From: Patrick Torney (ptorney@satx.rr.com)
Date: Sun Oct 03 2004 - 12:39:49 GMT-3
Hi all:
As a consumer of such things like rack access, I want to make sure that I am
giving the full picture, both sides of the story. In the event I did not do
that yesterday, here is what the vendor wrote me back saying (not a quote):
He finally did respond, and this time not the 10 hours or next day... he did
respond 2.5 hours into the lab... not too bad, as I know some folks have a
life...unlike myself and many others in our community.
He is offering me a free weekend to compensate me for my "inconvenience".
While I think that is a resonably fair compensation, it does me no good if I
have already booked time on another rack, as so many of us do so far in
advance. But, again, to be fair, it is a reasonable offer. His excuse for my
missing out on the lab start time is several: difference in time zone, which
I was completely aware of; Having a very small staff and can't provide such
support on weekends; and finally, and this is the one that keeps happening,
that his staff forgot to enter my login info that morning. HELLO! I write
him 5 days in advance to make sure it was programmed in given all the other
times he "FORGOT" to program me in!
I take substantial issue with folks who provide a service, even if
automated, and then don't support that service on weekends and after hours.
I can tell you, for example, Tony Schaffran (cconlinelabs) and Ian Stong
(ccie4u) have one-man operations and they support their products over and
above the call of duty ALL THE TIME. Malcolm Price likewise. Rob and
Zoomer's ccierack kicks butt, (I really love these guys...in a completely
platonic way, I must add! ;). I have NEVER had any issues with any of these
guys' products. Wayne Lawson's IPExpert team provide outstanding support for
their racks ALL THE TIME, and of course, their product line is totally
awesome! And Bradshawlabs, those guys rock too. And Internetwork Expert's
racks are always clean and ready to go for the next person to use, and their
setup templates are comprehensive and easy to apply. Why can't everyone
provide the top-notch support that these guys all do? All these folks have
amazing commitment to this community. These folks have great products, they
provide highly needed and very valuable support to us weekend studiers.
So, when I experience someone first hand who either by attitude or failure
to provide support on an on-going basis, or is FORGETFUL on an on-going
basis, that such sloppy product support needs to be addressed fundamentally,
or they need to stop providing the service. Market forces must correct the
situation, or we have anarchy! (Ok, so I'm embellishing a little here, but I
hope you see my point!).
I'm not trying to be mean spirited here; I do not like lambasting anyone. I
was very hesitent to even write what I did. My goal in writing what I wrote
yesterday is to try to improve the support of ALL such products on weekends.
For me, and many of us, that's the only time we have to use these racks and
get some study time in.
Finally, and this is the absolute last thing I write on this
subject...unless someone flames me, in which case, I reserve the right to
defend myself ;)... Please do not take away from this note that by virtue
of ommission, that I'm damning any others. I have had an on-going issue one
particular rack vendor... I simply haven't used everyone else... However, I
*have* used over a half dozen different online racks... and only because
they had the time slots I needed at any given day that dovetailed with my
own overly complicated schedule. By virtue of using so many of the rack
vendors, I have experienced a lotta CCIE LOVE out there and great support!
And when I don't get that CCIE Love, it really makes me mad! :-/
As always, yours in CCIE.
Pat Torney
----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick Torney" <ptorney@satx.rr.com>
To: <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2004 12:58 PM
Subject: not ot: POOR SERVICE FROM RACK VENDOR
> Hi all:
>
> I am sorry to have to say anything bad about anyone but I am totally FED
UP
> with getting poor service from a particular online rack vendor. I have had
> several incidents of paying for rack access and then NOT being able access
> it during my allotted time. I feel confident in saying that study time is
> precious, and like so many of us I have spent a lot of precious money on
> rental lab time. So, I am writing this so that others in our community
will
> be able to make sure that their precious money doesn't go to waste as mine
> is right now!
>
> The vendor in question is lab-rack.com.
>
> I was attracted to their site at first, because they have the cheapest
price
> I could find. And at first, I had very few problems with them. But then
> incident after incident, time after time I'd pay for weekend access and
when
> it came time to log in, I would get this message...
>
> ===
> LOGIN Authentication
>
> To have access to Lab-Rack.com enter your username and password...
> Username: bozo@iamadumbass.com
>
>
> Password: xxx
>
> "You have been rejected ... if you have bought rack time for this wind
> ow contact support@Lab-Rack.com technical support."
> LOGIN Authentication
>
> ===
>
> I do not want to make blanket statements without providing some rationale
> behind them. But here is one... Their weekend support is terrible.
>
> I have written to these guys to the address in the reject notice above. I
> even wrote them earlier this week (Monday in fact) because I wanted to
avoid
> what is happening now. And yet I never heard from them. But, I understand
> that people are busy. So, I wrote them again and again well in advance of
my
> start time. I tried their email pager system. I wrote directly to the
> owner... Still no response on any front. When a person pays money for a
> service, that service needs to be at least acceptable.
>
> I have paid these guys a lot of money and now I'm almost 2 hours into
> today's precious lab time and I'm locked out and I get ZERO response from
> their so-called support. These guys have great prices, but in this case, I
> got what I paid for... CHEAP!
>
> Perhaps others have had perfectly ok service with these guys, and I do
want
> to be fair. But, I also want others to know what I have experienced with
> this particular vendor, and to be cautious before spending good money on
> their service.
>
> I hope this does not start a flame war. But I feel strongly enough about
> getting jipped that I think it's only fair to the community to weed out
poor
> service, or perhaps to have this be an influence for improving service.
>
> Thanks for listening.
> Pat Torney
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