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How Do You Rate Your SolidWorks VAR?

23 August 2007 10 Comments

A couple of the other SolidWorks bloggers have some posts on the topic of VAR’s.  Jeff Mirisola (who has just taken a position as an Application Engineer (AE) with a VAR) is wondering, "What do you love/hate about your VAR?", and Matt Lombard is handing out "Reseller Good Guy Awards".

Well, I was just reading Gopal Shenoy’s blog, and by shear coinky-dink (or maybe not) he has posted an article titled, "Who is a customer?".  In it, he shares a quote from Ghandi describing who customers are (or should be, depending on your situation).

I feel like my VAR treats me and my company with respect, and I feel well-served by them.  I have, however, had dealings with some not-so-good folks in the past.

How do you feel about your VAR?  Love them or hate them?  On the fence?  I would love to hear your comments!

If you have any feedback for Jeff on how to be the best AE he can be, I’m sure he would love to hear your suggestions. And if your VAR has really done an awesome job, don’t forget to nominate them for the prestigious Dezignstuff Reseller Good Guy Award!

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  • Rebecca

    I've had a computer crashing approximately 5 times a day since 10-11-08. After a month of my Var insisting it was the computer, we replaced the computer with the exact same one as an existing functioning machine. The new computer crashes about 5 times a day also. We have 21 seats of which 20 work. Why is this one person having problems, even on the first day of install? He is a qualified user.

    But what frustrates me is the lack of response. After all this time no on-site visit, not even a remote connection. My VAR was put on probation at the beginning of 2008 for poor service. When I said enough already and try to switch VAR's it is next to impossible.

  • Hi Rebecca,

    It's not that hard to switch VAR's, you just have to do some paperwork and have a valid reason. With your VAR being on probation, that should be reason enough!

    You just need to find out who the SolidWorks Territory Sales Manager is for your reason, and they should be able to help you.

    As far as the crashing goes, that is something that is very hard to troubleshoot from offsite… I know I have had users who seem to crash much more often than others, and from my experience, it is generally something they were (or weren't) doing or some wacky configuration. But you can never rule out faulty hardware such as video card or RAM or corrupt system/registry without some testing.

    For instance, I had one user at a previous job that kept having all kinds of weird issues, and pretty much every component in the computer was replaced (mobo, video, RAM). The machine still had wierd issues and IT was convinced it was the software or the user, but it turned out being a bad power supply.

    Another user was having problems when I tried to activate the /3GB switch on a newly installed XP box. It turned out that the WinXP SP2 patch that IT applied didn't take for some reason. Reapplying the patch fixed it right up!

  • I have to give props to my SolidWorks VAR, GoEngineer in Northern California! They have so many resources that I can go to when I'm having an issue with a design. They have an great Tech Support office and their AE Micheal Mooney and Jeff Gherardi are extremely knowledgeable when it comes to the software.

  • Rob

    I agree with you about GoEngineer. I transferred 6 seats of SolidWorks seats from Hawk Ridge Systems because I wasn't getting the support I needed.

  • I have to give props to my SolidWorks VAR, GoEngineer in Northern California! They have so many resources that I can go to when I'm having an issue with a design. They have an great Tech Support office and their AE Micheal Mooney and Jeff Gherardi are extremely knowledgeable when it comes to the software.

  • Rob

    I agree with you about GoEngineer. I transferred 6 seats of SolidWorks seats from Hawk Ridge Systems because I wasn't getting the support I needed.

  • Dereck

    I did the exact opposite b/c of support with Go/E. Ive had nothing but good experiences with Hawk and they are FASSSSSSSSSSSSST to get issues solved.

  • Dereck

    I did the exact opposite b/c of support with Go/E. Ive had nothing but good experiences with Hawk and they are FASSSSSSSSSSSSST to get issues solved.

  • FormerCATICustomer

    CATI is the worst VAR ever. Avoid them if you can.

  • DoesNotWanttobeaCATICustomer

    I heartily concur. The “support” contract entitles you to tiny bits of information, here and there. It is up to you to put pieces together to arrive at a coherent fix/solution–if you can. Easier to research and work through ourselves using information provided FREE via Internet published PDFs and documents. My head literally hurts from trying to actually avail ourselves of the “support” contract services.