
> up anything or consult someone) and was patient. He hung on the line for
> an additional 20 minutes until we were assured that the re-indexing was
> far enough along to be confident it would finish...
>
> In the past 3 years, I've had to use the Gold Tech Support about 1/2
> dozen times and it has been amazing....
>
> Plain old vanilla support may have degraded, but the extra cost support
> contract is worth every penny (and more).....

So Americans *can* do tech jobs after all!

RnR wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Jul 2007 04:26:34 -0400, "Hank Arnold (MVP)"
> <> wrote:
>
>> First off, let me reiterate what I've said before. If you are a
>> corporate account and you buy a Dell server, GET THE GOLD SUPPORT
>> PACKAGE!!! We always get the 3 year Gold Support when we get a Dell
>> server. Depending on the server we may get next day or 4 hour shipping
>> for parts replacement.
>>
>> The environment is two Dell servers (2800 and 2850) sharing a PowerVault
>> box (two separate RAID arrays. The 2800 has a 3 drive RAID 5 array in
>> the PV and the 2850 has a 4 drive RAID 10 array.
>>
>> I came into work yesterday AM to find the 2800 beeping an alarm at me.
>> The RAID 5 array was off line. In the process of trying to debug it, I
>> took the second array off line.
>>
>> Finally called Dell Gold Support and had a tech (in Oklahoma) on the
>> phone. In 20 minutes we had the RAID 10 array on-line. This allowed us
>> to get our mission critical server back on line. In another 20 minutes
>> we had the RAID 5 array re-indexing. This took about 3 hours, but ended
>> up with all data preserved and completely back online.
>>
>> The tech (Josh) was terrific, knew exactly what to do (never had to look
>> up anything or consult someone) and was patient. He hung on the line for
>> an additional 20 minutes until we were assured that the re-indexing was
>> far enough along to be confident it would finish...
>>
>> In the past 3 years, I've had to use the Gold Tech Support about 1/2
>> dozen times and it has been amazing....
>>
>> Plain old vanilla support may have degraded, but the extra cost support
>> contract is worth every penny (and more).....
>
>
> I'm happy for you but the key is you (your employer) is paying EXTRA
> money for it but the "vanilla support" doesn't and sadly shows this
> fact clearly. I don't think it should be this way but we'll see.
>
> For me, many years ago the support was okay (never great tho) but more
> recently my problem with them was that I couldn't understand their
> accent... inotherwords there was a communication problem. I recall
> seeing a CNN report that said one Indian call center was taking
> linguistics which I think addresses the accent problem. I don't know
> its results tho. Nowadays, I do my own support and try not to deal
> with them unless it has to do with hardware failures under warrantee.

It's great if one can provide all the support oneself. However, when you
are dealing with 14 servers, critical applications and you are the only
tech support person, you can't "go it alone".

--

Regards,
Hank Arnold
Microsoft MVP
Windows Server - Directory Services

On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 05:08:17 -0400, "Hank Arnold (MVP)"
<> wrote:

>RnR wrote:
>> On Tue, 24 Jul 2007 04:26:34 -0400, "Hank Arnold (MVP)"
>> <> wrote:
>>
>>> First off, let me reiterate what I've said before. If you are a
>>> corporate account and you buy a Dell server, GET THE GOLD SUPPORT
>>> PACKAGE!!! We always get the 3 year Gold Support when we get a Dell
>>> server. Depending on the server we may get next day or 4 hour shipping
>>> for parts replacement.
>>>
>>> The environment is two Dell servers (2800 and 2850) sharing a PowerVault
>>> box (two separate RAID arrays. The 2800 has a 3 drive RAID 5 array in
>>> the PV and the 2850 has a 4 drive RAID 10 array.
>>>
>>> I came into work yesterday AM to find the 2800 beeping an alarm at me.
>>> The RAID 5 array was off line. In the process of trying to debug it, I
>>> took the second array off line.
>>>
>>> Finally called Dell Gold Support and had a tech (in Oklahoma) on the
>>> phone. In 20 minutes we had the RAID 10 array on-line. This allowed us
>>> to get our mission critical server back on line. In another 20 minutes
>>> we had the RAID 5 array re-indexing. This took about 3 hours, but ended
>>> up with all data preserved and completely back online.
>>>
>>> The tech (Josh) was terrific, knew exactly what to do (never had to look
>>> up anything or consult someone) and was patient. He hung on the line for
>>> an additional 20 minutes until we were assured that the re-indexing was
>>> far enough along to be confident it would finish...
>>>
>>> In the past 3 years, I've had to use the Gold Tech Support about 1/2
>>> dozen times and it has been amazing....
>>>
>>> Plain old vanilla support may have degraded, but the extra cost support
>>> contract is worth every penny (and more).....
>>
>>
>> I'm happy for you but the key is you (your employer) is paying EXTRA
>> money for it but the "vanilla support" doesn't and sadly shows this
>> fact clearly. I don't think it should be this way but we'll see.
>>
>> For me, many years ago the support was okay (never great tho) but more
>> recently my problem with them was that I couldn't understand their
>> accent... inotherwords there was a communication problem. I recall
>> seeing a CNN report that said one Indian call center was taking
>> linguistics which I think addresses the accent problem. I don't know
>> its results tho. Nowadays, I do my own support and try not to deal
>> with them unless it has to do with hardware failures under warrantee.
>
>It's great if one can provide all the support oneself. However, when you
>are dealing with 14 servers, critical applications and you are the only
>tech support person, you can't "go it alone".


I guess in that case it's good to have someone on the other end of the
phone you can understand <g>. To be honest, sometimes I could use
tech support but I hesitate to use them because in the past, they were
wrong and second, some accents I can't understand well on the phone so
I just work harder to solve my own problems .