I ordered 801-1205-5000 watchdog contract from a reseller, now what?

[jjbase]

Hello, roughly 24hrs ago I ordered a 801-1205-5000 5yrs watchdog support for my ZD1205 because I want to have software upgrades for my ZD and attached APs (4 r700 and upcoming 1 r720), being an home user/enthusiast with no business connections I literally bought it from the first google result reseller that looked legit, used Paypal and offered international orders (I’m in EU), namely “Barcode Discount” based in Chicago (parent company is Barcodes LLC that operates a number of similar sites).

Now while I wait for my (very pricey, for a home user) order to be honored, I’m growing puzzled about the whole process. Just puzzled for now. First of all, one would expect like a 5 minutes instant digital delivery, but apparently 2-3 days will be needed. (honestly Ruckus should just put a giant “buy premium support with Paypal” button in the ZD dashboard, why they don’t do it and force you thru sales channels is beyond me, but I digress). After an hour I called the reseller (thanks Skype for cheap overseas calls) to ask about the whole process and they said that in the coming days Ruckus themselves would honor the order via email. I find it weird, how so? I paid the reseller and never told them the S/N of my ZD. They have my email of course. And I’m from another world region.

Getting all this to work is also a prerequisite for buying my next R720 ap because otherwise my ZD1205 on an old software would not support it...

So, tldr, I dropped a lot of money on an order and I’m puzzled about the whole process, reseller CS said Ruckus will honor, if tomorrow none of the involved parties (the reseller or Ruckus) digitally delivers my watchdog activation code I will have to make some calls via Skype again...

[jjbase]

Well I guess I spoke too soon....DONE!

I just activated my 3 years watchdog contract ending in 2021 thanks to Ruckus chat support.


Turns out, even if you’re a little guy with no big enterprise connections, and the reseller and distributor just keep forgetting about your existence, ONCE the order is placed and visible in the Ruckus order system, you can just skip the reseller and ask directly to Ruckus chat to guide you thru your activation, by pinpointing your order based on the evidence you have (your official email, your SN, the name

of the reseller business, etc.) even if you don’t have the order ID.


Weird thing is that apparently I already burned thru 6 weeks of my contract? Actual starting date is at the end of February 2018, when I originally placed the order with the reseller. Who do I have to thank for leaving me contract-less for a whole month of paid-for contract? Seller? Distributor? Ruckus that didn’t promptly send me an email once the order was honored? Maybe it’s a business practice to let the reseller manage the client so he can be upsold to more services? I’ll probably never know. You people, just know that once the order is placed and honored, you can just ask ruckus chat for your entitlement file or entitlement email, once you and the operator manage to pinpoint your order. Why can’t we just order “soft” support directly from Ruckus is beyond me.


And now off to install my long-coveted 10.x software on my ZD1205, finally..

[kj_liu]

Thank you so much for following up, and for the insights!

I just submitted payment on a 1yr end-user support contract (801-1205-1000). I've already been speaking with this reseller (e.g. they already know the serial number of my ZD1200) so hopefully this means the activation through them will be quick.

I too am looking forward to the 10.x software — hopefully the graphs will actually work now ....

[eizens_putnins]

Hi,
It was really interesting to read. I was surprised how much some on-line shops can mess with support. Offul!
Anyway, having 10 years experience with Ruckus I want to state some things clearly.

1. Support policy was changing with Ruckus growing. Warding was always there, but now most written things are really enforced.
2. Without active support, you can't update ZD to any version newer than 9.9, it is enforced. There are some workaround tricks, but they involve factory resetting ZD, so no use for real life.
3. When you have support for ZD, you have software updates both for ZD and APs, as AP always use same firmware version as ZD, and AP firmware is bundled with ZD firmware. Support also includes ZD advance replacement (but not for APs, which have "just" limited life warranty).
4.  AP support actually is advanced replacement for APs, so you most probably don't need it at all. Difference between advance replacement and life time warranty is conditions. With LTW you need to send AP back to RMA stock (and pay for delivery), and Ruckus will send you replacement for free in ~4 weeks.  With advance replacement you open RMA case, Ruckus send you replacement NBD and arrange faulty device collection for free.  
5.  All ZD controllers and indoor APs are covered by limited life-time hardware warranty, even if you have no valid support contract. Outdoor APs have just 1 year warranty, but are even more reliable than indoor (for 10 years we had just 1 RMA for outdoor AP at all). 
6. I agree about need for button to buy support, I suppose reason for button missing is that most customers are corporations, never using such method. Anyway, reseller cut on support is almost 0%, there are also never discounts on support - it really goes to developers to make new software versions. And yes, renewal costs same as original support.
7. Normally, no reseller can sell ZD without at least 1 year support. So with 6 month old ZD you should have support, which probably isn't visible, as it was never activated. Support comes as activation code by e-mail to reseller, but if you have support code ever generated for you (it's specific to ZD s/n), you can use support chat on Ruckus support site.  Ruckus support will be able to check it for you by ZD serial number and help with activation. Support chat works very well -  Ruckus support chat really is better than any other vendor support I had experience with.
8. If ZD1200 will become EOL, you' ll probably prefer to use R720 as a Unleashed AP -- it will have almost same features as with ZD, and support is really cheap, as it covers only software updates, without any hardware (I mean ZD hardware). You can convert any AP to Unleashed firmware easy, and if you don't need upgrades, you even don't need any support. But I don't actually thing ZD1200 EOL  will happen any time soon, as it has enough resources to support new software. ZD3000 is stil there for 10 years... ZD1000/1100 had short life because of very limited RAM (128/256 MB).

Hope it will help somebody to use all you got from Ruckus, even if reseller isn't making good job to inform you...

Regards,
Eizens

[kj_liu]

Thank you SO much for that information! It explains so much.

You obviously have much more experience than I do, but suffice to say I was flat-out shocked at how good Ruckus tech support was. I had an R710 replaced under warranty (Ethernet jacks slowly failed) and the entire process was a marvel to say the least. They also solved an iOS battery drain, in detail. Really, really impressed, which is probably why I found so odd the contortions necessary to buy a support contract, or even to know which one to buy.

#8 was great advice, too. I'll have to investigate going Unleashed sooner than later. I have three R710 with two more APs waiting in the wings: my impression is that Unleashed can failover to another AP? Right now, I have no ZoneDirector failover at all, and it bugs me.

Again, thank you. I could've used the entire list at the start of being a Ruckus user!

[jjbase]

Thanks Eizens for the great insight.
My ZD1205 actually came with 90 days of bundled support, I bought it new from a random hardware reseller online, not sure if he was a specialized reseller. I chatted with support after the 90 days to enquire about the big red message above the Dashboard, I don’t think I had 1 year of support waiting to be activated back then.