indra@amdcad.AMD.COM (Indra K. Singhal) (03/01/88)
Dan Frank (dan@speedy.WISC.EDU) wrote on Feb 2nd that he got very poor
service from QuarterDeck. I just bought DesqView and along with my
registration I sent them a copy of Dan Frank's posting (copy at end of
this posting). The following is the reply I received from Quarterdeck.
Please excuse the length of this posting and any typos.
Personally, I was indeed very happy to receive this letter, it restored
my faith in user support.
Please post followups to comp.sys.ibm.pc (I do not subscribe to
ham-radio.packet. You may also e-mail me (address at end).
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Quarterdeck Office Systems, 150 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica CA 90405
Feb 19, 1988
Indra Singhal,
Santa Clara, CA,
Dear Mr. Singhal,
Thank you for bringing to our attention the message from the
USENET system. We are sorry Mr. Frank was dissatisfied with our
customer service. We are a small, but growing company. We have pu a
number of new tech support people on recently, but there are still times
when teh phone backs up and users have to wait. While I dont offer this
as an excuse, it is true that most successful software companies, new or
established, occasionally have this problem.
I also must mention that Mr. Frank has never sent in his DESQview
registration card and while we do not refuse to talk to unregistered
users, this does not help to push you to the top of the queue.
We have not had any significant number of reports of problems with
programs utilizing the raw mode, but if Mr. Frank would like to contact
me, I would be happy to talk to him about his problem. If you can get
his voice number, I would also be willing to contact him about the
problem.
If he is a programmer and can produce a short test program that
demonstrates the problem and would be willing to send it to me or upload
it to our bulletin board system, it might help in isolating the problem.
The Quarterdeck Bulletin Board system operates 24 hours a day, seven
days a week. The telephone number is (213) 396-3904. Supported baud
rates are 2400/1200/300. Preferred communitations parameters are 8-N-1.
You should plan to download using one of teh following error-free
protocols: XMODEM, XMODEM CRC, YMODEM or KERMIT.
Thank you for your interest in DESQview.
Stan Young, TEchnical Support, QuarterDeck Office Systems,
(213) 392-9701.
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=>Newsgroups: rec.ham-radio.packet,comp.sys.ibm.pc
=>Subject: Desqview bug, Quarterdeck "service"
=>Date: 2 Feb 88 22:04:27 GMT
=>Reply-To: dan@speedy.WISC.EDU (Dan Frank)
=>
=> There is an interesting bug in the latest version of Desqview. Apparently
=>DV doesn't do a very good job of keeping track of console "RAW" mode status.
=>Sometimes a program is started in raw mode that shouldn't be, and other times
=>you can't get DV's console driver to go *into* raw mode when you need to.
=>The upshot is, there are some very simple, well-behaved programs that don't
=>work right under Desqview (one of the them is the BM mail program used by
=>amateur radio tcp/ip'ers).
=>
=>...
=> Fool that I am, I thought Quarterdeck might be interested in fixing this
=>bug. For all I know, their technical people might be, if there were any
=>way to reach them. Quarterdeck is one of those companies who apparently
=>hired psychologists to tell them how to discourage people from ever, ever
=>bothering them for service.
=>
=> I've been trying to call them on their non-toll-free number for about a
=>week, and getting constant busy signals. Finally today I reached their
=>telephone answering person. She put me on hold for tech support, and for
=>the next 20 minutes I was treated to a rather expensive conversation with
=>their computerized telephone system. Finally I accidentally failed to
=>push the proper combination of keys to stay on hold, and was zapped back
=>to the telephone answering person, losing my place in the queue. Exasperated,
=>I explained that I didn't need help installing the program or running
=>Dbase; that I was a software developer and wanted to report a real, live
=>bug. I was put through to a sales manager. She listened politely while
=>I explained my problem, then immediately zapped me back to the telephone
=>answering person, who said, "Please hold for tech support."
=>
=> "Wait a sec," said I. "Does this mean you put me back on the end of
=>the queue, and I spend *another* twenty minutes talking to your phone
=>system?"
=> "I guess so," she answered. At this, I became a bit upset. "Look,
=>I have spent a lot of money on this call, to be put back at the end of
=>the queue. I don't need help installing the stupid program. It has a
=>bug, and I'm trying to report it."
=> "It seems," she answered in a *very* snide voice, "that *everyone*
=>who calls us has a bug." Well, this was the last straw. I demanded
=>to talk to the president's secretary. "You wouldn't be permitted to
=>do that," she said. When I began sputtering something in return, she
=>said, "I'm going to put you on hold until you calm down." *click*.
=>I tried to call back, but of course, I got a busy signal.
=>
=> I've heard people say that, for example, Microsoft has bad customer
=>service. Microsoft may not be great, but I have never, ever been treated
=>like this by them, or for that matter any other software company before.
=>For all I know, Quarterdeck has *no* support people at all, and simply
=>abuses their customers until they give up. Can anyone top this?
