MultiValue Products Service Plans

Service for products covered under the Open MultiValue initiative is never mandatory. You have the option of going without any form of support. Absense of support does not impact your right to upgrade, which is generally determined at initial purchase time.

Our service plans for MultiValue products fall into two categories: those supporting end users, and those principally or solely supporting the reseller.

Discounts for progams where we support the end-user directly are the same as for the base database or related product itself. For instance, the end-user support programs for the QM database are viewable here.

Any reseller, even if not having any support contract, is always welcome to email us with their problems. We will try to answer these promptly. Similarly, products covered under the Open Initiative are available with various community forms of support. For instance, a wiki is available at OpenQM.org, and list subscription is available at OpenQM.SourceForge.net.

Reseller Annual Support Programs

When we design pricing for Resellers, we make three assumptions about them. The first is that the reseller, only, will call us, and that the end-user never will. If there is a need for the end user to call us, then the reseller needs to sell that end-user one of our general purpose support contracts, and take the appropriate reseller discount. The second is that the reseller is already competent in the use and configuration of the operating systems they work with. Accordingly, we will not have to provide support for the operating system. If operating system support is needed, again, the general purpose support contract must be used. Finally, we presume that the reseller already has general competence with QM and related products, or intends to acquire it.

We believe in holistic support -- that one cannot support just a database engine, but rather minimally must support the engine as well as the operating system that drives the engine, and that such support must include some ability to diagnose hardware problems, even if these must be repaired by third parties. Accordingly, we offer two flat-rate annual contracts to cover the above:

QM business-hours telephone support for $10/port/year provides you with support for your QM database, between the hours of 9am and 8pm eastern USA time, Monday to Friday, USA national holidays excepted.

QM 7x24 telephone support for $20/port/year provides you the same support, but it is available any time, 365 days a year. This price covers systems of up to 16 licensed users.

Exceptions and limitations: Support means just that -- assistance in fixing breakages to the specified elements. It does not include administration of your system, including configuration of new or upgraded systems, nor repair of systems that you may improperly configure or damage. Support covers only the database elements. It does not include operating system or hardware issues. Finally, support is only to the reseller. The end user may not contact us, even if their reseller is not available. Any support that needs to be provided to end users is chargable strictly on a time-and-materials basis. Support contracts of this sort normally begin with the initial purchase of a system. EasyCo may decline support contracts for all but new systems.

Priority and response times: Customers with support contracts receive support or assistance before all other customers. Support will begin within 1 covered-hour of a reported problem, and will normally begin immediately when a reseller calls with a problem.

Time-and-Materials service

If you don't want to purchase an annual support contract, or want to purchase services outside of the scope of an annual contract, you may purchase these on a time-and-materials basis. The billing rate for such services ad hoc is $150 per hour, if provided during normal business hours (9am to 8pm Eastern USA time, Monday to Friday, USA national holidays excepted). If you request that service be provided at times other than these, the rate billed will be $300 per hour. Service is billed in 15 minute increments. In each incident where service is requested, a minimum billing of one hour will apply. Services provided by the day, week, or month may be less, depending upon the skills required, and fixed pricing for these may also be possible.

Any order for time-and-materials service must be accompanied by a valid credit card, which will be charged for all services rendered. Customers are liable for all time and incidental costs incurred by EasyCo in meeting their service needs. No express or implied warranty is provided that EasyCo can or will return a failed system to service, nor that EasyCo can complete the specific request of the individual at hand, as the same may involve many factors beyond EasyCo's control. EasyCo may decline any request for service.