How is your support per Distributor

[aarenot]

Do you call your distributor for support first, and what one do you use?

How many levels of support does your distributor have before sending you to Avaya? If not more than one do they confer in house before escalating to Avaya?

What Avaya tier do you get sent to by your distributor when they give up in house?

Out of 20 support calls how many are solved by the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th support person you speak to, and what distributor, or Avaya tier is that at?

I am looking at finding the best source to partner with from others experiences as well as my own with current source. I have used support from current, and two previous distributor channels.

What tier level would you consider yourself at as a tech? I would guess that about the level that solves 3/4 of your problems is one level above your level.

What area of the world are you in?

What is the highest level you have had your support call go to for resolution?

How often to you offer a solution, or work around to solve an issue versus how often one is offered to you by support person after they give up?

If you want to add a related question feel free to do so by copying, and pasting the original post, and adding it wihtout including your responses, then respond seperate.

Feel free to respond seperate per distributor you are familiar with from experience.

 

[kwing112000]

We are now using Voda one for support and so far they seem pretty good. I think they have 2 or 3 tiers of support. I consider myself like tier 4 so usually when i call them it is something that needs to go to avaya right away. They have been very responsive when we call in. I will usually get an email within an hour of the call with the ticket info. If the ticket goes to Avaya i will usually see something in the first couple of hours.

We used to use catalyst for all our stuff and I had a lot of issues with the support they gave us. It seemed like no matter what the issue was they wanted you to run the firewall batch file and call back. they had closed tickets on me for no reason and a few of the techs are just completely rude. It seemed like all they did was read the knowledgebase. You could read a long with them.....

Kevin Wing
ACA- Implement IP Office
Carousel Industries

 

[gknight1]

we us catalyst and like kevin said, it can be kind of frustrating. but usually when i call them i can say i did this and did that and it is still not working, they will get my monitor trace and config and send it up to Avaya. catalyst has some good techs (Doug, Ross, and Mike...not to mention any names), but they also have poor techs as well. The wait time isnt too bad, so if i get someone other than those three i will more than likely hangup and call back.

So the order of the support we go through...

Catalyst(Tier 2)
Avaya(Tier 3)
Avaya(Tier 4)- This is the highest we have gone to get a fix.

We are in USA, Florida.

FYI,
There is actually a program with Avaya, if you have you ACS you can actually go straight to Avaya Tier 3 for support, therefor no need to go through your distributor. I forget the name of it. That has been something that has been on my plate for a while is getting my ACA and ACS, but work has been to busy. I have all of the Avaya University courses complete, its the two offsite test i need. Ask you Avaya rep what the program is called to get direct Tier 3 support, they should have the info.

 

[kwing112000]

gknight1.. Thats funny i used to do that all the time to get a better tech. Those guys you mention are pretty good.

Kevin Wing
ACA- Implement IP Office
Carousel Industries

 

[bdelmar]

The program Gknight is referring to is Avaya's Expert Business Partner Program.

I've gone through Catalyst and Voda as well. Had the same experience with Catalyst. Voda was great in the beginning, thenmost of the time I called I got this new perosn who would take my call, listen to the problem and then tell me to go to the webstite and open a ticket. It was fustrating as well, so I would call back and talk to one of the other techs I usually talk to.

We are an Avaya Expert Business Partner now so now I go directly to Avaya tier 3 and open a ticket with them. I'll still call Voda once in a while for a minor question about something I have a brain fart on or something, but 9 times out of 10, I'll go right to Avaya.

As for the highest level of support Ive gone up to, Ive gone as far as Avaya's R&D department.

We're In Chicago, Il

 

[jamie77]

Does the Avaya Expert BP thing extend to the UK????

Jamie Green

ACA:Implement - IP Office
ACS:Implement - IP Office

http://www.alliedcom.co.uk

Football is not a matter of life and death-It is far more important!!!!

 

[gknight1]

i would imagine so... do you go through your disti and then to Avaya Tier 3? You all ready have the ACS, so i would ask your Avaya rep about it.

 

[aarenot]

ever heard of vod awon, or kittylist?

They might talk to another tech, but mostly sent me on to Avaya T3 pretty quick since I had already tried everything they asked, and emailed them the CFG's, MDB's, and traces already.

Most times I have my own work around, sometimes I get one from Cale, Matt, or John M., and they are better than, or = to what tier 3 offers out of the database. I also get some from the forums here or sunD. If the work around is not in the database tier 3 most often sends me to the next level Avaya support after trying to figure it out. If I have a work around I still call it in since I want to make sure I have the best work around, the issue is known, and that it is not my error.


"What tier level would you consider yourself at as a tech? I would guess that about the level that solves 3/4 of your problems is one level above your level. "
More than 90% of my support calls in my IPO career have gone to above T3 Avaya to receive something I did not already have figured out myself for a solution.

In the colonies, Midwestern USA, but service North America, and the world if you got some work in AUS let me know, as I have always wanted to go where they are as crazy as us yanks.

I have had developers write a PB, and emailed it to me a couple times after we could not find a work around.

To bdelmar, go Green bay!

 

[bdelmar]

@aarenot...LOL!!

It'll be interesting to see what Rogers can do. Luckily Im originally from NY and Im still a J-E-T-S fan. Really looking forward to see what Favre does, nto expecting a miracle though.

 

[aarenot]

Favre changes the way defenses play, he makes them tighten up a bit especially if they have not played him. He has a bad name about interceptions, but that is because with the offense he has had around him many times he felt he had to MAKE things happen himself by taking risks, or lose. He is not afraid to take risks sometime interceptions, sometimes touchdowns happen.

 

[Westi]

I actually call avaya directly, it's called i-care and if you have your ACS you can call them directly and open tickets with Avaya Tier 3. I have called them so far 3 times the rest I get solved by reading up on problems in Tek-Tips or by sticking heads together with other technicians in house.
This is Canada and I am not sure how things work in the rest of the world but I know that I used to have to call our distributor first and then got a call back from Avaya.

Joe W.

FHandw., ACS

If you can't be good, be good at it!