[Asterisk-Users] Cisco 7960 SIP Images

[John Baker]

I got a 7960 for evaluation purposes.  I was planning on upgrading our 
phone system and wanted to see if Cisco's product was any good.  Short 
answer:  Nice phone, horrible service.

Support?  I called Cisco looking for support on the phones.  They told 
me to go through a reseller, and I could find one on their website.  I 
contacted a local reseller, listed as having the Cisco line on Cisco's 
website and guess what - they had no idea what I was talking about. 
Seems they didn't even know they were listed on Cisco's website to begin 
with.

I tried a second reseller with similar results.

I finally got ahold of someone at Cisco to sell me the support contract, 
but it took three weeks and a couple of follow up phone calls for them 
to process the paperwork and assign me a number.  You'd think Cisco 
would have an easy sign up over the web for this stuff, but no.  You've 
got to send them a check (Why wouldn't you take a credit card???) and 
answer a barrage of questions before you get the thing.

I wondered why a company like Cisco would make you jump through so many 
hoops.  I soon got my answer: one of their sales reps called within days 
to discuss purchasing more product.  "I'd be glad to talk to you about 
it," I told him, "but we're a bit premature.  I need to evaluate your 
phone with a current image and I'm getting nowhere with your technical 
support.  Any chance you could speed up the process?  It might help you 
get more business..."

No chance. After three weeks worth of runaround, I finally got my SIP 
image.  Again the phone was nice, but the service wasn't.  The price 
definitely wasn't.  Oh, and let's not forget about the software license 
requirement and the power cube (purchased separately of course)  Add all 
that up and you're paying alot for what you're getting.

I went with the Polycom phones and never looked back.  They're every bit 
as nice as the Cisco phones for a lot less money.

John

Paul Mahler wrote:

> I have recieved far more that my money's worth in technical calls to Cisco
> about my 7960 telephones. They respond immediately. They keep working until
> the job is done. The pull in whatever resources are neccessary. They have
> never failed to find and fix the problem. 
>  
> If you want professional, real technical support you should be willing to
> pay for it, or in this case part of it. 
>  
>  
> Paul Mahler
>  <mailto:pmahler at signate.com>  
>  
>  
> 
>   _____  
> 
> From: asterisk-users-admin at lists.digium.com
> [mailto:asterisk-users-admin at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of
> daryl at introspect.net
> Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2004 7:37 PM
> To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Cisco 7960 SIP Images
> 
> 
> What you and so may others on this lise seem to forget is that Cisco is a
> company offering bsuiness products for businesses.  Businesses typically pay
> by check and wire transfer, especially for items such as this.
>  
> If you want home-user pay-by-credit-card service, buy products from Belkin's
> home line and similar.
>  
> Oh...what's that?  None of these cheesy Stocked-at-Costco hardware companies
> have any VoIP phones worth a crap?  Then deal with the fact that you are
> buying from a company who doesn't target home users, and deal with it.  It
> costs Cisco more money than they make on the contract to offer SmartNet on a
> single device like this.  You're lucky they don't have a minimum device
> limit/contract cost of something like 5 devices or $300/year.  I'm guessing
> this type of policy would hardly effect more than several hundred of their
> customers, most of them with 7960's and similar.
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: asterisk-users-admin at lists.digium.com on behalf of John Baker 
> Sent: Sat 3/27/2004 4:41 PM 
> To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com 
> Cc: 
> Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Cisco 7960 SIP Images
> 
> 
> 
> [massive amounts trimmed]
> 
> No, you can't use a credit card.  You have to send the #$!@@$#'s a 
> check.  It's really stupid, but it's the Cisco way. 
> 
> John 
> 
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