Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!amdahl!larry
From: larry@uts.amdahl.com (Larry Hardiman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: CHARGES ($) for Tech Support; what do you think?
Message-ID: <092h021L9b7t01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>
Date: 9 Apr 90 18:32:02 GMT
References: <9367.261bcd4c@amherst.bitnet>
Reply-To: larry@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Larry Hardiman)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 45

In article <9367.261bcd4c@amherst.bitnet> tgoldin@amherst.bitnet writes:
>Yesterday, I called Plus Development's 800 number to get some help with a
>Hardcard 40.  I was surprised to find that the number had been disconnected and
>replaced with a 900 number.  Users who dial the new number are charged a flat
>fee of $5.00 per call...
>... This pay per use scheme seems quite preferable to the other
>emerging alternative of paying a yearly fee for an improved level of
>support (a policy offered by Micrografx, for instance).
>What do you think?

ButtonWare, maker of the shareware product PCFile does the same. He
charges $1.00 per minute. The first minute may be free?

Now, let me tell you a story. I have been a registered user of PCfile
for several years, generally as a satisfied user. At almost every direct
mail solicitation from Button to upgrade to the latest release, I have
done so; the price has been right, at about $40. I recently upgraded
to version 5. The new version uses dbase file format, hence offers
the "memo" field construct (an arbitrarily long text field) and an
editor to edit same. I decided to convert an existing database to
the new format to take advantage of the memo field feature; the existing
database had a number of fixed length "comment" fields per "record".
To do this I "exported" the file to a "peachtext" (fields delimited by
commas, I think), massaged the comment fields into a single field, then
did an "import" operation. The memo fields were associated with the
wrong records in the resulting database! Off by one! In my opinion,
that's indicative of inadequate testing. So I called the
900 tech support number. They listened politely and told me to send
a sample, machine readable; I did. Some time passed, no answer. I
logged on to their BBS and wrote it up there, waited some time, called
the BBS again. There I found a message for me, marked "private" simply
saying that they acknowledged the problem (no obvious public posting to
warn other users, or possibly scare off potential customers (Yes, I am
speculating. I really do not know thier true intention). There was no
promise to fix, no circumvention, no nothing. I still use the old
database format.

Now your question? What about pay per use tech support? At least from
my own experience with Buttonware, I am not impressed.

ButtonWare, are you listening? What are you going to do about it?

-- 

larry@uts.amdahl.com