Network Support Companies

[Koldov]

TL;DR

 

Looking for a Bedfordshire based Network support company... how much should I be paying for a support contract (and what should that contract entail for the money)?

 

Quite a long story/rant (grab a cuppa)!

 

Recently I noticed we had an issue with one of our Cisco WLC units (something I don't normally pay much attention to), it was over the holidays and the switch room was open while the site agent was doing some work. I noticed amber lights flashing that are usually green and did a quick Google to find out it was an internal voltage error and the way to get it sorted was RMA the unit.

 

Now, our Network is about 10 years old, paid for by the BSF fund in the summer just before I joined the school. It came with a support contract from a fairly large local IT solutions company.

 

The network was fully rewired with Cat6 and new Routers, Switches, WLCs and WAPs installed. All the VLANs were created for the network and the configs created by them and DHCP is handled by this set-up too and they have all the passwords to get into the devices...

 

The support contract was paid for a certain amount of years through the LEA, but a couple of years ago this stopped for some reason and we were told to find our own support. We decided to go with the same company as in my mind I just prefer to have this dealt with by the company that installed it and has maintained it all these years.

 

A while ago we swapped Broadband/filtering etc. as a whole bundle (again when the LEA told us they weren't dealing with that side of things anymore) and this needed a full reconfiguring of our IP address scheme and VLANs - this was a charegeable service by the support company and not covered in the support contract.

 

However, they have replaced a couple of WAPs that burnt out and updated the Cisco IOS on one of the WLCs for the date error (not a lot of work in all the time they have had the contract if I'm honest - I guess that is what support contracts/insurance is like, isnt it?).

 

But... when I went to raise a case for this WLC internal voltage error they have suddenly asked me for the Serial No. of the device. Now apart from moving the odd cable from port to port, I've had nothing to do with this kit in over 10 years...

 

There was a little back and forth with someone in their office and their official line was "if we don't know the serial number we can't support it"...

 

I argued the case that it was their kit, installed by them and maintained/supported by them for all this time and that really they should already have this information, but it appears that all the info from the LEA contract was effectively 'wiped' when it finished.

 

Reluctantly, I managed to get into the switch room and into the cab to find the required serial no. However the reply came back that it would take 30 days to RMA as the support contract with Cisco was 'new'.

 

I did a bit of research and found this:

 

“Why do parts take so long to arrive under a new contract?

 

Technical support effectively starts from the time the service contract is entered into the Service Contract Center. However, for new contracts we require 30 days to deliver spare parts, as some parts take longer to arrive in stock than others. This is standard operating practice for the industry. In some cases, we can meet parts requirements in fewer than 30 days, if the inventory is already available in the local country depot because of the existing installed base.”

 

Does anyone have any idea why this would happen? Do they only get support from Cisco when things need to be replaced and effectively pocket the money for everything that is still working within that year? I didn't really get an accepatable answer as to why this appears to be a 'new' contract, but it had something to do with the yearly renewal (in a 3 year contract).

 

Anyway, eventually they managed to find a new power supply in the spare parts store and an engineer came out to fit it to see if that would fix the error. It did, but while I spoke to the engineer it transpired that the contract we have always had with them (as did the majority of local schools) was a break/fix contract... everything else was chargeable (config changes etc). They have on occasion done a little more than they should as a gesture of goodwill/customer relations, but most schools didn't understand this and always expected everything to be covered.

 

In the end I managed somehow to collect all the serial numbers from every device I could physically get to and also managed to get a list of what they believe we have on-site and appoximately 50% of our kit wasn't listed as supported (now they want to charge us extra to have the other items added into the contract)!

 

We have:

 

2 x Cisco 5508 WLC (25 AP license)

1 x Cisco Catalyst 3750 24 PoE

1 x Cisco Catalyst 3750 24

2 x Cisco Catalyst 2960 48

1 x Cisco Catalyst 2960 24 PoE

1 x Cisco Catalyst 2960 24

12 x Cisco AIR-LAP1131AG-E-K9 WAPs

6 x Cisco AIR-LAP1142N-E-K9 WAPs

 

Cat6 and fiber runs, patch panels and all the usual.

 

Also the copper modules GLC-SX-MM and a few fiber versions...

 

There are some other bits of kit in one room and on the roof for a wireless link with another school, but that is not used anymore.

 

Good kit in its day, but obviously everything is EoL/EoS now and requires some kind of extended support/warrany happening with CISCO, but the main question for anyone who has this kind of set-up, is how much should I be paying for a support contract (and what should that contract entail for the money)?

[mavhc]

What's the point in the contact at all? If something breaks do they replace it without charging? Sounds like they're just taking your money and doing nothing.

[Koldov]

What's the point in the contact at all? If something breaks do they replace it without charging? Sounds like they're just taking your money and doing nothing.

 

However, they have replaced a couple of WAPs that burnt out and updated the Cisco IOS on one of the WLCs for the date error (not a lot of work in all the time they have had the contract if I'm honest - I guess that is what support contracts/insurance is like, isnt it?).

 

while I spoke to the engineer it transpired that the contract we have always had with them (as did the majority of local schools) was a break/fix contract... everything else was chargeable (config changes etc).

 

They have also now replaced the power supply for one of our WLCs (and ensured the Cisco IOS is up to date with the commands to ignore certificate expiry), none of these items have incurred any 'extra' cost.