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Do not buy a NBX phone system
This page is entirely the opinion of Chris Herrington, Owner of
Full Spectrum Communications. It is based on over 1 and ½ years experience
attempting to install and sell NBX phone systems. We never did sell one, as we
would never sell something that we could not get to work, but it was our
intention. For comments or questions please call 714-897-3789.
For over a year and a half we have tried to install a NBX phone
system in our office. Though the basic phone worked OK (some Echoing and other
ghostly problems), there were some serious problems. The most serious is that
after loading TAPI (the interface that allows you to use your computer to make
your calls, linking ACT! or Access to your Caller ID, and telling you who
calls-a nice feature if it works), none of our modems worked. This meant that we
could not use our dial-in Payroll Service, or WinFax, or HyperTerminal, or
ProComm, or anything at all that required a standard modem (and in spite of the
acceptance of the Internet, most companies, including us, still use modems). Now
this may seem like a small thing, but 3COM has been unable to fix this and has
finally said that there is no fix for this problem.
It has only taken 3COM (and NBX, before it was bought by 3COM)
1&1/2 years to figure out this would not work. In the meantime we have sent
our employees to over 27 man-days of training (quite possibly making Full
Spectrum Communications one of the best trained sales and installation companies
of the NBX). We have been to numerous briefings on the system, waited through
two major software upgrades (1.0 to 1.1 and 1.1 to 2.0), and waited through
ongoing promises of a fix. With the high technical services available to us (and
3COM could not find a better way) we had to completely delete the hard drives on
all of the affected computers and reload all of the programs in order to use
their modems again. We did this twice! Once after waiting for the 1.1 version to
fix things, and then after version 2 came out we reloaded it through the system
(we had been told that it had been fixed, and like fools we went ahead and
reinstalled the phone system and the software--OOPS). I figure we have spent
over $20K trying to get this phone system to work to a degree that we would feel
comfortable selling it. It is not for lack of trying that Full Spectrum
Communications has not gotten this phone system to work properly! 3Com corporate
technicians were at our facility to no avail.
Though response was extremely slow, and sometimes rude, there
were a couple of exceptional technicians that cared, but did not have the upper
management support to solve the problems. Along the way we were told that it was
our Win Modems that were at fault (not compatible with the NBX system, which we
thought that if there was such an incompatibility the customer should have been
told of this before he was sold the system). We diligently changed out
all the affected modems, and it still did not work! We were also told it was
something wrong with our computer system, but after two separate tries, with
everything working before we installed the TAPI and after we deleted the Hard
drives, I have to believe that it is something with their software!
My recommendation to any potential end
user of the NBX phone system:
How long can you afford to be without your modems? If you do not
need the high-end features of the TAPI, what are you buying this phone system
for? The IP phones have intermittent echoes, The best I can figure if you are
trying to place two phone switches in different parts of the country or the
world (not bad application, but wrong phone system), you had better have a
degreed computer expert on staff and lots of patience. How long are you willing
to wait, or have your phone technician, wait for a return call from technical
support at 3COM? My experience was you had better not expect anything the same
day, and then only a multitasked person, handling all 3COM problems, will call
back and work through a computer prompter. If you have a serious problem, well
that is just tough. If you have tech, or computer engineers that have flown in,
well that is just tough!! They can wait! "3COM is working on it" or
"a fix is on the way".
Any cost beyond the cost of the phone system is entirely your
expense. If and when you try to return the phone you will be out the cost of the installation, and much lost time
reformatting your computers, and associated time.
As I said at the beginning, this is the opinion of Chris
Herrington at Full Spectrum Communications. Call 714-897-3789 for additional
comments, or to buy a good phone system.
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