IBM’s disagreements with leasing companies over the increased cost of Maintenance Agreement Qualification letters appear to have been smoothed over. Members of the European Computer Leasers and Traders Association have received confirmation from IBM that its policy of charging a fixed rate per machine for checking the things out, rather than a fixed price per hour, has been rescinded. IBM UK will now provide two hours qualification at a fixed cost on any number of the same type of machines, and charge UKP123 per hour for subsequent work. The fixed cost will depend on the machine type, but MAQ charges for a standard two hours work are now between UKP135 and UKP546, with the exception of 3090s for which IBM won’t publicise the price, giving it only on application by customers. This latest move could be seen as a response to pressure from the extremely irate third party maintenance community. As reported in CI No 1,201, Econocom UK has been negotiating with other leasing companies such as Meridian and Atlantic. It wants to establish equivalents to IBM’s MAQ letter, and break what it described as the current IBM stranglehold. However, the issue of Maintenance Agreement Qualification letters is still a thorny one. IBM stopped issuing letters for Customer Set Up Machines in April of this year because of the cost. But according to members of the European Computer Leasers and Traders Association, it is prepared to issue a statement confirming machine type, model, serial number, and IBM maintenance until a specific date. What it lacks is an IBM assurance that the machine is in good working order. IBM acknowledges that this is now the case. However, it insists that an assurance of good working order can be had, it just has to be paid for.
