tgoldin@amherst.bitnet (04/06/90)
Yesterday, I called Plus Development's 800 number to get some help with a Hardcard 40. I was surprised to find that the number had been disconnected and replaced with a 900 number. Users who dial the new number are charged a flat fee of $5.00 per call. Initially, I was outraged, but I now believe that it might not be so unreasonable. A tech support person answered the phone within one minute. He stayed patiently on the line while I removed the Hardcard, reinstalled it and reformatted it. I came up with several questions throughtout this process and I received competent answers. The support I received was considerably better than the industry average. This pay per use scheme seems quite preferable to the other emerging alternative of paying a yearly fee for an improved level of support (a policy offered by Micrografx, for instance). What do you think?
ries@venice.SEDD.TRW.COM (Marc Ries) (04/10/90)
In article <9367.261bcd4c@amherst.bitnet> tgoldin@amherst.bitnet writes:
->Yesterday, I called Plus Development's 800 number to get some help with a
->Hardcard 40. I was surprised to find that the number had been disconnected and
->replaced with a 900 number. Users who dial the new number are charged a flat
->fee of $5.00 per call. Initially, I was outraged, but I now believe that it
->might not be so unreasonable. A tech support person answered the phone within
->one minute. He stayed patiently on the line while I removed the Hardcard,
<...>
I can think of at least one problem, and that is the "900 Disable" option
that the phone company offers and that parents like myself use so we
won't have to end up with any suprise bills for a child's (or friends')
dialing of "kids 900 numbers.
--
Marc Ries
ries@venice.sedd.trw.com (ARPA)
somewhere!trwind!venice!ries (UUCP)
#include <std.disclaimer>maine@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov (Richard Maine) (04/10/90)
On 6 Apr 90 02:57:00 GMT, tgoldin@amherst.bitnet said: tgoldin> The support I received was considerably better than the tgoldin> industry average. This pay per use scheme seems quite tgoldin> preferable to the other emerging alternative of paying a tgoldin> yearly fee for an improved level of support ... tgoldin> What do you think? It depends. If someone offers a quality product for a reasonable price, I have no problem with paying for it. (Indeed, I wish I could find more offerings that meet those criteria). The term "product" here applies equally to services like support. On the other hand, if charging for "service" is just another excuse to extract money from the luckless customer, who was unfortunate enough to buy their product and now has the additional misfortune of dealing with a poor service department, then it would tick me off. From your description, it sounds like you easily got your money's worth of service. Sometimes it is hard to get adequate service at any price. -- Richard Maine maine@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov [130.134.64.6]
larry@uts.amdahl.com (Larry Hardiman) (04/10/90)
In article <9367.261bcd4c@amherst.bitnet> tgoldin@amherst.bitnet writes: >Yesterday, I called Plus Development's 800 number to get some help with a >Hardcard 40. I was surprised to find that the number had been disconnected and >replaced with a 900 number. Users who dial the new number are charged a flat >fee of $5.00 per call... >... This pay per use scheme seems quite preferable to the other >emerging alternative of paying a yearly fee for an improved level of >support (a policy offered by Micrografx, for instance). >What do you think? ButtonWare, maker of the shareware product PCFile does the same. He charges $1.00 per minute. The first minute may be free? Now, let me tell you a story. I have been a registered user of PCfile for several years, generally as a satisfied user. At almost every direct mail solicitation from Button to upgrade to the latest release, I have done so; the price has been right, at about $40. I recently upgraded to version 5. The new version uses dbase file format, hence offers the "memo" field construct (an arbitrarily long text field) and an editor to edit same. I decided to convert an existing database to the new format to take advantage of the memo field feature; the existing database had a number of fixed length "comment" fields per "record". To do this I "exported" the file to a "peachtext" (fields delimited by commas, I think), massaged the comment fields into a single field, then did an "import" operation. The memo fields were associated with the wrong records in the resulting database! Off by one! In my opinion, that's indicative of inadequate testing. So I called the 900 tech support number. They listened politely and told me to send a sample, machine readable; I did. Some time passed, no answer. I logged on to their BBS and wrote it up there, waited some time, called the BBS again. There I found a message for me, marked "private" simply saying that they acknowledged the problem (no obvious public posting to warn other users, or possibly scare off potential customers (Yes, I am speculating. I really do not know thier true intention). There was no promise to fix, no circumvention, no nothing. I still use the old database format. Now your question? What about pay per use tech support? At least from my own experience with Buttonware, I am not impressed. ButtonWare, are you listening? What are you going to do about it? -- larry@uts.amdahl.com
kdq@demott.COM (Kevin D. Quitt) (04/11/90)
If you're getting prompt response and accurate answers, it sounds like a real bargain to me. kdq -- _ Kevin D. Quitt Manager, Software Development DeMott Electronics Co. VOICE (818) 988-4975 14707 Keswick St. FAX (818) 997-1190 Van Nuys, CA 91405-1266 MODEM (818) 997-4496 Telebit PEP last 34 12 N 118 27 W srhqla!demott!kdq kdq@demott.com "Next time, Jack, write a God-damned memo!" - Jack Ryan - Hunt for Red October
saify@cbnewsl.ATT.COM (saify.lanewala) (04/11/90)
