Major problem with Key Code

[tech2233]

Has anyone experienced this ? What do you do ?

We installed a BCM system for a customer last year. They purchased 16 seats of voice mail and 2 seats of IP Telephony. The 16 seats generated properly, but the 2 seats of IP did not. We called Nortel and they generated the code for us and gave it to our tech over the phone. They never put it onto the KRS. Now we are trying to install version 4. The IP seats are not showing up on KRS but the VM seats do. Nortel says they have no record of re-generating.

Has this happened to anyone ?

 

[biv343]

It's not uncommon. Any keycode that wasn't generated via KRS using a valid auth code will not migrate to release 4.0 when the keycode file is regenerated.

If you still have the authorization code, you may be in luck. If you don't have the auth code, best you can do is try to plead your case to Nortel or your vendor. There were some problems over the past few years where keycodes were being generated 'on the side', sometimes by ITAS, sometimes by unscrupulous vendors, and those are getting flushed out with release 4 upgrades.

Hopefully you left the original auth codes with the system. I've made a habit of leaving a folder with the customer that has all the auth codes and keycodes for the system for scenarios like this.

Best advice I can offer to everyone is to verify the applied keycodes on the system against KRS before running the upgrade.

 

[island55]

Tech 2233 - I have had this happen to us as well. We called ITAS last January for VM seats that would not generate on the KRS. They issued the seats to the tech via phone and did not put those codes onto the KRS. We tried upgrading to 4 last week and the codes were not there. Nortel says prove it. It's a major hastle and Nortel dealers are unfortunately having to pay for Nortel's short comings in their own internal mechanism.

This problem got resolved yesterday.

We also have another problem where the MSC card did not regenerate properly. Called ITAS. They read the 8 codes to us over the phone and never inputted those codes onto the KRS. Now it looks like the new replacement system is invalid. Tried upgrading that system to release 4. No codes found. Call Nortel. Takes hours to sort through and the customer and dealer have to suffer through this.

Not that dissimilar from all of the failed BFT's, MSC's, and hard drives.

Do yourself a favour Tech2233 and sell another phone system. Nortel sucks.

 

[tech2233]

That's a little harsh don't you think. Nortel is at least trying to fix their problems. I know the BCM is not that great and still has all sorts of hardware issues, but, it does have a great history (Norstar ...)and comes with a decent brand name.

I must admit though that Nortel has fallen way behind in competitiveness. Our company did start selling another phone product and it has been much better. Not nearly the amount of problems that the BCM has.

Unfortunately customers are also starting to notice that the BCM product doesn't have a great reputation for reliability.

 

[NARSBARS]

What am I missing? I have 30 BCMs and over the past several years I have only needed support on rare occasions.
They don't crash, they keep running and are (almost) as reliable as the Norstars I have (100). Am I or my vendor doing something right?

NARSBARS

 

[Crowtalks]

I have 19 BCMs and they have been rock solid once I learned to schedule restarts a couple of years ago on the underlying NT platform.

 

[DigitelD]

I'm lost.

SHK Certified (School of Hard Knocks)

 

[biv343]

I've put in somewhere between 150 and 200 systems, quit counting a long time ago. Except for the BFT issues, which you can't blame Nortel for, the systems have been fine. My only real complaint is with call center reporting, and even that is getting borderline reliable these days.

The grass always appears greener on the other side of the fence.

 

[MagnaRGP]

Nortel isnt the only vendor who bought equipment made with the cheap capacitors. They just got stung badly by it because the BCM product started getting good press and many installs at the time these capacitors were being used.

Now 2(ish) years later, they are failing in spades and the product looks bad. Simple case of buying from the lowest bidder.

As I always say, you gets what you pays for.

 

[DigitelD]

I spoke with a Nortel Engineer some time ago about some issues with the BCM. They made some management changes and have tackled the hardware problem. I hope this is not too offensive but I found out a long time ago that when customers hate their Nortel system it is either due to their ignorance of how to use it or it just wasn't setup correctly. When vendors hate Nortel systems I have the same opinion.

SHK Certified (School of Hard Knocks)

 

[acewarlock]

I have been stung only once with a Vendor selling me phoney Keycodes and when I tried to get them transfered to another BCM Though Nortel when it failed, I called the offending Vendor and they made it right and the new Keycodes do appear on the KRS now.

 

[island55]

Why are we applauding Nortel for manufacturing inferior product and then making excuses as to why the products merits are justified.

The BCM is a phone system. The customer expects, and deserves 100% uptime. No re-boots, continuous patches or hardware failures. Don’t blame someone else (capicators)for Nortel’s woes. Nortel chose to make the BCM with those capacitors. Not only is the capacitor an issue, but so is the release / patch / release / patch cycle Nortel seems to be on. Unfortunately for Nortel, and the poor dealers that have to support the product (myself included) stuck in a culture of producing software and then having to fix, fix, and fix. Linux won’t solve that problem. Nor will it fix capacitor problems. Nortel did at one time make an extremely reliable box – look at the 8X24, MICS, and Option 11C. I would gladly sacrifice a feature or two for the reliability and stability of the Norstar.

The fact that the hardware problems starting appearing when Nortel stopped manufacturing the product themselves doesn’t excuse them from making a reliable product.

The sad thing is that I typed this e-mail while at a customer site replacing a failed MSC card. (Waiting for a re-boot now with lot’s of time to spare). Into hour number 6 and counting. Regenerate key codes, new MSC, and new drive required. Called into a mission critical site at 9PM last night – BCM system down. How’s that for irony !

 

[senk1s]

like my boss from previous company used to say to us (sales and support)
"dont say the system is bad as it has lotsa problems. Thats why you got a job - if the product is magical, there wont be need for any sales people, the product will sell itself. if there are no problems, there wont be any support jobs"

If a company is shirking responsibility, i dont think it can be around for 100+ years

But yeah ...Quality can always be bettered

 

[DigitelD]

Speaking of patches, has anyone heard of Microsoft?

SHK Certified (School of Hard Knocks)

 

[senk1s]

Is it that company that made a penny everytime 'it' crashes )

Happy Fridaying everybody !!