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Maintenance Agreement

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ctrost

Technical User
Dec 1, 2006
78
US
We have an avaya maintenance contract, sold through an avaya business partner. We are having some difficulties with the business partner and are wondering if we can take our maintenance agreement to another business partner?

 
When you say 'avaya maintenance contract' do you pick up the phone and call Avaya or call your business partner when you have system problems?
If you call the business partner, then it is a contract between your company and the business partner. It is not transferable.
If you call avaya directly, then your business partner sold you an over-priced maintenance contract (depending on your business and not to be confused with large enterprise businesses that have tons of money to throw at a 'top of the line' premier maintenance provider).

'Knows enough to be dangerous. Wait... make that really dangerous.'
 
Yes, you can. First order of business, however, is to find a business partner that you trust and can rely on. That partner can then assist you in making the change. If you're having difficulty finding an acceptable business partner, contact your Avaya Account Executive and ask them for a recommendation.

regs,

.al.

Avaya Certified Expert
 
@PBXTech: Have you heard about Avaya's new "Support Advantage" program that becomes mandatory for all licensed Avaya customers next February? Once again they're making it as difficult as possible (and nearly impossible) for 3rd party vendors to provide maintenance.

regs,

.al.

Avaya Certified Expert
 
No I had not. It is news to me. I left the corporate world a few months back for a much better job.
It doesn't surprise me though. When I worked for Avaya (laid off in Sept 2008), they really didn't care how many accounts went to business partners. Then Avaya implemented the Vampire Fee about a year go. 'Here, add an extra charge to all your customers' maintenance contracts just in case you ever need to talk to us.' Business partners should have joined together and sued the crap out of Avaya. Business Partners did what Avaya wanted them to do and move as much product and create as many customers as they could. Then Avaya came around and punished them for doing so because Avaya Direct sales suffered very badly because Mahogany Row told everyone to go Indirect channels.
I think I said something about a year ago to the effect of 'Everyone that I know that worked at Avaya now works for a Business Partner. Why would I want to talk to Avaya at all now?'

Here’s the thread with the two posts of mine.

Avaya has become just about as underhnaded and nasty as AT&T. But I guess the apple really didn't fall far from the tree after all, did it?

'Knows enough to be dangerous. Wait... make that really dangerous.'
 
It is all about the money and not about the customer.
When the customer walks away then Avaya is done doing business!!!


BAZINGA!

I'm not insane, my mother had me tested!
 
I'm pretty confident that it's an Avaya contract... I have the Avaya Channel Service Agreement Order Form in front of me, as well as the Avaya Labeled Terms and Conditions documents.

Further proof? The sales rep for the Business Partner we use notified us about the PKI Certificate Updates. -all of which, due to our particular system were NOT customer installable. --the Business Partner would charge us if we had them do the installation. ... I called Avaya, and they did it all, under the coverage of our maintenance contract.
 
I'd give the Avaya customer care center a call and specifically ask them.
'Do I have an Avaya maintenance contract?'
'Who do I call first when I have a problem with my phone system?'

'Knows enough to be dangerous. Wait... make that really dangerous.'
 
Yep, it is indeed an Avaya contract... So it would appear that I don't have to use the business partner for anything if I don't want to...?
 
The service contract thing has been going on for a long time now. At one time I went almost 5 years without a contract and just paid T&M. I may have spent $3000.00 a year supporting a 5500 station switch. My maintenance contract before this was over $100,00 a year. Then one day I was forced into one like it or not. If you want to keep your maintenance permissions.

In the very fine print (and I am sure it's worse now) their is a clause that you have the right to use the software. If you actually want to have a higher level of permissions above looker, then you needed a maintenance contract. Thats extreme but close.

It was OK and then it wasn't Ok for BP's to sell service. It just depends on what day it is anymore.

The other day my AE (BP)called to tell me to budget for an major increase on maintenance next year for the new maintenance models being rolled out. Should be special I"m sure...

If anyone finds anything out about what to expect on this, please post or send it to me. I would appreciate it.

When is the last time you helped someone, just because you were able to?

