Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen
From: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: Mach from mt Xinu
Message-ID: <3445@sixhub.UUCP>
Date: 17 Mar 91 22:05:26 GMT
References: <1991Mar6.183453.944@rwwa.COM> <23510@well.sf.ca.us> <1991Mar9.192526.2572@rwwa.COM> <1991Mar11.225205.13658@kithrup.COM>
Reply-To: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen)
Organization: *IX Public Access UNIX, Schenectady NY
Lines: 40

In article <1991Mar11.225205.13658@kithrup.COM> sef@kithrup.COM (Sean Eric Fagan) writes:

| A lot of the questions support people at SCO get, I gather, are hand-holding
| type of things.  Things like "How do I remove a file beginning with a '-'?"

| But, hey, it seems as if a lot of people reading this group want something
| free, so I'll probably get flamed (again).

  SCO does it right in theory. They make their bug fixes available for
download via uucp or ftp. This makes sense, since if the original
product sold was not fully functional the customer is entitled to a fix.

  SCO charges for handholding and upgrades (new features). That's fair.

  I have two gripes with SCO... the first is that even if you have a
support contract you will fight for a fix about one third of the time.
The response to emailed problems is erratic; sometimes great, sometimes
really slow and/or inaccurate. In spite of that, it's better that the
people who answer the phone on the "front line" support. These people
can not ever write down what I say, and assume the customer has no idea
what s/he's talking about. Even when you tell them where the problem
lies, they start at the level of "is the power on? The red switch at the
back of the box..."

  The solution to this is some kind of bypass number assigned to a
customer who is experienced, so that we could get to someone with more
info quickly. Sort of a non-dolt ID number...

  The second gripe is the support policy on a new copy of the software.
I have suggested many times that they offer some fixed small number of
questions or hours in the first year, instead of all the stupid
questions you can ask in a month. After doing a double digit number of
SCO installs, people may go months before they have a question, then be
told their support time has expired. This burdens SCO answering dumb
questions, and hurts people who have real problems.
-- 
bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen)
    sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX
    moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me