[CentOS] Caught between a Red Hat and a CentOS

[Rainer Duffner]

Amos Shapira schrieb:
> 2009/10/19 ken <gebser at mousecar.com>:
>   
>> In the couple of months I've had the need to contact Redhat support on
>> just one issue and their "support" has been terrible, so far completely
>> useless and a waste of time.  I don't know what Redhat charges us for
>>     
>
> The only guy I personally know who went with RedHat "because their
> support was included for free with our servers" reported the same.
>
> I'm a bit surprised (and disappointed) to hear such negative
> testimonials about RedHat support.
>
> Do others have different experience?
>
> Could it be the the quality of support is tiered by how much you pay,
> enough to make a difference?
>   


I think the end-result may be just that, but for a different reason than
one may think.

Note that I don't have a deeper insight into what actually goes on at
RedHat, but this is what I think happens, based on my own observations
supporting customers.

If you are a large customer, you open cases more often and maybe even
have dedicated support-staff.
After a while, that staff knows the way around your hardware, your
network and gets a feeling for where the problem may lie.
It's incredibly difficult to diagnose a problem with just the few lines
you usually get from a support-ticket - I dare say almost impossible.
Also, of course, with a larger contract, you may get to 2nd and
3rd-level support easier/quicker.



Best Regards,
Rainer