GILLMANN%USC-ISIB@sri-unix.UUCP (01/30/84)
From: Dick Gillmann <GILLMANN@USC-ISIB> I just got a brochure from IBM offering telephone support for software on a contract basis. The price is $380 for one year. This entitles you to 7 phone calls and a newsletter. Software supported includes DOS, all the compilers and interpreters that IBM sells, and also the Personal Editor and Professional Editor. The number to call for more info is 1-800-426-2700. Seems kind of pricey to me. That's more than $50 a phone call. [Capt. Hook says I should have written "piracy" for "pricey".]
ac4@pucc-h (Putnam) (02/03/84)
I also received the software support brochure from IBM. I thought it was interesting to note that you could buy extra "subscriptions" to the support newsletter for a few bucks, but you can't buy only the newsletter - you still have to pay for at least one subscription to the telephone service. <flames rising> I find this attitude particularly distressing. What they are telling us is that we have to wait until we have a problem, then *waste* a good deal of time trying to assure ourselves that it is not something stupid that we might be doing, then call their support service where we finally learn (for only $50.00) that IBM knew about the problem all along and will graciously tell us how to get around it! One particular instance of this insanity came to light when we had someone here at Purdue trying to use that horrible version 1.0 of the MicroSoft FORTRAN compiler. That thing was so full of bugs you had to wonder if anyone tried to use it on a real program before it was released! The compiler was sold to the university through the local ComputerLand. If you called IBM and asked for assistance, they wouldn't talk to you. If you went to ComputerLand, they tried to help but had no information about the problems. Both we and ComputerLand tried to call MicroSoft, and they said to call IBM. And so on... We finally got hold of an IBM National Accounts Division support number in Boca Raton that we weren't authorized to use, but IBM didn't have a good way to check our authorization so we got some help: nearly 50 pages of "patches," all nicely listed. They could have published that information in a newsletter - and probably made a profit on the subscription - and we would have known what to look for ahead of time. But no! They make us run the gauntlet! I had occassion a few months later to attend an IBM sponsored dog-and-pony show in Boca Raton where some marketing honcho had the insight to suggest that it would be far too costly for IBM to send a newsletter to its PC owners. Imagine that - I must get 6 or 8 catalogs twice a year with over 50 pages of color advertising for computer supplies - for free! Seems to me IBM is missing the boat on this one. Tom Putnam Manager of User Services Purdue University Computing Center ...!pur-ee!pucc-h:ac4