I have been increasingly disappointed with several vendors’ support lately (big names that I wouldn’t expect to have support problems from). It seems they are cutting back spending on customer support by doing one or more of the following:

• Outsourcing to other companies who simply follow a manual of known problems and provide level 1 support, at best
• No longer paying larger salaries to keep talented engineers/techs
• Utilize *business partners* who charge for their services
• First suggest an upgrade to the latest version before even trying to suppor older versions

On more than one occasion the team I work with have ended up solving the problem for the vendor and presenting them with the fix.

The company I work for is on the smaller side of enterprises with only about 1,600 users. That means that although we have a lot of talented engineers and techs, we can’t afford enough of them (isn’t that the case everywhere?). IT shops in that situation rely heavily on vendor’s tech support when it comes time for large projects like upgrades, initial deployment, etc.

So what to do when you call the vendor for help and you find you’re basically on your own?

I guess you suck it up, look for an O’Reilly book on the subject and drive on.

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