atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Comdial Telephones & Systems passwords

I didn't think about unethical situations. But I guess every industry has its bad apples.

Curious how do you warranty programming? Hardware I understand, buy it, have 1 year or whatever. I programmed your phone to ring on line 2, that I will now warranty for 1 year? Doesn't make since. If the customer owns the equipment they should not have to pay extra to retrieve the passwords if they decide to use another vendor.

I think you are missing the point about warranty. I sell a system and give X amount of warranty on the turnkey install. I know the history of whose had their hands on it if I am the only one programming and moving cards and sets around. You would have no control of the warranty if the customer is allowed to have an IT guy or for that matter a pest control guy whose brothers neighbor used to work for the phone company and is cheaper to use for adds, moves, and changes. I give the customer the passwords but warn in writing if any programming deviates from my installation records then they get charged. I haven't had anyone have issue with this unless they are just trying to avoid paying a service call.

I do the same as RBF, I have never had a client ask for the password because of my good service and reasonable charges, but if they did I would give it to them at no charge. A system is easier to maintain and safer if the password is held by one reliable person. How many times have we seen in this forum " I can't find, don't know, someone changed, the guy left the company etc ..." please help me re set my password.

And Ohio, you warranty your database programming, by being certain your settings won't change. How do you do that? By not giving out the password. In many systems the database determines the use of some system board slots and a wrong setting can adversly effect a circuit pack. Don't ask me how I know.
Mark

I agree with Mark about quality levels. If the support is good, the customer will not have any desire to go anywhere else. In the rare instances where the customer wants to jump ship, we have a password release form that we fax to the customer. Once they sign it and return it to us, we call into their system remotely and reset it to the factory default at no charge.

This form notifies them that once the password is reset, all warranties will be immediately voided. It explains that their equipment (hardware) warranty with the manufacturer will also be void if they obtain service through a non-authorized dealer. It also informs them that any future failures to the system will be billable service activity in the event that they come back to us.

Of the four times this has happened, one customer came back within six weeks. We never heard from the others, but two ended up out of business within a year.

I always give the password to the customer and let them know if they make changes I will have to reset system and reprogram at their expense. I feel that the password is a part of the software it belongs to the customer. If they want a new vendor or something happens to me they shouldn't have to default system

Many years ago a customer called me demanding that I give him the password to his system in case he ever decided to change venders. I knew he was taking night classes in computer programming so I had a pretty good idea what he was up to.

I printed the password release statement and had him sign it before leaving the site. I also told him repeatedly that I would bill him if I had to fix anything he messed up as was stated in the release. He assured me he had no intentions of getting into the system at all.

A few days later I had to go out and fix some problems of “unknown” causes, funny, they were all program errors. He also said he was not going to pay for the service call. So I changed the password and didn’t tell him. He called me that night screaming, cussing, and demanding that I go back and change it again. I told him I would if he left a check with the manager to pay for two service trips, one that he already owed me and one for going back to change the password. He agreed. The check was good. I have not set foot in that place since then.