- Jul 15, 2003
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I dont think I advertised this very much but I started working at Tektronix in the Service/Calibration Depot back in Feb.
Lotsa fun but I learned some hard lessons about the Tektronix corporation and service in general. My 6 month contract is up today and I got off early because I am sick. (Not flu, not strep, not mono, they dont know what it is, but its BAD.)
Since I am now free I thought I should share some things to help you guys if you ever send in anything to Tektronix, whether you are the end user or middle man.
1. Things are different. And not in that "the more things change, the more they stay the same" way either. Things are ACTUALLY different. We got bought out by a company called Danaher a while back and they are ruthlessly efficient. Their strategy consists of many elements but the big one is coming in, laying off a buttload of senior/overpaid people, and then making everyone else figure out how to get even more work done than before.
Sadly, this system works, so they keep using it. The service depot used to have about 80 people. Now we are down to about 40, and I just did my last day.
Seeing as how we are hurting in many ways, its important you know how to best deal with us to get the best possible service.
2. It doesnt matter whether it was a new unit, straight from manufacturing and was DOA. We give your unit the exact same service as a 20 year old o'scope in for a paid repair. When your RMA comes up next on the list, we will evaluate your complaint, and try to fix it normally. You dont get special treatment regardless of how new the unit is or how much you paid for it.
We do NOT give out loaners. We dont even have loaners to give. Thats not what we do in Service. If you arent happy and you want a temporary replacement, talk to Sales. Incidentally, Sales doesnt give out loaners either, so dont bother asking. We will do everything we can to get your unit fixed and calibrated in a timely manner, and if its under Warranty, we will pay for everything, even overseas shipping, but thats it. No loaners, no special treatment.
If you want the job expedited, YOU WILL PAY FOR IT. Just to let you know, we are so backed up right now that paying for an expedite wont get you jack shit. We'll just deduct the expedite from your bill when we finally do send it out.
3. If we cant find your problem, we will not fix your unit. We will contact you and put the job on hold, which means it goes on the bottom of the que until you contact us with a better description.
Along those lines: If you dont pay, if you send it in without an RMA, WE WILL NOT TOUCH IT! We wont even look at it. You must have a complaint, you must have money, and you must generate an RMA. Otherwise the unit sits around for a month and then we send it back.
This applies to warranty jobs as well. We dont do warranty calibrations. If your unit is under warranty and needs a repair, we will fix it and then provide a free cal as well. BUT, you must have a complaint and we must find it. We dont give out free calibrations. If we cant find a problem with your unit under warranty we will charge you for just a calibration. If it looks like you abused your unit we will void the warranty and then charge you for a repair and a calibration.
Make sure you have a good complaint. "Its broke" is not acceptable. Tell us exactly whats wrong. Otherwise the job goes on hold while we email you and try to find a problem. Dont assume its obvious. I was only working there for 2 months when they started having me fix the 5000 and 7000 series wave generators and 5000, 7000, and 8000 series o'scopes. NOTHING was obvious to me. You need to state the issue in very clear terms. Tell us what you were doing, and what sort of indicators you got.
4. Whatever turn-around-time the CSR quotes you: Double it. We are overworked and understaffed. I dont give a damn what the sales agent or the demo engineer told you. They dont work for Service and their obligation to you ends the minute you purchase a unit. After that you deal with Service, and we just lost half our people.
EXPECT your job to go way over on time. Thats just the way it is. If you get your unit back on time or early, praise Allah because we were flabbergasted we could even do it.
This is especially true with all WVR and WFM video units. Our test bench for these systems is slow and the results dont always tell us which module is bad. And there is no manual cal for those units. The need about a half-million dollars worth of hi-end test equipment to calibrate and diagnose properly. I only have a 4000 series scope, and a 1 volt AC signal generator at my desk. There is no manual cal. We have to run it on the system and the system is slow. Jobs get backed up for days at a time while waiting. All WVR's and WFM's take 3 times as long as they are quoted.
That is all.
Incidentally, if you have no idea who Tektronix is: Get the hell out of Highly Technical because you clearly dont belong here!!!
(For those of you are wondering WTF?, I figured my target audience would hang out in the Highly Technical forum. Off Topic would just be a pointless place to post this message.)
OH CRAP! I almost forgot!
We do have a free tech support line that lets you talk with actual service engineers. This is free.
About half the problems most of our customers have can be solved over the phone inside of one day. I HIGHLY recommend doing this before you send in your unit for repair. The free support line can help spare you a lot of heartache.
Oh, and did I mention it was free? Most other companies will charge you a pretty penny to get phone support from an engineer. This is probably the one thing that Tektronix Service is doing right, and highly encourage everyone to use it, if for no other reason than to convince them its a good idea to keep those guys around. If nothing else it will give you a much better problem description when you send it in and that will speed up our troubleshooting and repair.
