UC540 support not good

JOHN NIKOLATOS · ‎02-24-2010

Guys I am not getting the warm fuzzies from the new uc540 support group. I really have had a terrible experience with the CCA and the UC540 support staff. It really seems that the CCA is still not ready to completely configure the UC500 products. I have had a case open for over a week with no call back (which I requested). I had a system issue at a client site and they could not get me to a person that could help and being only able to use the CCA is ridiculous. The CCA deleted phones, removed buttons, removed all my clients 500s sidecars. This was on a working system. I had some OCTO lines created that it removed and replaced etc. Something has to be done for me to sell this unit.. I have installed a bunch of the UC520 products and I really think the uc500 is very powerful but the CCA is a complete failure. Support only being able to use the CCA is making the support team a complete failure - I really feel BUMMED for lack of a better word that the support has moved from knowledgeable TAC engineer to Small Business Support (Linksys support). The feel of call is totally different than TAC, the knowledge base is different tehn TAC and I dont like it.

I talked to a manager about my open case and I was told I could have my case esculated and I only received an email from a UC540 tech and I have so many questions and issues that I can not elaborate properly vai an email.. I would have considered this case a priority 2 and the response to me was horrible and am very surprised by what Cisco is doing to my UC500 support.

If Cisco continues to go ahead with the Small Business Support on the UC540 and UC560 - I really which they would work on getting UC520 to support more phone lines so I dont have to sell the uc540 and uc560. Never give something to someone and take it away.. it feels like you are cheating us out of something.. I only sell and install one phone system, that is the uc500.. it is only because I have come to be familair with IOS coding because I know so much about the routers and firewalls.. the uc500 was a natural fit.. now it is not and I dont like it much...

David Trad · ‎02-25-2010

Hi John,

Can i confirm with you (Since we do not have the 540/560 yet here in Australia) but am i write in assuming you no longer have CLI Access? Is that what you are saying?

Cheers,

David.

Cheers, David Trad. **When you rate a persons post, you are indicating a thank you or that it helped, but at the same time you are also helping to maintain the community spirit - You don't have to rate posts and you wont be looked down upon :) *

JOHN NIKOLATOS · ‎02-25-2010

David - the UC540 does have CLI that you can access... but SBSC support keeps telling me they will not support CLI and that I have to use the CCA only. I am reading Albertos post and most of it is true other that they are supporting CLI. I have been waiting more than a week on a priority case and none of the engineers I had would support CLI. Even after an esculation. I know about OOB configurations but again, they pass me along a link without any CLI help.

Alberto - it is like having someone learn to ride a bicycle and then after two years of riding you are told use training wheels on the bicycle (to help you ride). I feel like I am being constricted to the configurations I can do.. or the help I can get with the system. The support is going backwards with CCA support only.

Here is an email from UC540 support (this was after I had the case esculated and talked to a manager):

Greetings John,

Thank you for the detailed problem description.

We only support configuration of UC540/560 via CCA at this time.

CCA does not support the configuration of multiple SIP providers but I believe this can be done via CLI.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/voice/sip/configuration/guide/sip_cg

-multi-registrars.html#wp1062847

I need to research this with the UC540 product engineers. I will notify you as soon as I have an update.

Thank you.

Steven Smith · ‎02-25-2010

John,

Would you mind posting the case number? I would like to look into this for you.

JOHN NIKOLATOS · ‎02-25-2010

Case 613673059

John - I dont want to bash anyone... but if this product was UC520 I would have had a 1/2 an hour conversation with a TAC engineer and it would be over.. I can not support my client's on Uc540 when the SBCS support I get takes so long to talk to the right person. The guys are good and know the CCA but the response could be better and for a case like this where I am telling them over and over I have a real problem, it should be esculated to an advanced engineer quickly. Also the CCA was not allowing configurations to be applied.

For instance - do you know how the CCA turns RED when you are missing info so you know you have to complete something before applying it? Well in CCA 2.2.1 we added PSTN TRUNK GROUPS for outgoing calling. Then created some CALL HANDLING for outbound lines and would hit apply (we added an 8 for outbound as well as 9 because we have two different companies trying to call out specific FXO PORT for caller ID issues) ... But CCA would error saying CALLER ID is needed to be configured on the FXO lines. But under the CALLER ID Tab CCA would say "Caller ID Configuration is not needed. FXO trunks handle caller id automatically" and would not allow us to save.. So that right there totally made CCA useless because we could not get passed it.. In this case I expect the engineeer to say O.K. lets go place this commands in CLI to get around it. But again, they couldnt do this because they do not support with CLI.

Alberto Montilla · ‎02-25-2010

Dear John;

Thanks for your open feedback. I think there is some missunderstanding I would like to clarify and will also make sure that SBSC communicates it appropriately to partners like you.

* UC540 is very similar to UC520, main technical difference is on the capacity. Support level should be then similar if not the same. As you know CCA has gone through a major rebuild during the last 12 months, so the current product is way different from what it was on its origin. With CCA 2.1, you should be able to configure 100% of the features required for the majority of customers, however, there are still corner cases where CLI may be required for further customization. We strongly recommend the use of CCA nowadays.

* SBSC is enforcing customers to use CCA as it is a simpler way for configuration, especially for partners not expert on CLI, which looks like it is not your case. For partners expert on CLI we definitively are supporting you with CLI or whatever else tool required for your success, especially with maintaining already deployed units. Probably there was a confussion on this communication so that you felt CLI would not be supported anylonger.

* CCA and CLI can coexist provided CLI follows the CCA Out of Band (OOB) rules we have made public on an application note. For old installations, this was not likely the case, so you cannot comeback and use CCA because if OOB rules are not follow, CCA would break your configuration done via CLI. This may be your case unfortunately.

If you have any further comment, please let me know directly, amontill at cisco dot com. We are committed to make you successful with all our platforms.

Regards
Alberto Montilla

UC500 Product Manager