I assume most of you know of this:
In an effort to improve our responsiveness to service requests forwarded via electronic mail, we will be making a series of improvements over the coming months. We ask your cooperation and assistance in implementing these changes and enhancements. With few exceptions they will not require action on your part. They will, however, make available to you options that improve the speed and accuracy of our response.
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY Cisco Maintenance customers wishing to open a case with the Technical Assistance Center (TAC) should forward their requests to TAC@CISCO.COM.
Beginning January 1st, 1993, we cannot guarantee responsiveness to other channels, i.e. cs@cisco.com.
Electronic mail requests received by TAC@CISCO.COM between 8am and 5pm Pacific USA will be handled with the same responsiveness as telephone requests. Please note that Priority 1 - Network Down requests should be telephoned into the TAC for immediate action.
FORMATTING your email with your service contract number, your name, telephone number, a brief one line problem/question description, and a case priority as the first 5 lines in your electronic mail will improve our responsiveness. For example:
Cisco service contract number 92snt1234a First and last name Jane Doe Best number to contact you 415-555-1234 Problem/question description Cannot see Appletalk zones Case Priority 3
CASE PRIORITIES are defined as one of the following:
Pri 1 Production network down, critical business impact Pri 2 Production net seriously degraded, serious impact Pri 3 Network degraded, noticeable impact to business Pri 4 General information, non production problems
So we contacted our cisco distributor to get the official TAC number. They then spoke to a person named Chapman in cisco who informed them that we can't get one. Overseas customers have to first contact their distributor/dealer and only through them can the TAC be approached. This is because in order to speak to the TAC you not only need a service contract number but also to be something they call "TAC certified" - which means you know how to report problems to cisco properly. In order to become TAC certified you have to undertake a cisco course. My questions are: - do all USA companies go thru this TAC certification process or is this just a European requirement? - Has any European cisco user encountered this problem and what have you done to be able to speak to the TAC directly? Thanks, Hank Nussbacher Israel