El, did you see this column from the Katt?? Some rumors on CPQ/DEC/Tandem, and a pretty funny story on Dell service, looks like Dell has replaced DEC with Maytag in at least one part of the country...
John <ggg>
By Spencer F. Katt
September 14, 1998
When The New York Times reported last week that
former Digital CEO Bob Palmer had caved in to
Chairman Bill's demand last year that Digital stop
developing a network computer with Oracle, the
Power Meower had to put a furry paw to his back and
pat heavily. El Gato, as Furball fans will recall, first
broke the news of Digital pulling out of its relationship
with Larry Ellison's gang back in March.
But enough self-serving Katt commentary. Fast
forward to the current state of the
Compaq/Digital/Tandem entity: With Digital fully
assimilated, some of the Tandem troops are feeling
left out in the cold. An insider reports that the reunion
of Digital managers following Compaq's buyout is
putting a chill on Tandemites. The group's European
sales force is in crisis, and most of Tandem's
Himalaya server development projects have been
farmed out to India. Morale is, not surprisingly, in the
Dumpster.
An IS manager in Kansas shared this tale of woe
regarding Dell support: A hard drive crash on a
computer still under warranty prompted the manager
to call the Round Rockers to send out an on-site
technician. Four days later, still no technician, which
the manager considered strange, considering Dell's
next-day service policy and Dell's quick response to
his company's previous support calls.
Finally, the tech arrived--wearing a Maytag appliance
service technician shirt. The IS manager got even
more nervous when the tech pulled out a magnetic
screwdriver (!) to remove the cover from the downed
desktop.
He put a call into Dell to find out who this lonely
repairman was. He heard back from Dell's on-site
service company, which explained that the company
had outsourced with an appliance repair shop. The
IS-er was not amused.
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