IBM Fail

So I have to write a paper about super computers and stuff, and my professor wants us to have a price range of mainframes. Thus, I went on ibm's site to look for that information, as I was on that site a random IM client pops up so I decide to ask the guy on there... Here is our conversation...

Please wait for your IBM representative to respond.

You are now chatting with 'Steven'

you:hello

Steven:Thank you for accepting our chat service. My name is Steven, how may I assist you?

you:about how much is a mainframe?

Steven:that all depends on licening needs and system requirements

Steven:it can go into the millions

you:just a general average price

you:or price range

Steven:from 500k into the millions

Steven:that's the best i can do

you:how many millions? i've heard up to 40mill

Steven:I cannot give a btter answer than i already have

Steven:without any specifics I cannnot even speculate

you:then whats the most expensive?

Steven:I do not know

Steven:This channel does not handle those kinds of configurations

Steven:that is usually done via a architect for a infrastructure like that

you:can u call someone who would know this?

Steven:I cannot do that

you:why dont you have prices listed on this site or i am retarted and can not find it?

Steven:Those are enterprise systems and generally are custom built supporting thousands of users with millions of dollar of software licensed and the configuration varray so much that pricing on the website would be irrelevant

Steven:mainframes are not typical servers they are used by large companies to be the back bone of their entire organization

Steven:hence their set ups can be extremely complicated

Steven:hence that is why pricing is not avaiulable excepts at the higest of levels

you:yea i know that, im just doing a paper on mainframes and I have to find out the price range on them, soooo i figured that i would come to this site for that information...

you:Ya knowI came to this site thinking that I would find prices quite easily since ibm is the biggest computer software/hardware business. Once I realized the prices weren't listed I was simply just going to google it. However, right before I went to google this very IM client pops up, and you ask me "howmay I assist you?" You had me excited for a moment because I thoughtI wouldn't be having to use google, which is something thatI am tryingto avoid.

Steven:I do apologize but pricing on those systems is not available through this channel or our website

you:you are not assiting me in any way steven...google will be in about five minutes...

Steven:I have been as much assistance as I can be

you:now can u explain to me how someone who works for ibm can't even give me an estimate?

Steven:it is because these systems are handled by a specialized team

Steven:and those memebers are not often available

Steven:because of that pricing and requests for it go through a process

you:well then why can't you ask them?

you:don't they have a number for you to call?

Steven:because I do not have access to them

Steven:nothey do not

Steven:like I said there is a process and is intended for end users only

you:i think you are lying to me...

Steven:for project purposes I cannot make any sort of request

Steven:if you need a price forIBM power

Steven:or IBM system X then I can give you a very accurate price

you:i dont need an accurate price just an estimate

Steven:I do not have any pricing documentation at all on those systems

you:im not even buying anything, all im doing is writing a paper about u guys

Steven:I have never even seen a quote for one of those systems

Steven:they are enterprise and the information is considered to be confidential in many ways

Steven:hence I do not have any access to it

you:why?

Steven:once again I do apologize

Steven:Like I said earlier because this how is the process for these systems is

you:i don't understand why must you be so secretive about your prices, everyone knows they are going to be paying in the millions

Steven:It has more to do with how the software stack on this system will priced out as opposed to the actual hardware.

Steven:The prices can vary so much that having a hardware cost is somewhat irrelevant when the software stack on the systems can cost from 10-15 times more than the actual hardware running it

Steven:not too mention how many aprtitions in a virtual environment will be there

Steven:If I even had a partial quote I would email it to give you a sense of the pricing

Steven:but I really do not have no more information than what is on the website

Steven:all I know is that the pricing is heavily dependant on software and resource activition needs by the end user

Steven:hence the people who work on these systems are generally on site with their clients and are usually unavailable hence why it has to go to a process just to have a potetnial custome rreached out to

you:can u tell me "thee" most expensive possible mainframe?

Steven:If I knew the pricing structure I would certainly tell you

Steven:but like I said I have never seen a single quote or price list for that system so like I said in range speculation lowest would 500k and anything else goes into the millions

you:and you can't get in touch with anyone who would know this...?

Steven:no I don't even know who they would be

Steven:this is just a pre sales channel

Steven:and we mostly deal with midmarket customers

you:well you know the lowest...

Steven:that's from a 5 year old z8

Steven:otherwise like I said I ave not seen or have access to any other price information

you:Can you tell me the highest now?

Steven:No I do not have access to that information

you:You had access to the lowest priced mainframe, so why cant you get it for the highest priced one?

you:can u just shout out in the room you are in, asking for an estimate of the highest priced mainframe?

Steven:I am sorry but on this topic I am truly unable to assist any further than I already have.

Steven:That would get me no where because I am the most senior rep on our team with a hardware focus

Steven:just we don't usually deal with mainframe systems

you:hey, you never know someone in there might know the answer

Steven:one moment I am asking

*15 minute wait*

Steven:ok i asked my sales lead

Steven:and he said the sky is the limit because there are to many variables

Steven:how many systems

Steven:software stack sizes

Steven:possible discounts

Steven:number of licensed partitions

you:screw the discounts i want to know how high are we talking here

Steven:These are extremely customiable and scalable systems and I cannot get any sort of ceiling price for you

Steven:I cannot get that information

Steven:I have to the best of my ability answered your questions

you:You didn't answer jack ****! I am just going to google this now since you are completely wasting my time!

Steven:I apologize but I am now ending this chat

Steven:Goodbye and thank you for chatting with us today.

Chat session has been terminated by the IBM representative.

What would you guys would have done in my situation :P

Sounds like you should just blog that, not post it in the forums.

I would have not wasted the poor guys time asking questions that he has nothing to do with :S

I feel sorry for Steven.

