WMartin@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil (William G. Martin) (09/19/89)
Sorry that this response is so late; it sat in our outgoing mail queues at my home host for 5 days and wouldn't send, even though we were getting mail IN from Telecom all during that time with no difficulty. I've asked our mail maintainers to look into the problem... WM I must say that the long explanation (or should I say "justification"?) for charging for customer support did not convince me. After all, if I buy a $2 can of deodorant, there is an 800 number on the can I can call about the product. If you complain about some defect, they'll even send you a coupon to use to get another can (even a larger one than the original!). If I get this level of support for a trivially-priced consumer product, I would certainly expect MORE, not less, support for a $1000 piece of electronic hardware! No one forced these companies into the business of making these devices that people now need support for. If they are not willing to live up to the obligations they incurred by producing and selling these things, they should not have gotten into the market in the first place! Will Martin