kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) (06/29/90)
:We are looking into making the technical support we offer a package about to be :released as a 1-900 number. Instead of charging a flat fee for a year's worth :of support for the product, the user can call up the 1-900 number anytime they :need help. : :Any ideas on this? Want do you think about a 1-900 number for technical :support? : :Andrei Herasimchuk :Marketing Director :Specular Int'l Would you charge if you couldn't solve their problem? I almost always get answers like these: "Gee, I never heard of this before. Sorry. Have you checked for a viris?" "Try removing all of your inits" "Yeah, that's the way it works. It's not a bug." In other words, if it worked out that the user could not do what they wanted to do, would it cost them to find out? Shirley Kehr (Note the stuff with colons in front is quoted)
george@swbatl.sbc.com (George D. Nincehelser) (07/02/90)
In article <147138@felix.UUCP> kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) writes: >: >:Any ideas on this? Want do you think about a 1-900 number for technical >:support? >: >:Andrei Herasimchuk > >Would you charge if you couldn't solve their problem? I almost always get >answers like these: [examples deleted] >In other words, if it worked out that the user could not do what they >wanted to do, would it cost them to find out? > >Shirley Kehr From what I understand, the phone company does the actual billing, so I guess there would have to be some mechanism for the tech support support people to tell the phone company not to bill for that call. (ooooooooh! I bet that's messy!) Also, who would pay the toll for an unproductive call? Better yet, how do you explain the situation to the phone company? (yeeeesh! That would be even messier!) I don't support the idea of 900 software support. If people are really sold on the idea of pay-as-you-go support, then I suggest they do it with a credit card or some other billable account system. That way it would be much easier to customize the billing so that the customer isn't paying for hold time, no solutions, or who knows what that would make the call a waste. DISCLAIMER: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE MINE, NOT SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE'S. -- / George D. Nincehelser \ uunet!swbatl!george \ / / Southwestern Bell Telephone \ Phone: (314) 235-6544 \ / / / Advanced Technology Laboratory \ Fax: (314) 235-5797 \ / / / /\ 1010 Pine, St. Louis, MO 63101 \ de asini umbra disceptare \