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From: gordonl@microsoft.UUCP (Gordon LETWIN)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Microsoft Use of 900 Number for Tech Support
Message-ID: <14711@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 14 Nov 90 01:27:47 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 823, Message 5 of 12


In article <14517@accuvax.nwu.edu>, john@mojave.ati.com (John Higdon)
writes:

> hpubvwa!ssc!Tad.Cook@beaver.cs.washington.edu writes:

> > Higdon has a HUMBLE OPINION??!?  No, but seriously, they recently
> > instituted this for support of MS DOS ONLY ... all their applications
> > support is free.

> Oh, I see. The "product" that put them on the map (other than a BASIC)
> is treated as a second-rate stepsister. The company has to protect
> itself from all those unwashed masses who might actually have some
> legitimate problem (oh, but how could they--DOS is perfect, right?)

What a hostile person you are.  If you reasoned as well as you hate
you'd get somewhere.

DOS has been sold strictly as an OEM product.  That means it was
"wholesaled" to an OEM for them to sell with their product, the
computer.  Microsoft receives only a few dollars a copy for each
MS-DOS.  In a similar manner, car makers may license a Bosch ABS
system.  If you have a problem with that ABS, you don't call Bosch,
you call GM.  GM made the retail profit on the product and part of
their contract with Bosch is that GM supports it.  The same holds true
for MS-DOS.  Part of our contract with the OEM is that they support
the product they sell, not us.  We provide support to OUR customer -
the OEM.  They can call us any time.  We also provide them training
programs, I'm pretty sure.

One thing which confuses people is that the disks say Microsoft all
over them, whereas their ABS system just says "GM".  This makes it
harder for folks to understand that they bought it from the OEM, not
Microsoft.  There's two reasons for this.  One is Copyright.  The ABS
is protected by patents, but software is protected by Copyright.  One
requirement for copyright protection is a notice; our product *has* to
say Microsoft on it and in it to be protected.  Secondly, an operating
system is a standard product and the OEM needs to assure the customer
that they're getting the real standard, so the OEM wants to make sure
that the user knows it's Microsoft DOS.  In the early years this
wasn't always true; some OEMs forbade us to say that their BASIC was
Microsoft BASIC.

So we offer "free" support for our retail products because we received
the retail markup and support is one of the things you do to earn that
money.  We didn't receive the retail markup for DOS, the OEM did, and
the OEM is the person who needs to support it; that was their
agreement.  As a convenience to customers who don't want to call the
OEM or whose OEM's are not doing a good job, Microsoft now offers
support for DOS, but we have to charge for it now since we didn't get
any money for that service when we sold your OEM the DOS.


gordon letwin
not an official microsoft spokesperson