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[previous article] [next article]Have you ever had trouble with an ECN terminal, printer, or some other device and wondered how to inform someone about the problem? Well, reporting problems is very easy! Just use the trouble command to report the original problem and then use the same command to track your report through the repair process.
When users invoke the trouble command, they are prompted for information about the device. Once all of the questions have been answered, the malfunction report is sent to the Digital Services Maintenance (DSM) account for repair action. The report is filed in an electronic mail folder. These repair folders are checked every few hours by DSM staff members. The repair engineers attempt to work through the repair folders on a first-in/first- out basis.
Trouble was recently modified to include several new features. One new feature is the sending of a copy of the report back to the person who notified DSM about the problem. This report response tells the sender the item number and the repair folder where the report has been placed.
Providing users with their trouble report item number and the folder storage location permits users to look at repair folders to see how their report is progressing in the queue. To do this a user needs to select the "[Q] Look at Trouble Queue Status Information" entry when prompted with "Please identify the problem device". The user can select which folder to look at and enter its designator. For example, "[p]" is the designator for the printer folder. Once the user selects a folder, a summary of the folder contents is shown. At this point the user may select to read a message or select another folder. The users can not edit or delete items from the folder.
A companion feature to the report response is the refile notification feature which activates a mail message to the report originator whenever a trouble report gets refiled into another folder. For example, if a user is reporting a terminal problem, but accidently tells the trouble program that it is a printer problem, the report would first get filed in the printer folder. When the DSM printer engineer reads the misfiled report, it would be refiled into the correct folder; thereby, causing it to be seen by an engineer responsible for terminals. When the report is refiled, notice is sent to the user explaining that the report is now in a new folder with a new item number.
When the engineer has the problem repaired, a follow-up notice is sent informing the user that the device has been repaired with a brief description of what was done to repair the device. If the user continues to have problems with the device, the trouble command should again be used to inform DSM that the device is still malfunctioning.
If you have comments or suggestions for future improvements to the trouble program, please feel free to mail them to DSM.
WARNING: Always use the trouble reporting system. Reporting a problem to an ECN staff member is not adequate! Verbal messages frequently "slip through the cracks" and are not included in the work queue. Avoid frustration, get your device problem moving toward correction by using the trouble command.
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