[j-nsp] Juniper sales rep referral

[Phil Doroff]

Hey, I'm told by others to post here about trying to find a friendly/useful
sales rep inside Juniper.  I'm open to channel reps as well.

Today I called Juniper and the response was a bit less than friendly I
suppose.  We are a small account, with some used "grey market" gear
currently, which apparently Juniper is rather unfond of for obvious reasons.
However, without this "grey market" the rep I spoke with today seems to
despise, they would not have had a chance at picking us up as a customer for
future new purchases simply due to finances when we were starting out.  Due
to the availability of relatively inexpensive gear, they were able to lock
is in vendor wise with our full intentions of buying direct as soon as our
finances allowed.  Ah well, enough of the rant. :)

In any case, I'm looking at picking up a M7i as quickly as possible, due to
a M5 breaking.  We have customer turnups in this PoP very soon, and it's
just time we start buying new and getting under a support contract anyways.

Also, does anyone know what the repair options are exactly on used third
party gear?  I have a M5 that will need a new midplane, and quite possibly a
new FEB as well.  Is it worth it to even try to get a quote on this?  There
is a lot of differing opinion on what the costs are, and if Juniper will
even touch "grey market" items.  I left a message on the "logistics"
voicemail, with no callback as of yet.  I'm told M7i's w/ dual faste can be
had for at a bare minimum 30% off list new w/ support contract, so it
doesn't make much sense any longer to pay $8-12k to buy used M5's that we've
obviously had a lot of past trouble with.

So.. Any sales reps you folks can recommend who doesn't mind dealing with a
very cost-conscious smalltime customer?  Right now we're simply looking a
the one router, and of course the future holds a lot more promise for future
business.

Thanks much, and sorry if this is a bit offtopic.  I'm sure others are
interested in the repair options though, as in my network of folks I deal
with there is a lot of confusion in that area.

-Phil
phil at reflected dot net