Re: Just a simple service call . . .

[MacWheel99@xxxxxxx]

This is a familiar story.
Something similar happened to us a few years ago.

We got a bunch of used IBM equipment, including a printer.  Part of the deal
was that the 3rd party outfit refurbished inspected etc. the equipment so
that it was eligible for IBM maintenance.

There were some problems getting the printer setup properly, so we had to get
some visits from IBM CE to work on it & the IBM maintenance contract had not
gone through yet, so the visit was billable.  I called the 3rd party outfit
that got us the printer on this & they said it was probably an oversight ...
IBM paperwork is sometimes slow & to just have IBM bill them for the
maintenance.

The first time, everything was on IBM maintenance except the printer.
A week later it was the same deal.
So I called the manager of CEs for the region to ask why the hold up on the
printer, since all the other stuff went through in like 2 days.

Turns out the serial number was covered by IBM maintenance & IBM lease to
this other company.  They had had a change in management & the new folks did
not like the printer installed there, traded it in for something better, but
they did not realize that the installed equipment was not theirs to sell ...
it was leased from IBM.

That meant we had a HOT printer.

Apparently this sort of thing happens more often than IBM & the 3rd party
market wants to admit.  They have standard techniques for handling it.  The
old place gets contacted, not by the IBM legal staff, but IBM accounting
people, and some arrangement is made, but this takes a while, and that is why
they slow to transfer the maintenance contract to us.

MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)