Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!ucsd!pacbell.com!pacbell!att!cbnewsc!freak
From: freak@cbnewsc.att.com (c.e.malloy..iii)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: windows hater
Keywords: hate love
Message-ID: <1990Sep7.124410.11522@cbnewsc.att.com>
Date: 7 Sep 90 12:44:10 GMT
References: <13406@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 53

John Mendenhall writes:

> Support from MicroS*** is even worse! You call their wonderful FREE
> phone number and you get a machine with some programmed responses. If
> you wait 30+ minutes (all the while paying toll fees) you might get a
> real person. All this person is capable of doing is reading the manual
> back to you. In the endless hours we have spent tyring to get
> intelligent help from MS, we have actually given them more
> help/information than they have given us. Mr. Bill is making billions
> from fools who own, but know nothing of computers.
> 

I'm sorry, but this just doesn't fit with my personal experiences.  Two
days ago I was running Toolbook (You know, the one that comes FREE with
Windows 3.0?) and I got an error. The error was "CANNOT FIND PAGE 'p41'"
I called the number that was listed in the 'About...' box. The machine
thanked me for calling Asymmetric then switched me to Microsoft's
Technical Support. After hitting the proper buttons, and waiting on hold
for about 15 minutes, was connected to a real person. I explained my
problem. He then asked if I could hold on for a minute. A minute or so
later he said that they had no record of that error, and wanted to know
how critical the problem was. I took that to mean, "Will you live for
a few hours, days or weeks without Toolbook?" I told him that I would
live, but the address book part was totaly unusable until I had a real
solution. He said that he would research the problem, talk to others,
and get back to me. I said, "No problem. Whenever." I hungup the phone
and started to get ready to "Go To The Maul." I figured that I would
not hear from him until tomorrow at the soonest. 30 MINUTES LATER THE
PHONE RINGS! I just about to walk out the door, but I thought that it
might be a friend of mine, so I answered it. To my surprise it's the guy
from MicroSoft. He said that the executable seems to be corrupted and
if I reinstall it, after renameing the original save file, I could then
start the program and merge all of the original data. A REAL AND VERY
WORKABLE SOLUTION!!! Now there might be a better technical support
group out there, but I haven't found it. Don't get me wrong, they are
not perfect, but who is? Yeah, sitting on hold for a while is a pain,
but when you sell a zillion copies of any program, you will be flooded
with calls like "If I'm in Windows, how do I copy a file?" Let's try
to have a compassion for the support people. I know that I know that
when I call Technical Support, I have tried everything that I can think
of, but if you got 50+ calls from users that don't EVER RTFM, you would
start with the basics too. And this is only one example of the REAL
support that I have gotten from Microsoft. And I have been dealing with
MicroSoft since I first used MicroSoft Extended Basic on a DTC MarkIV
computer in 1970.

I could go on and on about support (or lack there of) with other
companies, but AT&T don't pay me to ramble on.

Clancy Malloy
AT&T Bell Labs
att!ihlpf!cem
Naperville, IL