rzdz@fluke.UUCP (Richard Chinn) (09/28/83)
re: Eagle and their idea of support triggered this response.
I don't own an Eagle, nor do I intend to. That is immaterial. On the other
hand, I use wordstar and have a few comments regarding Micropro
International and the way they view support.
If you are a wordstar owner and have a question, try calling Micropro. After
the telephone is answered, a rude person will tell you to call your dealer.
Period. They won't (underline that) even answer the most mundane question.
Once I called them to find out if Spellstar would run with wordstar
V2.something. They (micropro) wouldn't even tell me that on the phone and
this was a potential sale.
Finally, I wrote a somewhat nasty letter to Seymour Weinstein (prez of the
company) and got a reply along with a name within who would be glad to
answer my questions.
This was fine for a few weeks, then that person got their job functions
modified and (of course) no one was available who would be willing to answer
questions.
Micropro's stance is understandable and lamentable. They are trying to build
a network of intelligent dealers who know and understand their product. They
feel that the only way they will get this is to force all user questions
through their dealers so that the dealers get the Q & A from all questions.
In this way, they hope, dealers will eventually learn the product.
(flame on!)
My problem with this (and your problem too) is the translation errors that
inevitably creep in with a two step process such as this. Typically, my
dealer didn't know the answers either and had to resort to calling Micropro.
In my case, the software was purchased from a mail order house back east and
that in itself restricted the window when I could call and get an answer. In
a business situation, expedient answers are a must. You can't have a job
hung just because the *stupid* software vendor insists on you going through
their **asinine* system of information retrieval.
In summary: I love Wordstar, but I hate Micropro International and the way
that they conduct their business. Thus, I must continue my love/hate
relationship with them.kurt@fluke.UUCP (Kurt Guntheroth) (09/29/83)
When you buy software mail-order at a discount, you have to expect not to get very good support. That is why it is cheaper mail-order; because they don't have to support it. It is just the case that if you want your hand held, you have to go to a store and pay very big bucks, even though you know you can get the same software cheaper elsewhere. The support costs money and the only way that money can be made is by marking up the cost of software. Kurt Guntheroth John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
MCMANIS%usc-eclc@sri-unix.UUCP (10/02/83)
From: Chuck McManis <MCMANIS@usc-eclc> Next time you call them pretend you are a dealer. --Chuck -------
LCAMPBELL@dec-marlboro@sri-unix.UUCP (10/03/83)
From: Larry Campbell <LCAMPBELL@dec-marlboro> Try the Final Word (Mark of the Unicorn). It's much better than WordStar (how's that for a nice, substantiated, objective fact?) and I've found Mark of the Unicorn to be quite helpful on the phone. --------
farber%udel-eecis1.udeecis@udel-ee.arpa (10/11/83)
From: Farber <farber%udel-eecis1.udeecis@udel-ee.arpa> I second the comments on Final Word and the company. They are very helpful and one of the more professional acters in this business.
lauren@RAND-UNIX.ARPA (08/04/85)
Source is a two-edged sword. While many people enjoy hacking away at fixing problems themselves, some don't have the time or knowledge. Even worse, sometimes when source for something is floating around all over the place it makes any kind of real support impossible. I still frequently get irate phone calls and messages from people regarding a program I put into the PD quite a few years ago. My name sits at the top of the change list. People call and yell and scream that it doesn't work (you'd be AMAZED how irate they are, especially given that they didn't pay anything for it! It's really incredible.) In any case, what I find is that these people inevitably have obtained versions of that program that have passed through a number of people who have tried to "fix" or "expand" it in various ways, and broke it in the process in one way or another. Sometimes these people added their changes to the change list--usually not. I've seen at least 60 unique versions of that program, 55 or so of which were broken. These people who called up complaining had spent hours, days, or sometimes weeks trying to figure out what was wrong. I don't have the time or, frankly, the desire to debug all of these broken variations on my original code. All I can do is offer to point people at the original working program, which hasn't undergone significant change by me in a fair while. Then the people start screaming that they want the fancy features that so and so says they added to the program (which broke it) and that I really should support that program. Damn, what am I supposed to do with that code after everyone and his brother has modified it to death? I can't take responsibility for the changes that other people make in code that hasn't been under my control for a long period. As you can imagine, this experience with this old program has left a rather bad taste in my mouth. I wish I *could* support that program, but having released it the way I did to the PD made that impossible once everyone started their modifications. I think what really hurts is the way people call you up and scream you're a jerk for not supporting your code when they got it for free from some BBS and the code has been heavily modified by umpteen different people in any case. Most of us are only human. Obviously this doesn't happen to everyone. But it sure has happened to me! When you pay money for software, you have a right to expect reasonable support. The fact that some (especially, sometimes, large) companies often provide lousy support is unfortunately beside the point. Many companies try damned hard to provide good support. "Little" private companies, in particular, may often try especially hard and especially need the income from every copy to keep their heads above water (not everyone is "lucky" enough to have their time paid for by university or government jobs). Companies (whether big or small) that make a genuine effort at support deserve a crack at getting our business. Buying software from these companies should help to make our industry evolve in the "proper" direction, where good support will be the genuine norm. --Lauren--
wcs@ho95e.UUCP (x0705) (08/08/85)
Lauren Weinstein posted an article about the hassles of putting your source in the public domain, where many users will hack it up and pass on their broken version to people who call Lauren expecting to get it fixed. I can sympathize; even well-written code that nobody's hacked on often stops working 3 UNIXtm versions later, or won't work on TSO, or... It's real tempting to put a comment at the beginning saying /* Written by Bill Stewart. If this program doesn't work, run it through sum (UNIX manual, section 1.) If the result isn't 03406, don't call me. */ -- ## Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs
lauren@RAND-UNIX.ARPA (08/10/85)
The really sad part is when people get irate and call you names for not being able to support code that has been modified and "broken" by others. It hurts even more when you really DO feel that support is a primary aspect of good software. --Lauren--