I've had an email exchange with an IBM technical support representative about a FileNET issue we've been working on for a few weeks. The exchange has been going on something like this (names have been changed to protect the guilty, for some reason):

• Me: "Jack, i'm interested in learning about your best practices in patch management, so we can figure out how to stay current with patches and at the same time not spend a lot of time on patch management."
• Jack: "Here's a link to IBM support site [link omitted]"
• Me: "Thanks for the link, Jack. I was more interested in best practices, recommendations, et cetera."
• Jack: "We tell customers to install fix packs"
• Me: "Thanks. I looked at the link you provided for the RSS feed, and i get an error message when i try to subscribe. can you help?"
• Jack: "I have nothing to do with that. Try web support"
• Jack: "Try this help file for RSS readers [link omitted]"
• Me: "Thanks, Jack. I've been using RSS for years now. I'd like to investigate a better way of staying up-to-date with patch announcements and so on. What would you suggest?"
• Jack: "Contact your Account Manager."
• Me: "Do you know who that is?"
• Jack: "Contact your Sales Rep."

At this point, i've given up. Are we playing 20 questions here, or what?!

I know he's a tech guy. I know i'm not asking him about SQL or CLI commands. I also know that he's pretty high-up on the tech guy totem pole, and i know that when he's involved, something's usually broken, which means that customer satisfaction is an issue. Wouldn't you think that from a CSat perspective he'd have a better idea of how to handle this situation? Something that offers perhaps even an illusion that he cares about our production environment and is invested in reduced down-time for his company's software platform?

Here's how this entire exchange could have been shortened to 2 emails and turned to an actionable, positive next step:

• Me: "Jack, i'm interested in learning about your best practices in patch management, so we can figure out how to stay current with patches and at the same time not spend a lot of time on patch management."
• Jack: "Ilya, we don't have anything specific about that. You can try the IBM Tech support RSS feed, and i'll put you in touch with your Account Manager so you can provide your feeback to her and see if we can come up with a good way to get your systems patched and current."

I hope i remember this for next time i'm in Jack's shoes...