In article <9367.261bcd4c@amherst.bitnet>, tgoldin@amherst.bitnet writes: > Yesterday, I called Plus Development's 800 number to get some help with a > Hardcard 40. I was surprised to find that the number had been disconnected and > replaced with a 900 number. Users who dial the new number are charged a flat > fee of $5.00 per call. Initially, I was outraged, but I now believe that it > might not be so unreasonable. A tech support person answered the phone within > one minute. He stayed patiently on the line while I removed the Hardcard, > reinstalled it and reformatted it. I came up with several questions > throughtout this process and I received competent answers. The support I > received was considerably better than the industry average. This pay per use > scheme seems quite preferable to the other emerging alternative of paying a > yearly fee for an improved level of support (a policy offered by Micrografx, for > instance). What do you think? I kind of like that idea. I'd much rather pay per call. Only thing I'd like to have some control over any recourse in case I'm dissatisfied with the service provided. After all, in a way, I'm paying up front in expectation of satisfactory service. I guess we'll soon see this flat rate per call degenerating into a per minute charge :-). But seriously, I have no problem with paying for good service -- good service is always worth the price. The yearly fee approach does not solve the service problem one bit -- there's no guarantee of satisfactory support. Now if a company guarantees satisfaction, then I might consider paying an up-front annual maintenance fee. Given the current litigous atmosphere that I feel is rampant in the USA today, I don't think it's very likely to happen, but I'd love to be wrong on that count! Saify Lanewala ... att!attunix!stl
medici@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Mark Medici) (04/13/90)
In article <9367.261bcd4c@amherst.bitnet> tgoldin@amherst.bitnet writes: >Yesterday, I called Plus Development's 800 number to get some help with a >Hardcard 40. I was surprised to find that the number had been disconnected and >replaced with a 900 number. Users who dial the new number are charged a flat >fee of $5.00 per call. >[...edited...] What do you think? I think it sucks. Pay for support schemes dilute the company's incentive to produce user-friendly, bug-free products with complete, understandable and useful user documentation. In fact, it actually encourages the opposite, whereby additional profit may be realized by increased use of such "pay as you go" services. In my view, this is yet further evidence of the decline of the software industry: Bigger profits before better profits. Now, before you light-up your flame throwers, I am not suggesting that Plus is making a profit at $5.00/call, but suppose the charge were higher, such as $5.00/minute or $25.00/call? Browse through some back issues of _InforWorld_ and _PC_Week_, you'll see that I'm not far off the mark. Some companies have already begun charging for support in this manner. Further, what about the consumer who, after careful evaluation of the market, purchases one (or, worse yet, one hundred) of a particular item. Then a few weeks/months/years later, the manufacturer decides to start charging for support. Does this consumer get free support? Does s/he get a refund (if so, how is the value determined)? Surely the topic of free versus paid support would have been an important issue in the consumer's decision. Finally, what about those persons that are not permitted to dial pay-per-call services (e.g., 900 area code and 976 exchanges) because of company policy? Any way I look at this concept, I see either a failure of the vendor to provide an adequately documented and error-free product, or an excessive greed motivation. Many vendors provide excellent technical support without any post-sales cost to the consumer. Witness the shining example of Word Perfect Corporation. WPC not only provides free customer support, but provides over a DOZEN separate TOLL-FREE phone numbers to help speed the process of getting you to the person with the correct knowledge. WPC built its position of the strenghts of its free technical support. Would that other companies follow thier lead. (Just my humble opinion(s). I am in no way associated with any company or organization mentioned above other than (perhaps) as a customer or user.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Medici - Rutgers/CCIS/Instructional MicroLabs | Disclaimer? Did I say Internet : medici@elbereth.rutgers.edu | something? Did somebody Compu$erve : 74755,304 (74755,304@compuserve.com) | listen? Worse, did any- Voice : (O) 908/932-2412 or (H) 908/521-0751 | one accurately QUOTE me?
wallwey@boulder.Colorado.EDU (WALLWEY DEAN WILLIAM) (04/13/90)
I think it has both good points and bad points. As somebody has already stated, this concept could lead to companies not making software very easy to use,- just to make a profit on the support. There may be a solution to this problem though---people just won't buy a companies software if it is written badly and the company charges for telephone support. As John Dvorak(sp?) states many times---"people actually like a company that answers the phones when they have a problem"--in reference to Word Perfect Corp and their growing sales. I also think there are some true benefits when a company does charge for phone support. My experience with general people are, 75% of the questions are nothing more than "if you would RTFM! you wouldn't needed to have called me!" I answer phones concerning computer questions here at CU! When you buy Word Perfect, you are buying toll-free phone support whether you need it or not--you are also paying for the person that calls fifty times, because he is too lazy to read the manual. I know this doesn't apply to every body, but to a large number of calls it does. One last advantage to charged phone support is if you are paying for it directly, you can demand satisfaction! Also you have a lot higher chance of talking to somebody that actually knows something! Finally you might not get put on hold so long, because the only people that call will be those who have "true questions"! The above are just some personal opinions. Please don't flame me to hard! Dean Wallwey
cms2839@ultb.isc.rit.edu (C.M. Stuntz) (04/14/90)
i just bought Actor , and Object
Oriented Programming System for Microsoft Windows . while i love the
language , and the academic pricing is fantastic , the support plans are
too much for me to afford . they are obviously based upon heavy use of
the support staff . i'd rather have the option of calling when i need to
, and being billed on a per - use basis , than an up - front fee that is
simply out of my price range .
-a.stranger
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