gutow@BOGART.STANFORD.EDU ("JONATHON GUTOW") (12/01/88)
I've been using the original release of Borland Turbo Pascal Macintosh. I was reasonably impressed by it. I recently learned that they had fixed some of the bugs and had release version 1.1 available. I had never received a notice to this effect and was a little upset...my fault, I had filled out but not sent in my registration card. Not to worry I called up Borland. In under two minutes they had me registered as a user and after charging $15.00 to my VISA card shipped me a copy of the upgrade. The best part of this is that when I ordered the upgrade I was warned that the program was backordered. No muttering under their breath; they told me it was back ordered and they had no indication as to how bad the backlog was. The person who was helping me said he guessed that at best this meant 2-3 weeks. This honesty was very impressive. I was even more impressed today when in less than one week the upgrade arrived. Borland is the only computer (make that simply 'only') company I've ever dealt with that actually remembers who keeps them in business. They don't try to charge the customer outrageous prices and they write good software. They're also nice to you when you have questions! I just wanted to state my opinions. Is there a Borland address I can reach on the networks? I'd like to send my compliments directly to them. ARE ALL YOU OTHER COMPANIES (APPLE INCLUDED) LISTENING. YOU CAN TAKE A LESSON IN CUSTOMER SERVICE AND RELATIONS FROM YOUR GOOD NEIGHBOR. ___________________________________________________________ Jonathan (not Jonathon, my sysop can't spell any better than I can) Gutow Gutow@bogart.stanford.edu
zuhn@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU (Dave Zuhn) (12/02/88)
In article <8812010651.AA28730@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> gutow@BOGART.STANFORD.EDU ("JONATHON GUTOW") writes: > >I've been using the original release of Borland Turbo Pascal Macintosh. >I was reasonably impressed by it. I recently learned that they had >fixed some of the bugs and had release version 1.1 available. I had >never received a notice to this effect and was a little upset...my fault, >I had filled out but not sent in my registration card. > [story about upgrade deleted] > >Borland is the only computer (make that simply 'only') company I've >ever dealt with that actually remembers who keeps them in business. >They don't try to charge the customer outrageous prices and they >write good software. They're also nice to you when you have questions! > >Jonathan (not Jonathon, my sysop can't spell any better than I can) Gutow > >Gutow@bogart.stanford.edu Well, my experience with Borland wasn't much better. I was/am a registered user of Turbo Pascal, and received no notification of the upgrade either. So it wasn't your fault. After I did get the upgrade, I wanted to use the SysEnvirons trap.. Ha Ha. They hadn't updated the unit declarations to include everything of Vol V of IM. Only most of it. They promised me (several time) to ship out an upgrade to include the trap..but I've never received it or any acknowledgement saying that it was coming. The upshot of all this? If you have had good luck with Borland then more power to you. Me? If you've noticed my past threads on this forum, I've switched to TML Pascal II under MPW. I'll give up the speed of compiles for a few simple things: An editor with cursor key support (the big thing) The Ability to use the "official" include files, rather than waiting for the third party to modify them to their own format. A more flexible, convenient system for creating code resources of non- 'CODE' type, i.e. FKEYS, cdevs, etc. And last but not least, a customer support system that I've been able to deal with myself. Disclaimer: I am just a customer of Borland and TML systems. I don't work for either of them... but if they need a compiler writer...well anyway. David D Zuhn // University of Minnesota - Twin Cities Computer Science Systems Consultant zuhn@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu
bruceh@mntgfx.mentor.com (Bruce Holm) (12/03/88)
gutow@BOGART.STANFORD.EDU ("JONATHON GUTOW") writes: > > Borland is the only computer (make that simply 'only') company I've > ever dealt with that actually remembers who keeps them in business. You must not have dealt with very many computer companies then... Borland rates on just about the bottom of my list! Read on... > They don't try to charge the customer outrageous prices and they > write good software. They're also nice to you when you have questions! This is not true! I bought "Reflex for the Mac" mailorder a while back not long after they bought out Interlace. It cost about $65 and was a fairly powerful relational database. I was impressed with the power of the product but felt that the manual stank! Here, Borland had taken months to reproduce the manual that Interlace had made and came out with a lousy manual. But I didn't complain too loudly since the price was right. Then the Mac starts making inroads into the Business community. What does good 'ole (sarcastically) Borland do? They come out with a much needed and long awaited upgrade to Reflex called Reflex Plus. I thought, finally, they will come out with a new manual and an even better product. But get this, they TRIPLED (DOUBLING wasn't good enough) the retail price from $99 to $279!!! To top it off, for those who already had Reflex, the upgrade cost $100!! That's more than the original mail-order price I paid!!! I would say fine, if the product had improved dramatically, but after talking to those that got the upgrade, they found it to be bigger, slower, and very little extra features. How is that for "outrageous pricing" and "remembering who kept them in business"!!?? I am sorry, but I can't agree. > > I just wanted to state my opinions. Is there a Borland address I can > reach on the networks? I'd like to send my compliments directly to them. You are certainly entitled to your opinions. I am glad that your experience was good, but please don't be hasty in praising a company based on one experience. There are others who have not had good experiences. > ARE ALL YOU OTHER COMPANIES (APPLE INCLUDED) LISTENING. YOU CAN TAKE A > LESSON IN CUSTOMER SERVICE AND RELATIONS FROM YOUR GOOD NEIGHBOR. NO, NO, please don't listen to Borland!!! I can see it now... Word 4.0 for $1175.00 Pagemaker 4.0 for $1750.00 LightSpeed Pascal 3.0 for $350 . . . No thanks! As for their Customer Service, I won't speak for that since I don't deal with Borland anymore. They can blow away for all I care!.... --Bruce -- ** These are my opinions, & not necessarily those of Mentor Graphics Corporation ** Bruce Holm, Design/Analysis Div. | USENET: bruceh@pdx.MENTOR.COM Mentor Graphics Corp. | UUCP: ...!{sequent,tessi,apollo}!mntgfx!bruceh (503) 626-7000 | GENIE: BHOLM (rarely used)