goldstei@NSIPO.NASA.GOV (Steve Goldstein) (01/09/89)
Darn it, I **like** this kind of crass reverse commercialism. It's still one person's opinion. The guy was burned, and he is warning the rest of us. The message: "SUMMARY: Do *NOT* purchase FUSION IP s/w for VMS 5.x and SMP at this time!" dosen't say flat-out not to buy the product, but quite responsibly advises not to buy it "at this time". For my part, I'd welcome similar stories of poor vendor responsiveness and products whose performance does not meet the vendor's hype. I can still decide whether or not to follow the advice. Re:"To identify and advise this community of problems with a vendor's product is one thing--to advertise that a product should or should not be purchased is quite another." Steve Goldstein
romkey@asylum.sf.ca.us (John Romkey) (01/10/89)
In article <8901091248.AA00853@nsipo.arc.nasa.gov> goldstei@NSIPO.NASA.GOV (Steve Goldstein) writes: >For my part, I'd welcome similar stories of poor vendor responsiveness and >products whose performance does not meet the vendor's hype. I can still >decide whether or not to follow the advice. I think that the tcp-ip mailing list (and newsgroup) is a fine place for exchanging information about vendor products, regardless of whether the experiences related are positive or negative. In my opinion, sharing information is a good thing and should continue to happen. HOWEVER...I've seen several instances of cases where someone basically tries to hold a vendor hostage by complaining in a public forum about features they want to see added, or about bugs which they've never bothered to ask or inform the vendor about. I think that this sort of behaviour is as bad or worse than some of the blatant or not-so blatant commercial messages various vendors post, too. The line between an advertisement and an informational message from a vendor is a thin one. So is the line between an unjust damaging message and an informational message from a user. -- - john romkey romkey@asylum.uucp romkey@xx.lcs.mit.edu romkey@asylum.sf.ca.us "Maybe Acid would help."
rogers@ofc.Columbia.NCR.COM (H. L. Rogers) (01/10/89)
In article <8901091248.AA00853@nsipo.arc.nasa.gov> goldstei@NSIPO.NASA.GOV (Steve Goldstein) writes: >Darn it, > >I **like** this kind of crass reverse commercialism. It's still one person's >opinion. The guy was burned, and he is warning the rest of us. The message: > >"SUMMARY: Do *NOT* purchase [*********] s/w for VMS 5.x and SMP at this time!" > The really sad thing about this situation is that it exists at all. I mean, the fact that any company will produce a poor quality product and then make it worse by not responding to calls for support is inexcusable. This represents a complete lack of professional ethics. My own experience with this particular company (you will note that I have asterick'ed the brand name above...sorry, I *do* have _some_ ethics :-)) was also bad. No...bad is the wrong word. I finally threw their salesman out the door and told him never to come back (really...I actually escorted him to the door!). We acquired the source and fixed it ourselves...had to change about 95-98% of the code, by our estimates. I believe some of the original includes were okay! For their sake, I hope some of this "reverse comercialism" wakes them up. I try to put the shoe on the other foot and imagine what I would do after reading these reports of poor product quality. I would be totally embarrassed and proceed to do everything I could to correct the situation. On the other hand, I was associated with this particular company for three years before I finally gave up. I doubt they will get the message. Well, this type of posting requires a special disclaimer: My opinions are my own and in no way represent those of my employer. Any actions I have taken in the past with regard to supplier relations is not necessarily supported by my employer. -- HL Rogers (hl.rogers@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM)
KASTEN@MITVMA.MIT.EDU (Frank Kastenholz) (01/11/89)
Speaking as an ex-vendor (I used to be development manager for KNET/VM from Spartacus/Fibronics) this type of "feedback" is good - IF the vendor gets it ((judging by the mail, they may have got the feedback but it may not have sunk in (or they are bad at double talk while they attempt to fix bugs:-). Anyway, there were many mane many problems with KNET when I took it over and the feedback we got through some of the people on the net was very useful in A) tracking and fixing problems, B) determining which problems were most important and C) convincing higher management that we really did have a problem and there weren't just "one or two small problems" (The "KNET is a pile of festering horse ....." types of messages were the most helpful here). I was glad for the feedback. I would think that any vendor would be, IF they truly were interested in serving the needs of their customers. And if not, well Adam Smith and Charles Darwin would probably ensure their early demise. Frank Kastenholz Ex KNET Slave P.S. I know that there are still one or two functional deficiencies in KNET :-) but I have been gone for over a year. I wanted to fix them. I even started doing some of it. I left Fibronicus. I wonder if there is any correlation there? Hmmmmmmmmmmm