=>
=> -- Dan
--
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Indra K. Singhal |The truth doesn't mean anything |
{ucbvax,decwrl,allegra}!amdcad!indra | |
amdcad!indra@decwrl.dec.com | It just IS ! |djt@hotps.ATT.COM (Dave Trulli) (03/02/88)
I too have not been happy with Quarterdeck's response. I reported the same bug as Frank just before Christmas and was told by the supervisor of the support group that they would have the programmer call me. Several weeks went by and I called again. This time I had to wait on hold for 20 minutes but finally got hold of the "expert". They had never heard of the raw mode console bug and didn't really sound like they wanted to test for the problem. I asked why I never heard from them and the answer was we called once and no one answered. I have an answering machine on my desk and never got a message. I was asked if I was a registered user and gave them my them serial number. Their files show no record of that number even though I sent in the card and had the real copy in front of me. They also informed me that 2.01 went out to all the 2.0 customers. The 3 registered users I know never received any copy. I was told they would send me 2.01 to see if that had the bug had been fixed. Its been 4 weeks and no repsonse. I have been calling a few times a week for 2 weeks and can't get though since their line is always busy. In summary I am not very happy with Quarterdeck's support and attitude of the support personal. -- UUCP: ihnp4!hotps!djt Dave Trulli NN2Z djt@hotps.ATT.COM AT&T Network Systems PACKET: nn2z@nn2z Holmdel NJ. 201-949-4774
dan@speedy.wisc.edu (Dan Frank) (03/03/88)
I plan to chat with Mr. Young, as soon as I can get through on the phone, and if that incredible receptionist will "permit" me to speak to him. I'll report back if anything good happens. I do want to add, though, that after my last encounter with them, I mailed Quarterdeck a problem report, along with a diskette with three demonstration programs on it, including .dvp files for each. They sent it back without looking at it because they didn't have a registration card on me. Now, let's understand what that means. I *was* registered owner of 1.1. I bought my upgrade directly from Quarterdeck. I have a valid serial number. Instead of holding the diskette and problem report and mailing me a note asking for my card, they just shipped the whole thing back. Does that make sense? I can only believe that those procedures exist to defer until the last possible moment any examination of possible problems with the product. Why, you may ask, did I not send in my registration card in the first place? Because I wanted to take advantage of that special offer for the alarm clock program, but I was darned if I was going to send them any more money until they stopped jerking me around. Oh well. No alarm clock, I guess. By the way, the raw mode problem has been reported to Quarterdeck before by others, and their response is always, "Gee whiz, we don't get many complaints about that. Tought luck." -- Dan p.s. I did receive a few responses to my posting from others who had similar experiences. The one common denominator is that everyone who has ever dealt with that witch on the telephone *hates* her with a deep and abiding passion.
mru@unccvax.UUCP (Markus Ruppel) (03/06/88)
in article <438@hotps.ATT.COM<>, djt@hotps.ATT.COM (Dave Trulli) says:
<> Keywords: DESQview raw mode, Dan Frank's complaint
<>
<>
<> I too have not been happy with Quarterdeck's response. I
<> reported the same bug as Frank just before Christmas and was
<> told by the supervisor of the support group that they would
<> have the programmer call me. Several weeks went by and I called
<> again. This time I had to wait on hold for 20 minutes but finally got hold
<> of the "expert". They had never heard of the raw mode console bug and
<> didn't really sound like they wanted to test for the problem.
<> I asked why I never heard from them and the answer was we called once
<> and no one answered. I have an answering machine on my desk and never
<> got a message.
<>
<> I was asked if I was a registered user and gave them my
<> them serial number. Their files show no record of that number
<> even though I sent in the card and had the real copy in front of me.
<> They also informed me that 2.01 went out to all the 2.0 customers.
<> The 3 registered users I know never received any copy. I was told
<> they would send me 2.01 to see if that had the bug had been fixed.
<> Its been 4 weeks and no repsonse. I have been calling a few times
<> a week for 2 weeks and can't get though since their line is always busy.
<>
<> In summary I am not very happy with Quarterdeck's support and
<> attitude of the support personal.
<> --
<> UUCP: ihnp4!hotps!djt Dave Trulli NN2Z
<> djt@hotps.ATT.COM AT&T Network Systems
<> PACKET: nn2z@nn2z Holmdel NJ.
<> 201-949-4774
Anybody who needs a multitasking and/or multiuser OS these
days should have a look at Digital Research's Concurrent DOS.
( Don't confuse it with things like PC-MOS ). It supports DOS
3.3 and there is a special version for the 386, i.e. no need
for EMS or EEMS on a 386, the normal system memory can be
used. On a 8086/8088/80286 kind of machine you can install
up to 8 MB of EEMS memory, totaly transparent to the applications.
Markus
Disclaimer: Only a satisfied customer, no relation
above and beyond that to DRI .indra@amdcad.UUCP (03/11/88)
I am collecting all responses to this subject group... at the end
of this week, I shall print a copy and mail it to QuarterDeck since
they did take the time to send me a letter that expresses desire
to set the "poor support" matter straight.
I shall keep you all posted...
--
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Indra K. Singhal |The truth doesn't mean anything |
{ucbvax,decwrl,allegra}!amdcad!indra | |
amdcad!indra@decwrl.dec.com | It just IS ! |