In regard to: Re: [Networker] EMC Tech Support, Daniel Rich said (at 2:42pm...:

I'll throw in my kudos as well.  The front-line support folks are great,
they have a basic understanding of the product and know the answers to
the common problems.  The only time I've really run into a problem (with
a few exceptions) is once the case needs more than they can provide.
Legato (this predates EMC) built a wall between the front-line folks and
engineering that is nearly impossible to pierce.

I think that's well-put, and a big part of the problem.

  ... really accurate quote deleted ...

Dave has pretty much distilled the essence of my experiences with Legato
and EMC support in the last few years.  Hopefully your experiences with
EMC never fall into agreement with Dave's and mine!  Only time will
tell...  ;-)

Personally, I think once you really understand how Networker works,
that's going to be your experience.

To a large extent, I agree.  I've always been of the impression that a
tiered support model was supposed to help with that type of problem.
In other words, when a customer calls in with a really complex problem,
tier 1 triages it and escalates up the support chain until eventually
support has to unlock the room where they keep the wizened old gnome that
knows everything about NetWorker on platform X and can answer even the
hard questions quickly or with very little research.

My impression and your implication is that there isn't much of a tier
model at EMC -- it's either front line (tier 1) or it's engineering
(which is tier 3 or beyond in a typical tiered model).  That's almost
certainly part of the reason why it's hard to get the hard questions
answered correctly in a reasonable amount of time.

Tim
--
Tim Mooney                              mooney AT dogbert.cc.ndsu.NoDak DOT edu
Information Technology Services         (701) 231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J6, IACC Building              (701) 231-8541 (Fax)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164

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