Re: [cobalt-users] Re:Cobalt Technical Support

[Kris Dahl <kris@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I would suggest not buying anything from a reseller that isn't supporting
their products--IF you aren't in the position to do so yourself.

Your reseller or VAR should be your first line of support.  It should be
your LAST line support.  You should never have to talk to the support people
at Cobalt.

RMAs should rarely be done thru Cobalt directly--this is a role that
traditionally is taken care of by the reseller with the reseller's
distributor.  At least for the first 30-60 days.

If you want to buy a Cobalt product, I'd suggest contact a real reseller
with a real support staff.

Whenever I hear people complaining about support from Cobalt it just irks
me.  Because many people just don't seem to see the value in buying from a
VAR but complain when things don't go their way when the chose not to.  I am
sure that most everyone on this list knows my opinion on these issues.

I'll let you know that not a single one of my clients (when I was a Systems
Engineer) has ever had a problem with Cobalt support.  It never got that
far.

I'm also beginning to think that Cobalt needs to work on their distribution
network and require that VARs be authorized in order to sell the products.
IT IS affecting the brand, as we can obviously tell, when people go and buy
from unreliable resellers, and then complain about the lack of end-user
support.  If you had to buy from an authorized reseller, we wouldn't see as
many complaints like this.

-k

on 2/5/00 7:35 AM, Hyrb at hyrb@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> I would be surprised to learn that anyone from our support department
> reads this 
> list-  Cobalt is a corporation, and like any other corporation it is
> expected  to make money.  The investors demand it, the shareholders demand it,
> and  therefore the executive staff and management demands it from us.
> 
> instead we must wait while an OS update is prepared and bugs are fixed, and
> then wait again while it passes SQA--which hasn't been very effective lately.
> 
> As a new Cobalt owner, I continue to be amazed!  The response from Duncan i.e.
> is typical of a company that has lost site of it's primary focus.  I train
> corporate execs, one of the examples of poor management practices leading to
> loss of market share I use is that of Epson (remember Epson?), which during
> the 80's was THE printer company.  Until it frankly ignored it's customer
> base.  Their tech support was abysmal, (like Cobalt's), with unsupported users
> groups trying to do the job of company tech support with only the help of a
> very few helpful employees (like Jeff) on their spare time. When it came time
> to replace the printer, the former loyal customers bought ANYTHING else.  How
> did Epson turn around?  One of the first steps was to ASSIGN a tech support
> person to be part of every users group, they still do this today.  And sales
> are still improving.
> 
> When I went to buy my raq3 as a web server, the sales company tried to sell me
> something else!  Their words were "It's a good appliance, but WE don't support
> it, and we've had so many complaints about support and people trying to return
> them to us we've about stopped selling them." But, it got good reviews (and
> the price was right) so I bought it. Thank God this company did go out of
> their way to answer questions and help with the initial set up.  Cobalt sure
> as hell did not. 
> 
> I need another server.  It won't be a cobalt, and that's kind of sad.  They
> have good engineers and a good concept, but until the management wakes-up and
> realizes a company like this doesn't fail do the tech problems, but because of
> PEOPLE problems, I believe they will see a distinct lack of repeat customers.
> This, combined with retailers offering other solutions to avoid listening to
> their customers gripes, makes it look bad for the future.
> 
> Wake up Cobalt, there is still time.
> 
> Ray Nelson 
> 
> 
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