Would anyone here know:
1. When (month/year) Comdial announced the DXP to be end of life?
2. Did it make that announcement by e-mail or snail mail? (If so, I'd love a copy.)
3. After Comdial discontinued the DXP, did it "license" any other company to continue making new DXP components or just to "refurbish" such components?
The reason for this query is that I paid this guy for a new phone system for my small business in 2003. He installed a DXP (in 2004) without telling me that it was a discontinued product...and the components that he used had date labels going back all the way to 1993. I have since had someone else replace the DXP (which failed a couple years later) with an FX-II and therefore had to pay for two phone systems in 2 years. I'm therefore trying to get to the facts.
Any help or advice will be truly appreciated. Thanks.
There was a DXP and DXP-plus and there was a plan to discontinue the DXP. I was the product manager and never wrote anything because the DXP and DXP-plus were bringing in a lot of revenue. I believe Comdial died before the DXP did. There was a tremendous amount of equipment that was sold to another company along with a license to continue production. The date codes on the tags may reflect new stock and was on the shelf for a few years.
I have installed them as new as late as June 2006. The DXP and DXP plus are great products and I have several still under contract in hotel were you cannot afford down time. I would be interested as to why the DXP was replaced. What was the failure that required a replacement?
When the DXP failed a couple years after it was installed, I called in a different telephone system company to come fix it. By then, I had my doubts about the guys that had originally sold me the DXP so I didn't call them. Besides the system was out of the 1-year warranty that it orginally came with.
It was this new service tech who first pointed out to me that the DXP I had been sold was made with mishmash of older parts. Furthermore, when this tech called Comdial (or whatever it had changed into by then) for technical support, they told us that the DXP had been end-of-life for a few years at that point. (I think they said since 2001). All of this was news to me since I thought that I had ordered and paid for a state of the art phone system and was sold something that was not.
Another discouraging sign was that some of the cards in the DXP had handwritten labels with a month and year written on it affixed on top of the Comdial serial number label, and I suspected that these parts had been repaired at some point.
I was faced with a choice on whether I should throw good money after bad by repairing the suspect DXP or if I should just take a hit and buy a FX II. Being in a business (motel) where reliable telephone communication is critical, I chose to do the latter. The FX II has worked great since then and given me no problems.
The handwritten labels were kind of confusing from a Comdial support standpoint. If I had an 11 month old card that was even suspect then Comdial would replace them but use those hand written labels to reflect the start of the warranty date of the previous board. If those labels were removed (voiding the warranty) many times you'd see a board manufacturing date that was quite recent. It was very common to have new old stock (never used) boards in inventory with those labels. I still have some on the shelf. There was also a program to buy boards from Comdial if they were overstocked..many of these had the written labels also.
I still have quite a few in service and will continue to sell and service if requested as the parts and support is still available.
Another discouraging sign was that some of the cards in the DXP had handwritten labels with a month and year written on it affixed on top of the Comdial serial number label, and I suspected that these parts had been repaired at some point.
Hand written labels reflected the remainder of the warranty on an advance replacement. As RBF stated the date code on the card was more recent. These were new boards that went out to a dealer and most likely the dealer had already used his own stock to take care of the problem. When the dealer received the advance replacement he just put it on the shelf. If the DXP was removed in 2004 (five years ago), why the concern now? It lasted the one year warranty you received from the original installer and you could be getting a lot of BS from the next guy. I would say too much time has past to worry about it now.
Being in a business (motel) where reliable telephone communication is critical, I chose to do the latter.
The Comdial DXP and DXP-plus have been used in the hotel motel business for years The Comdial concierge (hotel/motel system)was based on the DXP. The DXP/DXP-plus was also the heart of the Comdial E-911 system. It was installed in PSAP's because of it great reliability.
Too bad you still don't have your DXP. The FX series was based on the DXP series but was never as good. They share common code software!