For the best response to a question, read faq690-6594


 
Concerning the comment...
"tlpeter (Programmer)
5 Aug 11 9:51
It is all about the money and not about the customer.
When the customer walks away then Avaya is done doing business!!!"

You would think that Avaya would be all about making money for their stockholders. And that of course is by taking care of their customers. But AVaya seems to be about making pennies in the short run and losing customers instead of making dollars in the long run by treating their customers good and keeping them. Every year the number of maintenance contracts shrinks and Avaya lays off more employees. So Avaya tries to make short term money by shafting their customers more. And they loose more customers. It is a vicious circle. Upper management doesn't care as they keep on getting huge bonuses and perks.
Stockholders should really sue Avaya for stupidity on the highest levels.
 
You are spot on!
It is a shame because it is a good product.

BAZINGA!

I'm not insane, my mother had me tested!
 
It is a shame because it is a good product.

It is because that is going to make it sooo easy for Avaya shops to end up Cisco shops. Management doesn't know Avaya but they do know the word "Cisco". And now that Avaya is held by stockholders that can't even spell "dial tone", well you get what you have.

The new maintenance structure is sure to make some of us an "ex" Avaya shop because of price.

When is the last time you helped someone, just because you were able to?

For the best response to a question, read faq690-6594


 
mikeydidit, I found out a little bit of info. It seems like there will be some sort of Avaya maintenance tied into your BP contract. For this added cost, Avaya (not the BP) will be coming out to your sites and swaping out hardware. Very strange. I wonder when the Avaya BP's are going to band together and sue Avaya, TPG and Silver Lake Partners. It's like they are trying to strong-arm the BP's into providing some sort of kickback.

'Knows enough to be dangerous. Wait... make that really dangerous.'
 
Thanks for posting PBX Tech. I appreciate it.

Unfortunately for me the Avaya guys in my area are qualified to swap out a 2500 set in a pinch. But thats about it. So thats not going to exactly give me more bang for the buck is it? WOW

As for the BP's I have been through serveral that could handle my maintenance and then had it taken away. It seems it depends on the day..

When is the last time you helped someone, just because you were able to?

For the best response to a question, read faq690-6594


 
Many techs that I worked with back in the day were IP-challenged. I saw most of them retire when given the chance because they just didn't want to learn the new stuff. It was all given to the 'kid that knows computers'. There were a couple of guys that wanted (didn't mind) to learn it. I was told by a 2nd level once to not do up my 'walk through' pdfs for the old guys and that I shouldn't share my knoweledge with them. It will be three years next month when I was laid off from Avaya after 10 years employment. But that's beyond the scope of this thread.

I think this whole Avaya 'kickback' fee is just a money grab by TPG and Silver Lake. They lost all the business. Now they want it back excluding the red tape sales portion of it. Avaya gave away the farm to the BP's. Now Avaya wants money from the garden than the BP's planted. Something really stinks about this and I hope someone from Avaya/TPG/Silver Lake has to stand in front of a Judge about this.

'Knows enough to be dangerous. Wait... make that really dangerous.'
 
some advice wanted...:
avaya with 500 stations + 250 agents
we are migrating to a new platform, unfort. not avaya.
half way now, ending in 6months or so.

we now pay top$ for both. contract of our BP has to be renewed for a year now.
(the BP has lots of knowledge.
If the system has an alarm, it will phone avaya directly)

I'm thinking of stopping it, and pay per incident to the BP.
so I have to check the majors and minors myself and call the BP.
like mikeydidit. (BTW you meant 100k?)

tips...?
 
meneerB's

You will probably come out starting a new thread. Post the models and versions of software. That makes a huge difference.

And yes, I try to not post exact pricing here, but it exceeded $100,000 a year.

When is the last time you helped someone, just because you were able to?

For the best response to a question, read faq690-6594


 
There was a new free service launched at:
Provides two free quotes to compare Avaya support options and includes latest pricing, promos, etc.

Doesn't matter if you currently have a BP Maintenance or Avaya Direct contract in place. This service is free to get the quotes and if you need to switch.
 
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