ben@tasis.utas.oz.au@munnari.oz (Ben Lian) (04/11/90)
I posted an item a short time ago to this newsgroup complaining that Microsoft Australia were charging for upgrading Word 4.0 to 4.0a. As it turns out, the upgrade IS free. My reseller seems to not have received the notification (nor the disk). In hindsight I should have pursued the matter a little more vigorously. I unreservedly (and voluntarily!) apologize to Microsoft for the unwarranted bad publicity. Why am I doing this? Because I was contacted by Microsoft USA (in a friendly manner) suggesting that I investigate a little further, and because my reseller now tells me that Microsoft Australia are not amused by my trigger-happy action. I like Word 4, really I do. Pity about the bugs though. :-) Ben Lian Dept of EE & CS University of Tasmania P.S. And yes, mark me down as another supporter for character styles in the next release of Word.
clubmac@runxtsa.runx.oz.au (Club Mac - Australia's Largest Macintosh Users Group) (04/12/90)
In article <1364@diemen.cc.utas.oz> ben@tasis.utas.oz.au@munnari.oz (Ben Lian) writes: >I posted an item a short time ago to this newsgroup complaining that >Microsoft Australia were charging for upgrading Word 4.0 to 4.0a. As >it turns out, the upgrade IS free. My reseller seems to not have >received the notification (nor the disk). In hindsight I should have >pursued the matter a little more vigorously. The blame for your misunderstanding falls squarely upon both your reseller and Microsoft: 1) Microsoft didn't send the reseller the notification or it was lost in the mail. Regardless of how the notification was not received by the reseller, no followup call was made by MS to check up. This is surprising. 2) The reseller is not keeping up to date with developments at MS and probably other areas in the Macintosh market. AppleLink is intended to be an important source of information regarding Apple and 3rd party developments , announcements for resellers, developers and user groups. It seems that a lot of resellers in Australia refrain from using AppleLink as regularly as they should. I've experienced delays of over 2 months in replies to messages sent to Australian resellers over AppleLink. >I unreservedly (and voluntarily!) apologize to Microsoft for the >unwarranted bad publicity. Why am I doing this? Because I was >contacted by Microsoft USA (in a friendly manner) suggesting that I >investigate a little further, and because my reseller now tells me >that Microsoft Australia are not amused by my trigger-happy action. Why is it YOUR responsibility as a valued Microsoft customer to chase up Microsoft regarding any developments in MS-Word, when you are a registered user? Surely they should be mailing notices to registered users regarding ANY upgrades, and the procedure involved in obtaining the upgrade. The assumption that users just walk into their local reseller and get all the relevant information is invalid. Publishers/distributors should be more responsible to their registered users and maintain contact through upgrade & new product notices. This "we are not amused" attitude seems to be a top-down phenomenon. The larger companies in the Macintosh market behave like ROYALTY, expecting their 'loyal' subjects (aka. registered users) to behave like grovelling lepers. All too often your enquiry for information from the publisher/distributor is bounced back with the instruction to not go over the reseller's head and make your enquiry with them. As a user group, we are constantly contacted by members making enquiries about the latest version of software, be it system software, word processors, paint programs, or DTP applications. These members are fed up with the poor service or assistance given by their reseller. They call the Publisher/Manufacturer/ Distributor and are invariably told to visit their local reseller for assistance. Off they go to their local reseller, and the help they receive can often do more harm than good. One member was sold a copy of an MFS system for his Mac with hard disk. He booted the system disk and found he couldn't use his hard disk. Rebooting the hard disk, he found it had been damaged, loosing over 6 hours work (his latest backup was 3 days old) on a ReadySetGo document. Microsoft Australia should be more concerned with the lack of adequate communication between publisher/reseller/user than with your mild complaint. It's amazing how quickly word can spread when the news is bad. Try getting important information out of a publisher about bug fixes & upgrades, and you'll be waiting until you collect social security payments for the elderly. Of course, there are some rather positive examples of distribution in Australia, including Solutions, Inc. in Queensland, who send out monthly newsletters to registered users. I'd like to 'hear' from other Australian Mac users about their experiences with particular Publishers, Resellers and Distributors (even Apple Australia) Send your responses via email to the address below... _____________________________________________________________________________ | Jason Haines, Senior Vice-President | | Club Mac - Australia's Largest Macintosh Users Group | | P.O. Box 213, Holme Building, Sydney University, NSW 2006 | | INTERNET:clubmac@runxtsa.runx.oz.au UUCP: uunet!runxtsa.runx.oz.au!clubmac | | ACSNet: clubmac@runxtsa.runx.oz | |_____________________________________________________________________________|