Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!vsi1!zorch!xanthian From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: ADA on Amiga And Oxxi Keywords: OXXI,AMIGA,ADA Message-ID: <1990Sep10.063455.29851@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Date: 10 Sep 90 06:34:55 GMT References: <6547@sugar.hackercorp.com> <1990Sep9.173108.16455@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <27043@usc.edu> Organization: SF Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 94 papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes: > xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes: >>I bought my Modula-2 compiler through OXXI - stay away from them. >> >>Ada for the Amiga sounds like a dream come true, but it OXXI is >>involved, nightmare is more likely to be the result. >>At a minimum, let everybody else go through the non-delivery, the >>unanswered phone calls and letters, the unkept promises, until >>they've proved that this time they're _not_ out to screw the >>customers. > >You fail to mention that there was a lawsuit between Oxxi and Avantgarde >involving rights to the M2 compiler (I won't go into the details of who >was right and who was wrong). Bottom line is that Oxxi ended up agreeing to >release the rights to the M2 compiler back to AvantGarde and therefore was not >permitted to upgrade their old version with anything (they couldn't anyway >'cause AvantGarde never gave them an upgrade). OXXI had the option of buying the upgrade from Avante Garde at commercial rates and fulfilling their contract. They chose to screw the users and keep their money without providing the contracted product. Sleezeball business practices. >>Like I've said before about shady business practices, the net >>has a long memory and a wide reach. >>The M2 compiler was finally provide _at shipping cost_ from >>Avante Garde in Plano TX after OXXI refused to honor their >>upgrade guarantee; nice people at A.G. >As I said, Oxxi could not "physically" upgrade you, since they legally couldn't >do it. See above. >My personal experience as developer with Oxxi is quite different. And irrelevant, except that it lined your pockets and makes your praise untrustworthy. >They have always offered quite inexpensive upgrades/updates (updates where >$8, major upgrades $35). I don't know from whom you got the idea of an upgrade >guarantee, but hardly any company has "free" upgrade guarantees, if that is >what you imply. If this goes on, I'll paw through my archives and repost the original comp.sys.amiga ad and bore everyone even further. The gist was simple: "our product is almost ready; send $199 + s&h _now_, receive the beta, get the beta add on libraries (normally $99 apiece) at no additional cost, and get the finished product complete with release software and release documentation when it is ready Real Soon Now." Pretty obviously, a company strapped for cash on a project looking for a way to keep a cash flow going and salaries paid until the released product would bring in some more money. Disadvantage to the purchaser: money out now, and only a known undebugged product in return. Advantage to the purchaser: "free" optional libraries and the full commercial version "eventually". I sent the $207 or so, and got the beta disks and docs. They just refused to complete the contract as written. >Making bold statements like the ones you make concerning a single product >and generalizing to a company's entire line, especially without giving out >the details involved, is what I call misinformation. Failing to keep contractual commitments, lying about delivery dates, failing to make promised phone call returns, refusing to answer mail, all "generalize to a company's entire line"; they are a standard of conduct having nothing to do with a particular product, but with the company, its management, and its attitude toward the customer. What you find "bold" in such statements baffles me. What we can _glean_ from all this, children, is that if OXXI finds itself in trouble again, it is the customer, not OXXI, who will do the suffering. I say it again. Keep away from them. No misinformation involved. I still have the check dates, the original USENet ad, the original order letter, and whatever else you might require about "the details involved", but this grows tedious and the point is already made. Kent, the man from xanth. -- Is it may imagination, or was OXXI also not too long ago the home of a certain alpha release spreadsheet being passed off as a commercial product? Nah! Not those salt of the earth OXXI folk. They wouldn't sell a product not ready for market, and then alienate the developer and lose rights to the product without every making good on their obligations to their customers. Not twice in a row. Not as a company policy. Not at their customer's expense. Right.