ted@ssc-vax.UUCP (Ted Jardine) (05/24/89)
A couple of weeks ago I received an announcement from Ashton Tate
inviting me to apply for membership as an A-T Developer. I sent
the reply card back, indicating that I owned a Macintosh II color
system. Last Friday I received the application kit from A-T. It
contained a description of the requirements for membership, a
5.25 inch diskette in MS-DOS format on which were questions to be
answered and forms to be completed, and a card to request a copy
of a book they were selling for $19.95 plus shipping and sales tax.
What puzzled me were two things. First, why send the owner of a
Mac II a diskette for an IBM PC? And, second, why do the ask me,
a resident of the State of Washington, to send them 8.57% for
Washington sales tax on the book, when the sales tax rate in this
state tops out at 8.1%? Even an investigation of potential near
term changes in the sales tax rate uncovered nothing like the 8.57%
value.
Has anyone else received diskette's from A-T that are incompatible
with the type of computer they have, or was this an isolated case?
If Ashton Tate is listening, maybe they could also determine how
they arrived at the sales tax rate.
--
TJ {With Amazing Grace} The Piper
aka Ted Jardine CFI-ASME/I
Usenet: ...uw-beaver!ssc-vax!ted
Internet: ted@atc.boeing.compeggyl@ashtate.UUCP (Peggy Lerch) (05/26/89)
In article <2676@ssc-vax.UUCP> ted@ssc-vax.UUCP (Ted Jardine) writes: >A couple of weeks ago I received an announcement from Ashton Tate >inviting me to apply for membership as an A-T Developer. I sent >the reply card back, indicating that I owned a Macintosh II color >system. Last Friday I received the application kit from A-T. It >contained a description of the requirements for membership, a >5.25 inch diskette in MS-DOS format on which were questions to be >answered and forms to be completed, and a card to request a copy >of a book they were selling for $19.95 plus shipping and sales tax. > >What puzzled me were two things. First, why send the owner of a >Mac II a diskette for an IBM PC? And, second, why do the ask me, >a resident of the State of Washington, to send them 8.57% for >Washington sales tax on the book, when the sales tax rate in this >state tops out at 8.1%? Even an investigation of potential near >term changes in the sales tax rate uncovered nothing like the 8.57% >value. > >Has anyone else received diskette's from A-T that are incompatible >with the type of computer they have, or was this an isolated case? >If Ashton Tate is listening, maybe they could also determine how >they arrived at the sales tax rate. >-- >TJ {With Amazing Grace} The Piper >aka Ted Jardine CFI-ASME/I >Usenet: ...uw-beaver!ssc-vax!ted >Internet: ted@atc.boeing.com I called the Ashton-Tate Developer Services number (213-538-7358) this morning to ask them about this, and they asked that I post the following response. I hope this helps clear things up. Peggy Lerch Ashton-Tate Product Development ---------------------------------------------------------------------- May 25, 1989 To: Ted Jardine, aka TJ (With Amazing Grace) The Piper We regret that you did not receive the Macintosh version of our Developer Registry application kit. We did, in fact, track product and system usage of the announcement respondents for Macintosh developers. Out of over 15,000 kits distributed, almost 3000 kits containing both a 3 1/2" Mac disk and a 5 1/4" DOS disk were sent out. We were thrilled to receive almost 7000 requests for applications from our announcement mailing. Unfortunately, data-entry in this volume, even done with the utmost care, will unavoidably result in some errors. In the old 20/20 hindsight which is so frustrating, it is obvious that all cover letters should have included instructions to call Developer Services if a Mac disk was desired and not included! A 3 1/2" Mac disk is being sent to you today. We certainly hope you will choose to participate in the program. As for the question regarding the sales tax rate, we used a list of published tax standards that we received. We will look into this to determine whether the Washington rate is in error, and correct the rate, if needed. We appreciate receiving the information on the discrepancy. Ted, thank you for bringing these problems to our attention. Barbara Katzoff, Sr. Marketing Specialist Ashton-Tate Developer Services GENERAL NOTE: If you received a Developer Registry application without a Macintosh disk and would like one, please call Developer Services at (213)538-7358 and we will send you one immediately. If you did not receive an application and are interested in becoming involved in our developer program, please call. There is still plenty of time to beat the June 15th application deadline.
ted@ssc-vax.UUCP (Ted Jardine) (05/31/89)
After sending out a "notice of puzzlement" about the Ashton Tate
Developers application package I received over a week ago, I found
a couple of messages in my e-mail in-basket from other recipients
indicating my situation was not universal. Then I saw the article
from Peggy Lerch (to which I am posting this as follow-up). I did
in fact receive the Macintosh diskette with the application forms
on it in the mail last Friday. I've reviewed the response from
Ashton Tate contained in Peggy's article. I think their response is
more than adequate -- I'd even venture to say spectacular. For a
company to monitor UseNet News and respond to its content is an
indication, in my view, that they have a very high regard for their
customer community, not to mention a heads up attitude toward the
capabilities of computer technology that is far above average. In
my mind, this is what UseNet should be capable of doing. I'm pleased
to see that it can be done.
Thanks to Peggy Lerch, Barbara Katzoff, and to Ashton Tate in general
for a job well done. My application will be in the mail shortly.
--
TJ {With Amazing Grace} The Piper
aka Ted Jardine CFI-ASME/I
Usenet: ...uw-beaver!ssc-vax!ted
Internet: ted@atc.boeing.com