FAQs about our services
General questions
What is included in the maintenance contract?
- 24/7 phone hotline service
- costs for working hours
- costs for arrival and directions
- costs for spare parts and replacement devices
- On site replacement or repair of the devices in the maintenance contract
- On request access to our ticketing system
What is not included in the maintenance contract?
Maintenance basically covers the standard configuration of your systems according to the manufacturer’s definition. If you would like to include the components listed below, please let us know and we will consider it in our offer.
Excluded from the content of the hardware service:
- The supply and installation of consumables as defined by the manufacturer.
- Externally connected devices (peripherals, keyboard, mouse, etc.)
- internally installed tape drives (unless they are reported)
- MLC PCIe IO Accelerator I/O Cards
- Large NVMe drives on server systems need to be reported
- Dedicated or additional built-in graphics cards
- ISDN / modem cards, etc.
- Accumulators, batteries
- Printing units, heads, ribbons and hammer benches
What happens after I submit a request?
- You will receive an offer at your request.
- If you decide to accept the offer, all you need to do is sign the offer and send it back scanned.
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If you are a new customer we will send you If you are an existing customer – An order confirmation – You don’t have to do anything else. Your signed offer counts as a fully-fledged equipment certificate. – The Servicebook, where you have all the contact information for reporting incident including the whole escalation process – The first bill (you don’t need to sign, paying is sufficient) - For large orders, you will be contacted by a service technician who will manage the hand over and hardware acceptance. For orders under 50.000€ this is usually not required.
Is there a hardware check before you take it over to your contract?
Yes, with every device we need the following information.
- Device type and manufacturer
- Serial number
- Hardware configuration (Are there special cards or special boards that have been installed etc.)
- Who is the contact person on the customer side with all contact details.
- Where exactly is the hardware and how do we get access to it in the event of a malfunction.
In most cases, an e-Mail where your technicians can answer all these questions is enough. If this is not possible, we can also have an on-site inspection performed by our service technicians.
In which countries are you available?
Our core markets are Germany, Austria and Switzerland. However, through our global network of partners, we can offer an equivalent service worldwide.
Questions about the contract and billing
What is the difference between response time and time to repair?
Response time: is the time in which the technician must be at your site.
Time to repair: Is the time needed to fix the problem.
What does the maintenance contract look like?
We do not have a maintenance contract. We have replaced the maintenance contract by our terms and conditions to make a quick and easy settlement possible. By simply accepting our terms you can use our service by self-service or by simply sending us an e-mail. All points of a classic maintenance contract are of course also stated in our terms and conditions. Only significantly simplified. Here are the main points:
- Contents of the maintenance service
- data protection
- Contract duration and termination
- Dealing with partners and subcontractors
- liability
If you want changes in our terms and conditions or want to have a conventional maintenance contract, we can set that up for you.
What are the bindings?
In principle, there are no contractual obligations. Only you decide how long your hardware should stay in maintenance. You pay the maintenance in advance. This means that if you have a monthly billing, you can cancel on a monthly basis. From our experience most customers have an annual bill. For higher amounts, use quarterly or monthly billing to increase your liquidity.
Which payment options are there?
Currently we only accept payment on account.
What are the terms of payment?
Term of payment is always 14 days after receipt of invoice. You pay for the maintenance in advance, which means that if the payment is delayed without notice over the maintenance period, it may happen that your hardware is not covered in the event of a malfunction. Always let us know if there are delays in payment transactions, we will try to be as accommodating as possible.
Can I also remove single devices from maintenance?
Yes, you can also remove individual devices from maintenance at any time. All you need to do is send us a mail with the model, type, manufacturer and serial number and we will take it out of the maintenance contract at the next charge.
Can I also take equipment out of contract before the minimum running time is over?
Yes, that’s possible too. We can take out hardware from the contract that accounts for up to 10% of the current bill.
Questions about third party maintenance
Can I still call the vendor if I have the maintenance contract with you?
When you switch your maintenance contract to us, you no longer need to call the manufacturer. We take the place of the manufacturer. So you can address any questions you might have to the manufacturer directly to us. If manufacturer resources are needed, they will be requested and made available to you.
What are the differences between Hardwarewartung.com and the manufacturers?
In the hardware area
From the scope of performance in the hardware area, there is no difference. We offer the same or better service levels than the manufacturer and can cover all regions in Central Europe or worldwide. Our technicians are as certified and trained as the manufacturers. Many manufacturers even access our pool of technicians.
In the software area
There are differences in software. The manufacturer is the IP (Intellectual Property owner) of the software and owns the software. In most cases they include minor releases for the firmware and microcode into their maintenance contracts but you still need to buy major releases for new features. If you have a contract with us we can only offer software support in case of an incident. Since we are not the IP owners of the software we cannot give you the software. But if you have an indicdent the vendor is liable by law to support you because they sold you hardware that is dependent to software. If the hardware does not work any more because of a software bug or mulfunction they have to give you a bugfix. This sounds complicated, which it is, but don´t worry we will take care of it. If you have a problem with software, firmware or microcode we will take over the process and resolve it for you.
Do I have to sign a maintenance contract with the manufacturer to have access to firmware (microcode), patches and lab?
Manufacturers often bundle hardware maintenance with license update rights and operating system hotline. European competition law stipulates that these services must also be offered separately so as not to discriminate against companies like us. Therefore, we advise and develop service concepts with our customers that will allow us to use manufacturer resources like firmware, microcode and patches.
Questions about additional services
Do you offer support services like backup and restore?
The short answer is: YES on request. As part of our hardware maintenance services, we have many customer requests for a all in one support of their IT environment. We also offer these on request, but do not advertise, because the scope of managed services or outsourcing services would go beyond the scope of our website. Just tell us what current problems and requirements you have with your IT and we are happy to advise you for free.
Which services do you still offer except hardware maintenance?
In Austria
- 24/7 Field Service and Remote Hands
- IT operation for server environments as well as office environments, remote and on-site
- IT Outsourcing
- Datacenter Consulting, Planning, Implementation
- Certified data deletion
- Security advice and audits
- Security: Implementation of Firewalls, DDoS Prevention, Log Correlation, AAA Systems, Antivirus and VPN Solutions
- Consulting, planning, measurement and implementation of WLAN networks
- Body leasing for software projects or infrastructure projects
- All kinds of cloud migrations (private cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud, community cloud, IaaS, SaaS or PaaS)
- Full Hardware Lifecycle (buying and selling used/refurbished hardware)
In Germany and Switzerland
- 24/7 Field Service and Remote Hands
- IT operation for server environments as well as office environments.
- Full Hardware Lifecycle (buying and selling used/refurbished hardware)
