tcs@BRL.MIL (Terry Slattery, SECAD) (01/05/90)
We just received a DOA power supply which was supposedly repaired by Proteon. The symptom was low output voltages. It cost us several hours to verify that the power supply was indeed DOA (including swapping with a working supply in another router to make sure there wasn't a wiring problem in the original chasis). The government procurement process is enough hassle without having to perform our own quality assurance on incoming spares and having to deal with swapping the DOA parts. A power supply is not hard to QA. This isn't much in and of itself, but we've had a large number of DOA or infant mortality Proteon parts over the years. It has become somewhat of a joke around here and the reputation is spreading to other Army sites as they buy what we've bought. My experience with cisco (at a previous employer) was completely favorable, for reliability, performance, and functionality. Maybe Proteon's involvement in PC products is diluting router technology development. Proteon is going to have a hard time competing with the likes of cisco and Wellfleet for more of our business. A specification for performance and a one year warranty with one day response on-site repair should do the job. -tcs If anyone at Proteon would like to respond, please do so directly as I don't read this list.
tvm@proteon.com (Tom Miceli) (01/06/90)
Terry, Naturally it is very disturbing to here news like you reported. Would you please give me a call at Proteon Customer Service (508-898-3100) and we can go over the details so we can correct the problem. Thank You, Tom Miceli Manager, Tech Support