Novell support price hike irks users

Effective this month, it will cost more if you want Novell to help you fix network problems.

The company has raised its perincident phone support rate from $200 to $300 - a 50% hike. The increase, which went into effect Feb. 1, has ticked off some users.

"I think it's outrageous," says Larry Holt, IS manager for the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce in Alabama.

One reason Novell raised the cost of calling (800) 321-4272 is that the company wants to encourage customers to use its other support services, some of which are free. The other services include Novell-run forums on the Internet, its knowledge base of problems and solutions, and the Novell Support Connection CD. Also available is LogicSource, a collection of CD-ROMs that contains in-depth knowledge about Novell products.

Increasing the cost of technical support "will allow Novell to maintain a level of quality service to all customers," according to a Novell spokesperson. With support engineers less bogged down by support calls, they will be able to spend more time on really hard-to-fix problems, Novell says.

Holt says he has used Novell's forums, but likes to have phone support as an option. "While Novell's free support forums and documentation are pretty good, that shouldn't be my only option. It just about slams the door on support for smaller organizations," he says.

Others are taking the rate increase in stride, noting that Novell's assistance will probably be worth the price.

"Novell has been very good about getting us an answer. We've had calls escalated all the way to development, and while it's taken a while, we've gotten answers," says a senior network engineer with the North Carolina state government. "With Microsoft, we've made the mistake of calling a very few times on Windows NT and SQL Server issues. After interminable waits and a $150 charge, we're told to reboot. That seems to be Microsoft's answer for everything."

Outside normal business hours, Novell charges $450 per incident. Users say this rate, while high, is worth it to solve a network problem that would otherwise keep them away from home on the weekend.

"This amount to fix a problem on a business-critical system is still peanuts," says Steve Howard, PC network manager at the College of Medicine at the University of Florida in Gainesville.