Who's to blame here?

[Scarpozzi]

Me and Nissangurl are stuck at work tonight because she opened a Dell service call for our primary message store on our email server... (bad NICs). So Dell ordered us a replacement mobo since the NICs are onboard and there's no slots available for PCI NICS....

4 hour support:
5:15 --Call placed to Dell
9:15 --Motherboard arrives from parts depot over 100 miles away
10:00pm --placed call to Dell support to check status of technician to replace motherboard...tech paged
11:05pm --second call to Dell support.....second page to tech
11:30pm --third call, asked to get call escalated and after being put on hold for 33 minutes, the other phone rings and the tech says he'll be here at 1am.
UPDATE:
12:50am --Tech showed up to install motherboard.
1:30am --Finished installing motherboard, but there's a red light on server
3:00am --Configured onboard RAID, but continuously getting error "Invalid Partition Table", yet the array shows up in the RAID controller config. He thinks the mobo is bad and is going to put the original mobo back in to test his theory.
3:43 --He's ordered a replacement replacement motherboard that is going to be here tomorrow morning between 7:30 and 8:00 am. Email is STILL down. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to wait around here all night in case they show up early or not. I mean, it's only coming from Nashville...you'd think they would be able to handle this better since it's their crappy REFURBISHED motherboard.
6:38am --Second parts order delivered....now to see if we can get the server up and running with the second replacement mobo...


What should we do about this? I probably won't be able to finish up with this server at 3am tonight....Can I get anything out of Dell because they have crappy support considering we PAID for 4 hour support?

 

[Scarpozzi]

I guess no one else understands what it's like getting stuck at work after being here all day long....this is turned out to be a very long day....

 

[imported_Tick]

Threaten to sue their a$$ to get freebies?

 

[hjo3]

Why not just replace the motherboard yourself?

 

[AreaCode707]

Find a few higher up names, send a few emails complaining, get free stuff.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Originally posted by: hjo3
Why not just replace the motherboard yourself?

It's simple....lliability. The last time we had a system that had problems the tech stripped a screw and caused the whole thing to have to be replaced. This is a live server and if something else needs to be ordered, it's a lot easier to have someone with authority to do it rather than waiting another 8 hours.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Let me guess, they were all Indian and didn't understand one word of english.

 

[NissanGurl]

Still here

 

[imported_Tick]

Originally posted by: HotChic
Find a few higher up names, send a few emails complaining, get free stuff.

Maybe ask for a free upgrade to a higher level of support.

 

[imported_Tick]

Originally posted by: NissanGurl
Still here

That sucks. What did the server do?

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi

Originally posted by: hjo3
Why not just replace the motherboard yourself?

It's simple....lliability. The last time we had a system that had problems the tech stripped a screw and caused the whole thing to have to be replaced. This is a live server and if something else needs to be ordered, it's a lot easier to have someone with authority to do it rather than waiting another 8 hours.

QFT.

This man is a professional.

 

[1sikbITCH]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
I guess no one else understands what it's like getting stuck at work after being here all day long....this is turned out to be a very long day....

Pfft... when I was your age we worked all through the night every night in the cold with no shoes, and we didn't complain. We didn't even have computers to store all our data. We had to remember everything!

Kids these days :roll:

 

[Scarpozzi]

There aren't too many Indians working server support out of Round Rock, TX....actually, I've never spoken to one. If you're lucky enough to get a business or government purchased laptop, you get routed to either Texas, Alabama, or Panama City, Panama(not FL)....and you still speak to americans. It's great...not only do they speak your language, they usually give you top-notch support. This time, there must have been some kind of major communication breakdown.

 

[CraKaJaX]

*looks at cancun pics*

apparently your job pays off

edit: is the dark blue solid? some people are swimming in it, sitting on it, and the guy on the bottom is floating on it. wtf

 

[SampSon]

Full refund on the 4 hour support fees and 3 free years of 4 hour support.

 

[lyssword]

canada. *dam southpark, lol*

 

[Scarpozzi]

Originally posted by: CraKaJaX
*looks at cancun pics*

apparently your job pays off

edit: is the dark blue solid? some people are swimming in it, sitting on it, and the guy on the bottom is floating on it. wtf

The parts people were sitting on were only 1-2 inches deep....the rest had steps down into the pool. THe hot tub looking things were just whirlpools...

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: CraKaJaX


edit: is the dark blue solid? some people are swimming in it, sitting on it, and the guy on the bottom is floating on it. wtf

LOFL...your response was hilarious.


back on subject...

Although Liability is a concern, you should have had redundancy capable of dealing with such a situation (unless I misunderstood).

Even in a small office, having some USB NICs or something woud have been wise as a last resort. That is of course a last resort, since I'm sure you have at least some sort of redundancy. While your catious steps might save you heartache later on, it doesn't get the mail server up and running.


That said, you did make the right call in terms of touching the machine, but production must stay, so in the end, it was the wrong call, or at least not the best one.

edit: and who is Nissangurl ?

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: SampSon
Full refund on the 4 hour support fees and 3 free years of 4 hour support.

damn straight. hell, ask for a free year while you reconsider if they are worthy your money.

and for the love of goddon't take it out on the tech. poor bastards get treated enough as it is. Just make him aware of your frustrations but be calm about it.


Then, and only then, take out your anger and hatred on dell.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Originally posted by: Tick

Originally posted by: NissanGurl
Still here

That sucks. What did the server do?

The original server had a bad onboard NIC. It was getting constant discards for no apparent reason. A replacement NIC fixed the issue, but we had trouble justifying running a server that had a known bad chipset in it. Imagine part of the bus is fubared, do you really want to trust your I/Os to this? Server degredation would almost be certain if it were something in the bus rather than the chipset....we can't take that chance.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: SampSon
Full refund on the 4 hour support fees and 3 free years of 4 hour support.

damn straight. hell, ask for a free year while you reconsider if they are worthy your money.

and for the love of goddon't take it out on the tech. poor bastards get treated enough as it is. Just make him aware of your frustrations but be calm about it.


Then, and only then, take out your anger and hatred on dell.

Good call, maybe they'll throw in a Dell Tshirt for me while they're at it.

 

[NissanGurl]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster


edit: and who is Nissangurl ?

NissanGurl is the tech girl at work he corrupted by showing me ATOT.....

BTW still b/c we are still here and it's not looking like we're going home anytime soon.

 

[imported_Tick]

Originally posted by: NissanGurl

Originally posted by: Goosemaster


edit: and who is Nissangurl ?

NissanGurl is the tech girl at work he corrupted by showing me ATOT.....

BTW still b/c we are still here and it's not looking like we're going home anytime soon.

That sucks.

 

[EngenZerO]

update?

 

[Aquila76]

You know, sometimes I'm almost glad the company I worked for closed my facility and I was forced to switch careers.
This brings back vivid nightmares of our system swaps, upgrades, maintanence intervals. And the always enjoyble, "This is ***** in corporate. I think my laptop is broken. I was trying to install Bonzai Buddy and Internet Smileys ..."