Re: [cobalt-users] [Qube 2] Restore CD

[Kris Dahl <krislists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

on 8/6/00 5:41 AM, Daniel du Toit at daniel@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> I fully agree with you.  We are in a worse situation.  We bought a new
> raq3i.  The system was corrupt from the start.  We are tryng to get some
> support from Cobalt, but that does not exist.  I will never recommend a
> Cobalt product to anybody.  They are a useless crowd.  Even Microsoft beats
> them hands down with product support and product quality.

Ahh, that last statement is quite a stretch.  How can you call a machine
that pretty much never crashes (I have only had perhaps one raq2 even hang).
The only quality issue I ever had was with the Qube2 AC adapters (have had
two or three fail on me).  I've used a lot of Microsoft, Cobalt and their
competitors equipment in my tenure and Micosoft has never been a serious
performer.

I agree that Cobalt should charge a minimum media cost for the restore CD,
and I think $99 is a bit much.  I can get from Microsoft Media Fulfillment a
NT Server cd for like $10 bucks, so I would say that should be par for the
course.

To take this further, and expand on some core concepts that I have said in
the past:  when you buy any mission critical piece of hardware, buy it from
a reputable value-added reseller with on-staff systems engineers that can
help you out when you get into a crunch.

When I worked as an SE for such a VAR we never had a single client that was
unhappy with their Cobalt solution.  Not a single one over at least a year
that I was supporting those machines.  Additionally there wasn't a single
client that was unhappy with Cobalt customer and technical support.  I guess
that is because we took care of all that for them.  If you bought it from a
discount reseller, mail order catalog, or whatever, the problem isn't the
vendor of the product but whoever made the purchasing decision.  Someone
tried to save some money, and it bit them.  I must say, I don't feel sorry
for that individual.

Sure I had those AC adapters fail, etc., but the customer never had to deal
with any of it.  We even had to restore a Qube who's filesystem got
corrupted in shipping.  But the customer had the thing back the same day,
and worst case we would've given them a new one less than 2 days later.

In any case, I simply can't believe that $99 is a burden to anyone who is
serious about their operations.  Last time I checked $99 was less than a
freaking single client access license from Microsoft.  You realize that you
can purchase a Raq2 with hardware for the software costs of NT Server?  If
people are that freaked out about costs--that the few thousand dollars that
they are saving by going with a non MS solution doesn't outweigh a measly
$99 for a restore CD or a 5% markup for purchasing from a VAR--they need to
start looking for a new line of work.

I am not trying to be overly harsh, these are just my opinions based on
years of industry experience.

-k