Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
From: tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: I hate WinQVT, but I still can't find anything better.
Message-ID: <90852781@bfmny0.BFM.COM>
Date: 6 Jun 91 10:15:09 GMT
References: <91151.001743DSB100@psuvm.psu.edu> <24425107@bfmny0.BFM.COM> <1991Jun5.200833.26210@ms.uky.edu>
Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff)
Lines: 48

In article <1991Jun5.200833.26210@ms.uky.edu> sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) writes:
>tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) writes:
>|In article <91151.001743DSB100@psuvm.psu.edu> DSB100@psuvm.psu.edu (David Barr) writes:
>|>WinQVT is a usable package.  In fact sorry to say it is the best package
>|>I know, but I refuse to register for a package that has this many bugs,
>|               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>|>and seems very unresponsive to customer complaints.
>|                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>|How do you know they're unresponsive to customer complaints?  If you
>|refuse to register, you're not a customer.
>
>It's not unreasonable to say "If you clean this up, I'll buy it."  

Not unreasonable at all!  But having told them this, it IS unreasonable
to expect them to engage in a full customer-support dialog about it with
you, as if you were a paying user.  That is what paying is FOR.  As an
unpaid user, you are welcome to contribute any comments or suggestions
you want.  You are not entitled to support time in response.

>the WinQVT people don't clean it up, they've lost a customer.  

You can't lose what you never had.  At worst they lose a POTENTIAL
customer.  Hopefully they were able to spend that time giving a paid
user the support he or she needed, or adding features people want, so as
to enhance their reputation and product's value overall.

>                                                                If
>shareware authors want people to buy their stuff, they better show a
>good attitude to people that might register.

That's not really how shareware works.  Shareware says, "Here's a
product.  If you like it, send $X to address Y."  If shareware authors
want people to buy their stuff, they better distribute stuff that's good
enough for people to say, "Yeah, I like it -- here's my check."
Everyone in software knows that some people are professional kvetchers,
and that basing one's support policies on them is no way to win.

>"You didn't pay. Piss on you."  Yeah, I want to send my money to a
>company like that.

There does not seem to have been any such message from the WinQVT people
in this case.  An unregistered person wanted some changes from them, and
didn't get them, and thinks they're bad as a result.  I disagree.
-- 
"How can a man of integrity get along    ///  Tom Neff
in Washington?" -- Richard Feynman      ///   tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM