Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!apple!netcom!ric
From: ric@netcom.UUCP (Richard Bretscheider)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: Full Impact 2.0 Availability, or lack thereof
Keywords: spreadsheet applications
Message-ID: <11629@netcom.UUCP>
Date: 5 Jul 90 17:07:22 GMT
References: <484@mstr.hgc.edu> <445@6sceng.UUCP>
Organization: NetCom- The Bay Area's Public Access Unix System {408 241-9760 guest}
Lines: 58

blm@6sceng.UUCP (Brian Matthews) writes:

>In article <484@mstr.hgc.edu> rhb@mstr.hgc.edu (Roger H. Brown) writes:
>|I just read a two page article in an Ashton-Tate newsletter entitled
>				      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>|"New! - Full Impact 2.0, Unprecedented Power for Full Impact 1.1 and
>|Excel Users."   Many impressive enhancements were described and the
>|last paragraph said
>|	"Full Impact 2.0 is available for a suggested retail price
>			 ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>|	 of $295 through the Ashton-Tate authorized reseller network.
>|	  ....
>|	 Upgrades from previous versions of Full Impact are available
>							^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>|	 for $50 by calling A-T Customer Service at 800-227-4866."
>|
>|so, I called the Customer Service number to order my upgrade from 1.1
>|to 2.0 but alas Full Impact 2.0 isn't available yet.

>Does this sound like blatant false advertising to anybody else?  In
>their own newsletter, Ashton-Tate advertises Full Impact 2.0 as
>"is available" (not "will be available") and that upgrades "are available",
>when in fact neither is true.

>Someone convince me this isn't really slimy.

It's not slimy at all.  Nobody who called A-T Customer Service would have
been told that it was ready then (it's ready now by the way) and no money
would have been exchanged.  I don't see what you're getting steamed about,
as this is not unusual in the field.  The officially announced date for
Full Impact 2.0 was the end of June.  I'm the project manager for FI and
can tell you that we certified software on June 20th, and that the packages
were in the warehouse on June 28th.  It might take a few days for them to
sort things through CS.

I never ok'd the announcement in the newsletter, but when I saw it it didn't
shock me.  This stuff happens all the time.  As a registered owner of dozens
of software packages, I get update notices all the time.  Fully half of 
these notices announce products that aren't quite available yet, as being
"just a phone call away."  It's the nature of the business.  The only time
I get upset is when I have given money to a company and THEN am told that
they can't ship me anything yet (back-ordered, not finished, on hold, etc.)
That's slimy.  This was a simple and common mistake.

Hope you'll give the upgrade a try, FI is a great product.  But then
I'm prejudiced.

Ric Bretschneider
Product Manager - Full Impact 2.0
Ashton-Tate Northern Calif. Product Center
(408) 268-2300

>-- 
>Brian L. Matthews	blm@6sceng.UUCP
-- 
Richard A. Bretschneider              These are my words.  My employer's
Ric Bret                              words are often spoken in haste, and
RAB                                   rarely resemble my compassionate prose.