I was talking about the drives. And the market share of the ABB drives is huge. Educate me, why is AB giving free support for their drives and not for their PLCs?ABB technical support is only "free" for their drives, as is Drives Tech Support for Rockwell. If you want help from ABB on an older Bailey DCS system, believe me, it is NOT free!
I use Red Lions HMIs because I find that their quality and features are better than many others (including AB), not just because their are affordable and the tech support is free (and very good).Red Lion... 1/1000th the size of Rockwell when it comes to products in the field. Market share that barely shows up on the radar. All they can offer is "free" tech support because if you had to pay for it, nobody would buy their stuff at all.
I didn't know it was free since I been accessing it using my Tech Connect user since the beginning.Access to the Rockwell Knowledge Base is free, you must be referring to having to provide them with your email address as not being free?
The company I work for has spent several 100K in hardware and software from AB, why not give us free tech support? Why not providing free tech support when you spent more than X amount of money the year before? Even you can refine this system giving specific CompactLogix support once you spent more than X dollars on this PLC series."Free" person-to-person technical support for complex systems like PACs and SCADA / HMI software is worth every penny you pay for it in the long run. Once a product gets old and revenue from selling it stops, the bean counters will cease funding of "free" support technicians for non-current products and you are left on your own. Rockwell still supports everything they have ever sold, but that means employing knowledgeable people, who do not work cheap.
Elcan said:...I don't feel very qualified to do it...I don't want to fight anybody over this topic. I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings either.
Elcan said:...The company I work for has spent several 100K in hardware and software from AB, why not give us free tech support?...
beethoven_ii said:Today I have purchased a new ControlLogix CPU that is £4710.00 + VAT list price. If a month down the line there is any kind of problem with it I cannot get the level of technical support I would expect from any other company selling me a product at that sort of price without paying a premium for it...
ABB technical support is only "free" for their drives, as is Drives Tech Support for Rockwell. If you want help from ABB on an older Bailey DCS system, believe me, it is NOT free!
Red Lion... 1/1000th the size of Rockwell when it comes to products in the field. Market share that barely shows up on the radar. All they can offer is "free" tech support because if you had to pay for it, nobody would buy their stuff at all.
Access to the Rockwell Knowledge Base is free, you must be referring to having to provide them with your email address as not being free?
"Free" person-to-person technical support for complex systems like PACs and SCADA / HMI software is worth every penny you pay for it in the long run. Once a product gets old and revenue from selling it stops, the bean counters will cease funding of "free" support technicians for non-current products and you are left on your own. Rockwell still supports everything they have ever sold, but that means employing knowledgeable people, who do not work cheap.
Mitsubishi has a sizable market share and, in my opinion, the hardware is at the same quality level as Rockwell. Their tech support is free, and I have had nothing but good experiences with them. I could go into the fact that the cost is a fraction of what you will be paying Rockwell too but that could be a whole new thread.
Dave
Siemens 'basic' support is quite good IMO.While Siemens provide Basic free support, if you require anything above this level you pay for it. Either by using pre-purchased credits, or by taking out a tailored support contract. These, like Rockwell, can cost from hundreds up to thousands.
I dont understand how it can be justified that you get ZERO support if you dont fork over some dough. This kind of pay for 'extras' that are actually essentials is something one should think an ultra-low-cost brand would try to sell to you, not the most expensive brand.
Our distributors are just that, distributors.
Does your distributor have the same know-how as RA about RA's products ?
Can they fix a genuine software or hardware issue ?
Is that a 'distributor' or an 'integrator' or are these one and the same thing ?In the states Rockwell has very tough requirements for distributor tech support capabilities if they want to keep the line. Our distributor very rarely got stumped. When they did they usually went to Rockwell for us and got the answer for us. We paid for tech connect, but mostly so we could get the software and firmware updates.