- Oct 30, 1999
- 11,815
- 104
- 106
They sold and installed an Avaya phone system to a customer over two years ago.
Recently, the customer called them up to order three more IP phones for that system. The customer was told that the phones that they had been using were discontinued (a lie) and that they'd have to buy these newer models that just came out this week to replace them.
After the new phones didn't work, they called CDW back for support. CDW said they were past the one year warranty period on the phone system and that they would have to pay for support.
That's not unusual. But the customer had a good point: The phone system works fine. It's worked for two years. It's the phones that aren't working.
Still, no love from CDW. The customer decides to call Avaya.
Avaya doesn't really do end user support anymore. But if they get a call from an end user that's pissed at whomever installed the system initially, they'll try to hand it off to another reseller and "pay" the reseller with leads, software licensing, or beta software, etc.
So this situation lands on my desk.
I got remote access into the phone system and found that the switch hadn't been updated since it was installed. That was the first problem. The only IP Phones that work on that revision are the ones that were on the market during the time that that revision was current (the ones that CDW told the customer were discontinued.)
I updated the firmware on the switch from the old version to last year's 2.1. I explained that I wouldn't do an upgrade to 3.0 via remote access because THAT upgrade was a two step process and if I lost connectivity with the switch during step one, which would render the phone system useless until someone got in to do step two, I'd be stuck. That and 3.0 just came out a month ago and some programming would have to change to accomodate the new firmware and that it just wasn't practical (stupid stuff like line appearances needing to be only on consecutive buttons starting at button one.) I told her that if she INSISTED on 3.0, I would have to charge for a service call and try to get someone on-site. The good news is that now the switch will now support any of the IP Phone models, except.. here's the bad news... the three phones that CDW sold her. The phones could actually place and take calls, which is a hell of a lot more than what they WERE doing, but the displays didn't work at all.
Naturally, the customer wanted to know what her options were. I told her to RMA the phones with CDW and get something different.
She called CDW and they told her that the only way they'd take the phones back, which cost her $295 each, if she'd buy the next model up at $450 each. The problem with that is that MSRP on the next model up is actually $395! So it seems to me that they're going to make up for the "hassle" of doing the exchange by selling another product at full retail and padding in enough of a "restocking fee" to make it worth their while! To add insult to injury, they were going to charge her $20 each to ship the phones to her and she'd still have to foot the bill to ship the others back!
When she put up a fight and told them that they sold her the wrong phones in the first place and that she had to have another business partner upgrade the system in order to get the IP Phones to work at all, they asked why I didn't upgrade her all of the way to 3.0.
She told them that I upgraded her to 2.0 for free and that 3.0 would require a service call. The guy at CDW had the nerve to say, "He shouldn't be charging you for that! All he has to do is download the update and install it on the system." Her response was, "You guys wouldn't even tell me why the new phones I bought wouldn't work on my system without charging me for support!"
THAT SHUT HIM DOWN IMMEDIATELY!
She ended up getting an RMA for the phones and picked up the other model for $295 each and free freight.
Recently, the customer called them up to order three more IP phones for that system. The customer was told that the phones that they had been using were discontinued (a lie) and that they'd have to buy these newer models that just came out this week to replace them.
After the new phones didn't work, they called CDW back for support. CDW said they were past the one year warranty period on the phone system and that they would have to pay for support.
That's not unusual. But the customer had a good point: The phone system works fine. It's worked for two years. It's the phones that aren't working.
Still, no love from CDW. The customer decides to call Avaya.
Avaya doesn't really do end user support anymore. But if they get a call from an end user that's pissed at whomever installed the system initially, they'll try to hand it off to another reseller and "pay" the reseller with leads, software licensing, or beta software, etc.
So this situation lands on my desk.
I got remote access into the phone system and found that the switch hadn't been updated since it was installed. That was the first problem. The only IP Phones that work on that revision are the ones that were on the market during the time that that revision was current (the ones that CDW told the customer were discontinued.)
I updated the firmware on the switch from the old version to last year's 2.1. I explained that I wouldn't do an upgrade to 3.0 via remote access because THAT upgrade was a two step process and if I lost connectivity with the switch during step one, which would render the phone system useless until someone got in to do step two, I'd be stuck. That and 3.0 just came out a month ago and some programming would have to change to accomodate the new firmware and that it just wasn't practical (stupid stuff like line appearances needing to be only on consecutive buttons starting at button one.) I told her that if she INSISTED on 3.0, I would have to charge for a service call and try to get someone on-site. The good news is that now the switch will now support any of the IP Phone models, except.. here's the bad news... the three phones that CDW sold her. The phones could actually place and take calls, which is a hell of a lot more than what they WERE doing, but the displays didn't work at all.
Naturally, the customer wanted to know what her options were. I told her to RMA the phones with CDW and get something different.
She called CDW and they told her that the only way they'd take the phones back, which cost her $295 each, if she'd buy the next model up at $450 each. The problem with that is that MSRP on the next model up is actually $395! So it seems to me that they're going to make up for the "hassle" of doing the exchange by selling another product at full retail and padding in enough of a "restocking fee" to make it worth their while! To add insult to injury, they were going to charge her $20 each to ship the phones to her and she'd still have to foot the bill to ship the others back!
When she put up a fight and told them that they sold her the wrong phones in the first place and that she had to have another business partner upgrade the system in order to get the IP Phones to work at all, they asked why I didn't upgrade her all of the way to 3.0.
She told them that I upgraded her to 2.0 for free and that 3.0 would require a service call. The guy at CDW had the nerve to say, "He shouldn't be charging you for that! All he has to do is download the update and install it on the system." Her response was, "You guys wouldn't even tell me why the new phones I bought wouldn't work on my system without charging me for support!"
THAT SHUT HIM DOWN IMMEDIATELY!
She ended up getting an RMA for the phones and picked up the other model for $295 each and free freight.
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