[Info-vax] Access to OpenVMS 7.3-2 patches

[Richard B. Gilbert]

On 10/23/2012 3:57 PM, Tom Adams wrote:
> On Oct 23, 3:31 pm, Tom Adams <w.tom.ad... at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Do I need a support agreement to get patches?
>>
>> I did not need that the last time I updated.  But it appears that is
>> required now.
>
> Any estimate of how much will patch access cost for 5 ds-10?
>
> I am going to call a rep soon, just wondering.
>

There's very little to wonder about.  If you want patches, you pay!
I haven't had a service contract for about twelve years now so I can't
tell you what it costs.  It was never cheap!  If you think it will be 
cheap, think again.

Your options are:
A. Pay for a service contract.
B. Pay by the hour.

Customers with contracts have priority!
I haven't been a customer for about eight years now so my experience
is out of date.  It's not cheap!  When I last had a service contract you
had options for response times:

Zero response time.  You pay for an engineer, hardware and/or software 
on your site, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

One hour response time.

Two hours.

Four hours.

Etc.

As you may guess, one hour response is not QUITE as much as having
an engineer on site.  Two hour response is not QUITE as expensive as one 
hour response, etc.

I had spare disk drives.  A drive failed, I replaced it with a spare.  I 
called DEC/Compaq/H-P customer service, a messenger brought a new drive 
and hauled the old one away.