Well to be honest, you were being quite unreasonable, the sky is honestly the limit when it comes to mainframes and huge networks. The only way for them to give you a proper quote would be by doing an assessment.

Sounds like you should just blog that, not post it in the forums.

CHOASXIII

[QUOTE="CHOASXIII"]

Sounds like you should just blog that, not post it in the forums.

Bloodseeker23

Yeah I know I am just saying that to warn him. Because I have gotten modded for things like that before.

What a boring read.

how is that IBM fail??? If it's not the guy's area then gg

tl;dr

But from what i did read you kid of seemed like a douche. The man was just doing his job.

I feel sorry for Steven.

metroidfood

I feel sorry for Steven.

metroidfood

You do know that Mainframes are practically irrelaeent, outdated, and impractical do to the invention of networking right? A customer support person working at IBM will likely not know too much about the current price about outdated and impractical computer setups that are very rarely still used...

I admit that I was a compleate ars towards the end of the conversation, but really... No one could give me an approximation of the price. Lets say you walk into a Best Buy walk towards the HD TV's and ask someone who works there 'about how much the TV's would cost?' And the guy couldn't give you an answer, not even a guess, all he could say is that it was going to cost $50+. Wouldn't you then get a little mad?

I admit that I was a compleate ars towards the end of the conversation, but really... No one could give me an approximation of the price. Lets say you walk into a Best Buy walk towards the HD TV's and ask someone who works there 'about how much the TV's would cost?' And the guy couldn't give you an answer, not even a guess, all he could say is that it was going to cost $50+. Wouldn't you then get a little mad?

darkmark91

That's different. This is like asking "How much does a custom computer cost?" which depends totally on the parts you use for it. He did the best he could given that a mainframe doesn't have a set number of components, software or size and the fact that it wasn't even his department.

I admit that I was a compleate ars towards the end of the conversation, but really... No one could give me an approximation of the price. Lets say you walk into a Best Buy walk towards the HD TV's and ask someone who works there 'about how much the TV's would cost?' And the guy couldn't give you an answer, not even a guess, all he could say is that it was going to cost $50+. Wouldn't you then get a little mad?

darkmark91

Second of all, unless you were actually looking to buy it, you just wasted they're valuable time when they could actually be helping ACTUAL customers. You do not go asking a random customer rep for "research."

You do know that Mainframes are practically irrelaeent, outdated, and impractical do to the invention of networking right? A customer support person working at IBM will likely not know too much about the current price about outdated and impractical computer setups that are very rarely still used...

DarkGamer007

Where is the fail?

[QUOTE="darkmark91"]

I admit that I was a compleate ars towards the end of the conversation, but really... No one could give me an approximation of the price. Lets say you walk into a Best Buy walk towards the HD TV's and ask someone who works there 'about how much the TV's would cost?' And the guy couldn't give you an answer, not even a guess, all he could say is that it was going to cost $50+. Wouldn't you then get a little mad?

metroidfood

That's different. This is like asking "How much does a custom computer cost?" which depends totally on the parts you use for it. He did the best he could given that a mainframe doesn't have a set number of components, software or size and the fact that it wasn't even his department.

It's also like going to a store and asking the price range of something. The guy dosen't know the price so he goes asks someone who would know the price and his response is "the sky is the limit"

And keep in mind I asked for the RANGE, I did not ask for a specific price, all I wanted was an estimate. That man was able to give me the minimum of 500k, so why doesn't anyone know what the possible maximum could be?

It's also like going to a store and asking the price range of something. The guy dosen't know the price so he goes asks someone who would know the price and his response is "the sky is the limit"

And keep in mind I asked for the RANGE, I did not ask for a specific price, all I wanted was an estimate. That man was able to give me the minimum of 500k, so why doesn't anyone know what the possible maximum could be?

darkmark91

It's not like going to a store and asking the price range of something. It's like asking how much a building costs, there's no set price it's a contract that they form to build one, and the specifications of that are going to be completely unique to every company that gets one.

Again, he doesn't work on those and he's not going to know a price range because they're contracts between IBM and other companies, they're not sticker prices. He did the best he could giving you a bottom estimate, the only thing a guy in his position could determine is that these things are very expensive.

[QUOTE="metroidfood"]

[QUOTE="darkmark91"]

I admit that I was a compleate ars towards the end of the conversation, but really... No one could give me an approximation of the price. Lets say you walk into a Best Buy walk towards the HD TV's and ask someone who works there 'about how much the TV's would cost?' And the guy couldn't give you an answer, not even a guess, all he could say is that it was going to cost $50+. Wouldn't you then get a little mad?

darkmark91

That's different. This is like asking "How much does a custom computer cost?" which depends totally on the parts you use for it. He did the best he could given that a mainframe doesn't have a set number of components, software or size and the fact that it wasn't even his department.

It's also like going to a store and asking the price range of something. The guy dosen't know the price so he goes asks someone who would know the price and his response is "the sky is the limit"

And keep in mind I asked for the RANGE, I did not ask for a specific price, all I wanted was an estimate. That man was able to give me the minimum of 500k, so why doesn't anyone know what the possible maximum could be?

More like TC fail.

"IBM Fail?" How? That's a chat log of you being annoying.

Lol I dun goofed. I figured out why he couldn't of given me a price (And it's no thanks to you guys. I just had to do a little more homework on what a mainframe was.) I feel bad now... :(

Do you think if I go back to the IM client he will be there because I kinda want to apologise to him.

I feel sorry for Steven.

metroidfood

Lol I dun goofed. I figured out why he couldn't of given me a price (And it's no thanks to you guys. I just had to do a little more homework on what a mainframe was.) I feel bad now... :(

Do you think if I go back to the IM client he will be there because I kinda want to apologise to him.

darkmark91

I feel sorry for Steven.

metroidfood