It really does matter where you are. Next day on-site support from both HP and Dell take 2-3 business days for me (HP usually is faster than Dell). Four hour response time support from every vender I've used has been next day at the fastest. Most vendors flat out tell me I can't have 4 hour response. It was like pulling teeth to get a 6 hour response contract from Cisco for a $25,000 router. When I call anyone at HP workstation or reseller support, I end up in India with people who don't speak English. That is frequently true of Dell also, although their Gold support occasionally gets me to someone who speaks English.
Heck, I had an HP laptop with an extended on-site service contract that was down SIX WEEKS for repair and ended up going to depot repair after about 15 hours on the phone with HP and 2 on-site support visits. That is a business grade support contract.
I've never dealt with AppleCare support, but I can tell you that where you are DOES matter!
At least in small business, and probably in all business, it is completely necessary for upper IT staff to have complete access to everything. I've lost count of how many times upper level management has come to me with the 'I forgot my password, can you get my stuff back?' request. This is a normal occurrence. If we take away the privileges of IT to access upper management data, then upper management is very likely to lose that data.
As an anecdote, one of my customers (I am an IT consultant) lost the password to the video surveillance system. They immediately came to me, and were shocked and annoyed when I said 'Sorry, I wasn't involved in the installation of that system and was never informed of the passwords.' In the end, we found that a user had written down the password at one point and were able to get back in that way!
The point really should be that companies better find upper IT staff that they can TRUST! If they can't trust their IT staff, they have big problems.
Without question, Sprint Broadband should ONLY be used as a last resort. I have it at home and deal with a few businesses that have it (because nothing else was available, not even T1 in one case). The service is highly unreliable. One customer has been down for two days because the line was cut to the tower (two days to fix a fiber? Come on!). The service goes up and down, packet loss is usually quite high and ping times range from 200ms average at good times to 1000+ms average at the other end. What's worse, the backbone connection used is aweful, so once all the connection hurdles (not to mention line of sight) are overcome, there are still problems getting data through.
I definately prefer hourly for consulting type positions. I go to client sites and have no fixed workload. Working 60-80 hours a week with no overtime really sucks.
Some would probably respond that you just negotiate a higher wage. Where they live, that might work. In Arizona, you get paid what the employer feels like paying or move (something I'm seriously considering!). By working hourly, I am able to make considerably more than I would as a salaried employee.
Another benefit is that you have a choice when a slow spell comes for the company. A couple of salaried people got laid off during a slow period with my firm. I just (voluntarily and gladly) reduced my hours and used the off-time for continuing education.
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It really does matter where you are. Next day on-site support from both HP and Dell take 2-3 business days for me (HP usually is faster than Dell). Four hour response time support from every vender I've used has been next day at the fastest. Most vendors flat out tell me I can't have 4 hour response. It was like pulling teeth to get a 6 hour response contract from Cisco for a $25,000 router. When I call anyone at HP workstation or reseller support, I end up in India with people who don't speak English. That is frequently true of Dell also, although their Gold support occasionally gets me to someone who speaks English.
Heck, I had an HP laptop with an extended on-site service contract that was down SIX WEEKS for repair and ended up going to depot repair after about 15 hours on the phone with HP and 2 on-site support visits. That is a business grade support contract.
I've never dealt with AppleCare support, but I can tell you that where you are DOES matter!
At least in small business, and probably in all business, it is completely necessary for upper IT staff to have complete access to everything. I've lost count of how many times upper level management has come to me with the 'I forgot my password, can you get my stuff back?' request. This is a normal occurrence. If we take away the privileges of IT to access upper management data, then upper management is very likely to lose that data.
As an anecdote, one of my customers (I am an IT consultant) lost the password to the video surveillance system. They immediately came to me, and were shocked and annoyed when I said 'Sorry, I wasn't involved in the installation of that system and was never informed of the passwords.' In the end, we found that a user had written down the password at one point and were able to get back in that way!
The point really should be that companies better find upper IT staff that they can TRUST! If they can't trust their IT staff, they have big problems.
Without question, Sprint Broadband should ONLY be used as a last resort. I have it at home and deal with a few businesses that have it (because nothing else was available, not even T1 in one case). The service is highly unreliable. One customer has been down for two days because the line was cut to the tower (two days to fix a fiber? Come on!). The service goes up and down, packet loss is usually quite high and ping times range from 200ms average at good times to 1000+ms average at the other end. What's worse, the backbone connection used is aweful, so once all the connection hurdles (not to mention line of sight) are overcome, there are still problems getting data through.
Avoid it like the plague.
Some would probably respond that you just negotiate a higher wage. Where they live, that might work. In Arizona, you get paid what the employer feels like paying or move (something I'm seriously considering!). By working hourly, I am able to make considerably more than I would as a salaried employee.
Another benefit is that you have a choice when a slow spell comes for the company. A couple of salaried people got laid off during a slow period with my firm. I just (voluntarily and gladly) reduced my hours and used the off-time for continuing education.
That's my 2 cents worth...