[c-nsp] "Cisco'€™s Commitment to Customers"

[Jon Lewis]

I'm currently dealing with TAC on the failure of a WS-6708 that I believe 
is connected with the defective memory component issue talked about here:

http://blogs.cisco.com/news/ciscos-commitment-to-customers/

i.e. it was working fine...the router was rebooted, after which, the card 
no longer passes boot-up diagnostics.

This passage:

  Despite many of these products being out of warranty, Cisco has decided
  to take a charge of $655m related to the expected cost of managing these
  issues. We are taking this action to support our customers and partners.
  This charge was excluded from our non-GAAP financials, as we do not
  believe it is reflective of ongoing business and operating results.

implies to me that Cisco plans to replace such cards regardless of 
smartnet coverage.  I thought I was about to get a replacement shipped out 
when the TAC rep sent this:

  I couldn't find any valid contract for RMA based on serial number of
  module 8, can you please provide contract number for the RMA so that I
  can proceed further.

So, what's the real deal with these time-bomb cards?  Will cisco replace 
them as they fail, or only if they're covered by a current smartnet 
contract?  If the latter, what was the point of the blog post?

In the comments and responses to comments, Curtis has been evasive when 
asked what cisco will do for people with affected products and no smartnet 
coverage.

I've got a number of 6500s that need reloads to change the v4/v6 routing 
split, and after seeing a 6708 fail in each of the last two 6500s I've 
reloaded, I'm not feeling really good about proceeding.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Jon Lewis, MCP :)           |  I route
                              |  therefore you are
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