Knock knock…
Who’s there?
It’s HPE. We’re here to dick up your support thing again.
Go away. Go dick up some other customer’s stuff.
Yeah, see… we already did. Now we’re back to you again.
You realize I’m paying you? For THIS crappy behavior?
That’s what makes it so perversely awesome.

Stardate 9/13/17. Got me a routine vulnerability with HPE/Aruba Clearpass that needs tidying up:

No big deal- these things come up. But what is a big deal is what comes next when I try to get the patches for the problem.

Well. This is odd. I’ve opened recent Support cases, and have verified unequivocally that we’re only 5 months into a paid support contract. Let’s log in to HPE’s world-class support portal and take a looksee at my current and past contracts.

Uh oh. That’s not right. So, this is where I go off and raise a stink, and local VARs and HP staff apologize for how bad HPE continues to bungle the integration of Aruba support after the acquisition. None of them created this sudden debacle- or the several previous ones I’ve had to contend with since Aruba was consumed by HPE- yet the awesome local folks will no doubt be the ones that get this one resolved.

I figure I’ve lost on the order of a complete work week all-told this year, just dealing with all the many ways HPE has cocked up the once-intuitive Aruba support portal and process- and we’re a fairly small customer account. I can’t imagine the countless hours that bigger customers and all of their VARs and local support folks have lost dealing with the HPE bungling of all this on a grand scale.

Being fairly fed up, I also grouse a little on Twitter about this latest fiasco. Immediately I hear back from others feeling the same sorts of pain. Misery loves company, and I’ve had plenty of it with each new gyration HPE throws at their Aruba Networks customers.

I’ve had apologies on phone calls from HPE corporate. I’ve had “yeah, we botched it, but it’ll get better” mea culpas from on high after getting connected to people supposedly in the know at HPE. Alas, it’s not getting better. It’s not getting better and you bought Aruba MORE THAN 2 YEARS AGO.

C’mon- HP. Enough is enough. I have a server- YOUR SERVER- that I need to patch. And I’ve already paid you for that privilege. It’s time to start living up to your end of the deal for a change.