[Asterisk-Users] Cisco 7960 SIP images

[Rich Adamson]

> > It "doesn't" arrive. It's all done instantly via email.
> 
> There's a whole package apparently (hence the £150 postage I was quoted, 
> although I suspect they just weren't interested in selling).
> 
> Even the entry on voip-info.org says it takes two weeks...  Once you buy 
> it the request goes to Cisco who have to get off their backsides and 
> actually issue you with the thing.  Nothing yet, although I'll be 
> chasing it again tomorrow (unfortunately it's impossible to chase it 
> directly with cisco as they refuse to deal with mere customers).
> 
> I've come *so* close to putting the phone on ebay and forgetting about 
> it.  Certainly I'll never buy a cisco product again.

As a side note to the above (in the US), the contract reseller is suppose
to obtain the phone's serial number. If that serial number is not registered
to the individual requesting the contract, the contract supposedly will not
be issued. That process is apparently used to identify when used phones
are sold via eBay (etc), and essentially says one does not have a valid
software license therefore it cannot be placed on maintenance. (A software
license cannot be transferred with the sale of a used phone or any of
cisco's equipment.) That same process is used for all Cisco equipment, 
however some used equipment resellers have been able to find ways around 
it (one way or another).

Once a maintenance contract number has been issued (regardless of whether
its on a piece of paper or email), that contract number has to be entered
into a cisco system that tracks the number against a customer account. If
you don't have a customer account, that process can't be completed either.
Some resellers will create your account for you and others won't.

Once the account has been created and the contract recorded, then the
customer is granted access to the download sections of their site via
their login/authentication process.

So the bottom line is the process requires a fair amount of manual labor
and for $8 (in the US), few resellers have any interest in the sales
commission resulting from an $8 sale. (Guess that says if you're buying
500 contracts, one might receive a different level of reseller interest.)

Regardless of whether we like it or not, cisco wrote the license terms
and asterisk users are not going to change their "machine". It's obviously
written to discourage reselling used equipment without paying a 
re-certification fee, and that re-certification re-license process can
get to be far more costly then simply purchasing their new equipment.
Surprise surprise!

I don't work for cisco or any of their resellers.