Lotsa fun but I learned some hard lessons about the Tektronix corporation and service in general. My 6 month contract is up today and I got off early because I am sick. (Not flu, not strep, not mono, they dont know what it is, but its BAD.)
Since I am now free I thought I should share some things to help you guys if you ever send in anything to Tektronix, whether you are the end user or middle man.
1. Things are different. And not in that "the more things change, the more they stay the same" way either. Things are ACTUALLY different. We got bought out by a company called Danaher a while back and they are ruthlessly efficient. Their strategy consists of many elements but the big one is coming in, laying off a buttload of senior/overpaid people, and then making everyone else figure out how to get even more work done than before.
Sadly, this system works, so they keep using it. The service depot used to have about 80 people. Now we are down to about 40, and I just did my last day.
Seeing as how we are hurting in many ways, its important you know how to best deal with us to get the best possible service.
2. It doesnt matter whether it was a new unit, straight from manufacturing and was DOA. We give your unit the exact same service as a 20 year old o'scope in for a paid repair. When your RMA comes up next on the list, we will evaluate your complaint, and try to fix it normally. You dont get special treatment regardless of how new the unit is or how much you paid for it.
We do NOT give out loaners. We dont even have loaners to give. Thats not what we do in Service. If you arent happy and you want a temporary replacement, talk to Sales. Incidentally, Sales doesnt give out loaners either, so dont bother asking. We will do everything we can to get your unit fixed and calibrated in a timely manner, and if its under Warranty, we will pay for everything, even overseas shipping, but thats it. No loaners, no special treatment.
If you want the job expedited, YOU WILL PAY FOR IT. Just to let you know, we are so backed up right now that paying for an expedite wont get you jack shit. We'll just deduct the expedite from your bill when we finally do send it out.
3. If we cant find your problem, we will not fix your unit. We will contact you and put the job on hold, which means it goes on the bottom of the que until you contact us with a better description.
Along those lines: If you dont pay, if you send it in without an RMA, WE WILL NOT TOUCH IT! We wont even look at it. You must have a complaint, you must have money, and you must generate an RMA. Otherwise the unit sits around for a month and then we send it back.
This applies to warranty jobs as well. We dont do warranty calibrations. If your unit is under warranty and needs a repair, we will fix it and then provide a free cal as well. BUT, you must have a complaint and we must find it. We dont give out free calibrations. If we cant find a problem with your unit under warranty we will charge you for just a calibration. If it looks like you abused your unit we will void the warranty and then charge you for a repair and a calibration.
Make sure you have a good complaint. "Its broke" is not acceptable. Tell us exactly whats wrong. Otherwise the job goes on hold while we email you and try to find a problem. Dont assume its obvious. I was only working there for 2 months when they started having me fix the 5000 and 7000 series wave generators and 5000, 7000, and 8000 series o'scopes. NOTHING was obvious to me. You need to state the issue in very clear terms. Tell us what you were doing, and what sort of indicators you got.
4. Whatever turn-around-time the CSR quotes you: Double it. We are overworked and understaffed. I dont give a damn what the sales agent or the demo engineer told you. They dont work for Service and their obligation to you ends the minute you purchase a unit. After that you deal with Service, and we just lost half our people.
EXPECT your job to go way over on time. Thats just the way it is. If you get your unit back on time or early, praise Allah because we were flabbergasted we could even do it.
This is especially true with all WVR and WFM video units. Our test bench for these systems is slow and the results dont always tell us which module is bad. And there is no manual cal for those units. The need about a half-million dollars worth of hi-end test equipment to calibrate and diagnose properly. I only have a 4000 series scope, and a 1 volt AC signal generator at my desk. There is no manual cal. We have to run it on the system and the system is slow. Jobs get backed up for days at a time while waiting. All WVR's and WFM's take 3 times as long as they are quoted.
That is all.
Incidentally, if you have no idea who Tektronix is: Get the hell out of Highly Technical because you clearly dont belong here!!!
(For those of you are wondering WTF?, I figured my target audience would hang out in the Highly Technical forum. Off Topic would just be a pointless place to post this message.)
OH CRAP! I almost forgot!
We do have a free tech support line that lets you talk with actual service engineers. This is free.
About half the problems most of our customers have can be solved over the phone inside of one day. I HIGHLY recommend doing this before you send in your unit for repair. The free support line can help spare you a lot of heartache.
Oh, and did I mention it was free? Most other companies will charge you a pretty penny to get phone support from an engineer. This is probably the one thing that Tektronix Service is doing right, and highly encourage everyone to use it, if for no other reason than to convince them its a good idea to keep those guys around. If nothing else it will give you a much better problem description when you send it in and that will speed up our troubleshooting and repair.
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