Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!batcomputer!riley
From: riley@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Daniel S. Riley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Wshell -- Filename Completion?
Message-ID: <10398@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Date: 9 Jun 90 17:49:55 GMT
References: <4265@uwm.edu> <3938@milton.acs.washington.edu> <1990Jun5.084738.504@agate.berkeley.edu> <7700@bula.se> <1990Jun9.022707.19982@laguna.ccsf.caltech.edu>
Reply-To: riley@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (Daniel S. Riley)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
Lines: 49

In article <1990Jun9.022707.19982@laguna.ccsf.caltech.edu> toddal@tybalt.caltech.edu (Todd Allendorf) writes:
>I wouldn't say THE best, for me that goes to Lattice.  I had a rather bad 
>experience with WShell and Mr. Hawes' product support.  I bought WShell this 
>January as a companion for ARexx and found it to be a nice (but not spectacular)
>shell.  I sent in my registration card and a week later I got a notice (post-
>marked Jan. 29) that WShell was being updated and I could upgrade for "just"
>$10 but if I wanted the manual that would be $20 more.  That $30 total, and 
>that's what I paid for it not two weeks earlier!
>	I wrote a letter to Mr. Hawes explaining that I bought WShell 1.05 
>after 1.2 was already available and that I thought it must have been some sort
>of mistake that I got an old version.  I had ordered the package from Lightspeed
>and they didn't have it in stock so they had to special order it from Mr. Hawes.
>The only explanation that I can think of is that Mr. Hawes was clearing out his 
>supply of WShell 1.05 and manuals at the same time he was shipping version 1.2.

Several comments...

First, are you sure that LightSpeed ordered it from Bill?  Usually, these
places deal with a distributor, not directly with the author, so I find it
far more likely that LightSpeed ordered it out of the warehouse of some
distributor, not directly from Bill.

Secondly, every update includes full documentation for all new features
on the disk, so you don't need the new manual to get documentation for the
new features.  The offer for the new manual was originally intended for
people (like me) who bought pre-release versions before the production
documentation was available--Bill didn't expect most people to order it.

Thirdly, $30 seems like a pretty reasonable update fee to me, for a package
with a new manual.  That you got the original package for $30 is irrelevant.
It would be nice if he shipped the update disk for free, since you bought
WShell after the new release, but at the price Bill sells WShell and ARexx 
at, I doubt he has much margin to play with.  There's a big difference 
between supporting a $50 product and supporting a $200 product like Lattice.

It is uncharacteristic for Bill not to answer.  I do get the impression
that he's a little busy lately, which may be due to the crunch to get
2.0 (and the ARexx version for 2.0) ready to ship, but that's not an
excuse.  All I can say is that I have found always found Bill to be
helpful and responsive.  By all means, write him again and see what
happens.  Overall, I'd probably rank Bill over Lattice for customer
support, largely because he ships products with *far* fewer bugs.  But
Tomas Rokicki has them both beat.

Disclaimer:  I have no connection with Bill Hawes except as a satisfied
customer.

-Dan Riley (riley@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu, cornell!batcomputer!riley)
-Wilson Lab, Cornell University