[comp.databases] Support CAN be good!

itkin@mrspoc.Transact.COM (Steven M. List) (12/01/89)

  In light of the recent dialogues on USENET and John Gorman's  article  in  a
  recent  issue  of  the  UUG/NC Newsletter, I thought I'd share this with you
  all:

  Sometimes it seems as though our vendors don't care and don't want  to  know
  we're  out  here.   Nothing we do seems to reach them.  Our calls to support
  organizations go unanswered or unsatisfied.  And we gripe and moan and share
  our anger and aggravation with our co-workers and fellows on the Net.

  This time, however, I'm here to share a VERY positive  experience.   So,  to
  begin  with,  let  me  say publicly THANK YOU to Unify Corporation's support
  organization.  They came through.  On time,  effectively,  and  with  flying
  colors.

  A member of our technical staff had found a problem (it couldn't  really  be
  called  a bug).  While we couldn't claim that this problem was a bug, we did
  tell them that we couldn't proceed  with  our  current  project  until  this
  problem  was  resolved.   For  us,  this is significant, since a customer is
  paying us to develop an application and we have deadlines.  As expected, the
  customer  support  analyst  recorded  our  problem,  gave  us an Enhancement
  Request Number, and informed us that it was out of his hands.  At this point
  the problem was escalated.

  Sometimes you reach the right person  at  the  right  time  with  the  right
  problem.  When the problem was escalated, I spoke with Frank Verardi.  Frank
  offered to find out if our problem could be resolved in a reasonable period.
  He  did,  and  it could.  Frank took this problem that we reported on Monday
  and had us up and running again before week end.

  This particular experience is an example of Service.  Sure,  it's  just  one
  company's  experience on one problem.  And no one would believe me if I said
  we'd never had a bad experience with Unify.  But  perhaps  there's  a  fresh
  wind  blowing.   I'd  rather believe that this is just a sample of things to
  come than that it was a lucky fluke.  Certainly my  discussions  with  Frank
  would  lead  me to believe that.  I guess it would be unfair to expect Unify
  (or any other vendor) to fix all MY problems immediately when I report them.
  But one of these every once in a while goes a LONG way.

  Thanks again, Unify and Frank.

-- 
 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 :                Steven List @ Transact Software, Inc. :^>~                  :
 :           Chairman, Unify User Group of Northern California                :
 :     {apple,coherent,limbo,mips,pyramid,ubvax}!itkin@guinan.Transact.COM    :