Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!spool.mu.edu!munnari.oz.au!uhccux!bigtuna!pegasus!tleylan
From: tleylan@pegasus.com (Tom Leylan)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Clipper 5.01 error message
Message-ID: <1991May17.210556.18104@pegasus.com>
Date: 17 May 91 21:05:56 GMT
References: <1991May7.235644.28744@gmuvax2.gmu.edu> <1991May09.090352.17859@anomaly.sbs.com> <1991May16.135400.4616@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Pegasus,  Honolulu
Lines: 35

In article <1991May16.135400.4616@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> tmkk@uiuc.edu (K. Khan) writes:
>
>Of course, if Clipper were free of bugs to begin with, they wouldn't
>need so many tech support reps and could afford to pay a higher salary
>to the few who remain. ;-)

K.,

I imagine that you are speaking from a base of experience, the service company
that you ran ?  Your years as a support technician ?

When I worked at Nantucket (I was not in tech support) I listened to the
quality of the questions as well as the quality of the answers.  Many times
people call (and I'm certain your clients have also) describing a problem
with the words "I was doing something, and something happened and a there
was message on the screen".  Fifteen minutes later they have managed to give
an accurate report of the problem.

In other cases the problem has nothing to do with Clipper, possibly they
were using Clipper at the time but the guy doesn't have access writes to
some Novell subdirectory or they used "Johnny Jones Super Shareware product"
to directly modify Clipper indexes and they are all screwed up.  Well Johnny
said it is Clipper compatible so what's wrong with you guys ?

On the other hand I've heard less than helpful answers, incomplete answers
and some downright wrong answers.  This is unfortunate and I think much work
needs to be done but it isn't unique to Nantucket or the computer industry.

I had to argue with a travel agent the other day to sell me a ticket for a
flight that I knew was not full but she insisted it was (she would check
the computer of course (oops would NOT check the computer)).  I run into
incompetence every day from the people at Burger King to the people who run
the U.S. government, it's frustrating but one learns to deal with it.

tom