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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: djane who wrote (47273)	5/20/1998 4:04:00 PM
From: Sowbug	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 61433

Dear readers, Please first play this sound: <http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/8821/drumroll.wav>; Then close your eyes and take a deep breath; Then visit the following page (after opening your eyes): <http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/8821/ascend.html> The ASND-SI Convergence Event has occurred!

To: djane who wrote (47273)	5/20/1998 6:17:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

Customers Find 3Com Tech Support Lacking By Randy Barrett and Joe McGarvey 12:00 PM EDT, Inter@ctive Week, May 18, 1998 zdnet.com Internet service providers complain 3Com Corp. technical support is declining. The accusations come from mostly smaller Internet service providers and at least one systems integration company that recounted frustration with trouble-ticket delays, long waits on hold and administrative confusion by 3Com customer service representatives. Daniel Fitzpatrick, chief executive officer of Double D Network Services Inc. in Lake Ridge, Va., opened a trouble ticket - an e-mail complaint form - with 3Com in December 1997, because three modem access ports had burnt out on six of his NetServer access machines. The company requested he open at least one server up to the Internet so it could run diagnostics remotely. Fitzpatrick said the machine's logs later showed no entry by 3Com after eight weeks. "They weren't getting my trouble tickets taken care of. I'm a little too busy to call them everyday to tell them to do their job," he said. Fitzpatrick spent four months haggling with 3Com over service contracts and said 3Com lost the paperwork for a premium policy on one machine. 3Com officials said they worked the problems out with Double D and even replaced a NetServer remote access server that wasn't under a premium warranty. Bob Roswell, co-owner of System Source Inc. in Hunt Valley, Md., has similar tales of woe about a NetServer machine he bought in September 1997, which immediately experienced software problems. Twelve telephone calls to customer support and five months later, the server continued to run poorly. 3Com officials admitted problems with System Source, but insisted the NetServer product line is dependable. "The vast majority of customers haven't seen problems [with that machine]," said Peter Chadwick, director of product management at 3Com's remote access division. Bob Applegate, chief executive officer of Water Wheel Systems Inc. in Marlton, N.J., didn't find that to be the case. He recently spent 45 minutes on hold with the 3Com trouble ticket line and then another 45 minutes later the same day. All in all, the service provider was down for six and a half hours, and it had a premium service contract on the Total Control remote access concentrator that was malfunctioning. Both the Total Control and NetServer product lines were developed by U.S. Robotics Corp. 3Com and U.S. Robotics merged in February 1997. Double D can be reached at www.doubled.com 3Com can be reached at www.3com.com System Source can be reached at www.syssrc.com Water Wheel Systems can be reached at www.waterw.com Email Randy Barrett and Joe McGarvey