Justin M. Streiner wrote:
On Tue, 18 Nov 2008, Jared Mauch wrote:
I'm personally fed up with this crap from Cisco.
They've broken so many things with software downloads over the years,
including coded image access via FTP, crypto access via FTP, website
requires cookies now to fetch the images, etc..
I feel your pain. The main thing that really annoys me is Cisco's
tendency to re-design their website every 6-12 months, which is usually
just long enough to get used to navigating the changes from the previous
re-design. Often, the redesigns seem to include a complete overhaul of
the guts of the site, so links to documents suddenly become broken.
The redesigns are murder on technical folks or anyone who uses their
site constantly like pretty much everyone on this list. I can
understand the need to make the sales/marketing side of the website
fluffy with all the requisite eye-candy of a geek's porn store. Why do
they have to hose up the technical support site at the same time? We
already bought the product so we really don't need or want to see the
marketing crap. They are constantly moving documents around or
abandoning documents that contain tables of important, ever-changing
data such as the routerperformance.pdf doc that hasn't been updated in 2
damn years.
I ran across one yesterday while on the phone with TAC. I was searching
for info on IPSec L2L to MPLS VPN configuration and IPSec HA. I knew
that the doc "Cisco 7600 Series Router SIP, SSC, and SPA Software
Configuration Guide" had most of what I was needing and dozens upon
dozens of search results pointed me to it. Unfortunately it was no
where to be found. Clicking any of the links pointing me to that doc
dumped me back to the main page. I didn't get a 404 or a 'sorry this
page has moved, redirecting you now'. All I got was dumped back to
cisco.com and a big FU for my efforts.
I've voiced those concerns to my account team. You should too, if you
haven't already.
I've got bigger fish to fry with my account team like trying to get them
to process an order that I submitted to them 2.5 months prior before it
finally got processed and put into the system (does Cisco not want my
money?). Or trying to get our AM to process the return of hardware that
doesn't work as advertised (IDSM2 on 7600s for example) that was
purchased nearly 2 years ago and has been agreed to by the AM
repeatedly. Or trying to get callbacks on major design questions that
will ultimately result in more Cisco hardware being purchased. Or
trying to get our AM to help fix a screwup in Cisco Returns with a RMAed
router being lost in a warehouse somewhere even though I have 1) the
signature of the Cisco person that signed for it (thanks UPS) and 2) a
Telepan person acknowledging that the package had actually been received
even through Cisco Returns doesn't agree, all before it gets sent to a
collection agency AGAIN (long story).
I don't get to complain to them about the state of the website. We
don't get to talk about features we need like BFD support for SVIs. We
have to focus all our efforts on the major problems that have monetary
costs with Cisco or we'll never get anything done.
Don't get me wrong. I like our Cisco guys. When they're here and
standing in front of us they're great. However when they leave we're
out of sight out of mind. I think they cover way to large of an area to
really be an effective asset to us (possibly any of the customers in the
area they serve). They spend hours on the road daily going between
customer sites. They come through our neck of the woods once a month or
so. I see them a couple times a year on average. I'm sure we're not a
big fish in their area of the SP market, so put us in another smaller
pond with other like-sized fish so we can get better service. I can't
tell you how many hours have been consumed by the wide assortment of
non-technical Cisco problems we've been plagued with over the course of
the last 6 months. It would easily be an hour a day on average.
Easily. I find it increasingly difficult defending Cisco against people
that want Cisco out. No matter what the technical merit/value is of
their products, the non-technical horseshit is getting really old. What
can we do to help?
Justin
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