Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!cbmvax!snark!eric From: eric@snark.UUCP (Eric S. Raymond) Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix Subject: Re: MicroPort Customer Support Message-ID: <176@snark.UUCP> Date: Fri, 18-Sep-87 15:24:40 EDT Article-I.D.: snark.176 Posted: Fri Sep 18 15:24:40 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 20-Sep-87 15:57:22 EDT References: <10077@beta.UUCP> <945@minnow.UUCP> Organization: Paratheo-Anametamystikahood Of Eris Esoteric Lines: 99 Summary: I had a long talk with the president of Microport In article <92@sdeggo.UUCP>, dave@sdeggo.UUCP (David L. Smith) writes: >It's amazing how bad Microport customer support has gotten, in such a short >period of time. When I originally purchased my system, back in December, >they were pretty good. They had an 800 number to call, the people answering >the phone were fairly intelligent, and they would ship disks free. > >If they're going to try to compete they'd better get their act together. >Saving $500 is nice, but it doesn't really matter if the product doesn't work. I agree with this, it reflects my own experience exactly. Microport started off on the right foot, but they have stumbled *badly* and have a lot of amends to make for recent screwups. The good news is that they *are* trying hard to do so. I have some leverage with them because I'm the technical lead on a project that needs cheap UNIXes in volume. Their marketing guys want my business, badly. So I called for Chuck Hickey, head honcho there. He called me back, and we had a long and very candid conversation during which I told him what's going on on the Net and elsewhere as a result of the bad bugs we've been seeing and the changes in service policy and availability. Now, item 1 of the good news is that Chuck Hickey, founder and president of Microport, is a hacker-type himself. He talked with me about his motivation for founding Microport. The man really believes in the idea of cheap UNIX for everybody. This guy is *not* your typical waffling, political-minded execudroid, people; I think he's willing to listen. He knows his technical stuff *well*, he was honest and open with me about all the problems (even to the extent of reading me pieces of a couple of internal memos harshly critical of the 'new' Microport service policy), and unless he was a damn good actor, I'd say he taking my criticisms and suggestions straight to the heart, and intending to act on them. Here are some of the major points we covered: 1) I think I convinced him that canning the tech 800 number was a major blunder, an act that sent precisely the worst possible signal about Microport's intentions. The problem, it seems, was that their support costs were rising faster than their new-customer income. They didn't realize how the outside world would interpret the cost-cutting measure of having the *customer* pay for the chat time. 2) The TSS double-panic bug, the worst one of them all, is believed dead. The 2.3 kernel version, about to ship, fixes it. 3) I suggested that he designate an official 'speaker-to-USENET' to field questions and help solve problems. He agreed this was an excellent idea. Look for John Sulley or someone else from uPort to be much more active here from now on. 4) The 386 version is believed to be much less buggy. Chuck admitted that this is because it was a straight 32-bit to 32-bit port, rather than because his development group had become dramatically more virtuous since the 286 version. The upshot of our technical conversation was that initially porting UNIX to the 286 isn't really hard, but catching all the bizarre bugs you get from segmentation and the sudden 16-bitness of everything is a real, revolving, industrial-strength *bitch* on wheels. *Very* hard. Harder than I thought. Harder than *they* thought! 5) Better documentation, especially for the installation procedure, is on its way. Future shipped systems will also include comprehensive service plan information. 6) In response to my question, he said that Microport will also, starting now, be explicit about its policy of handling charges only for bug-fix upgrades. Chuck was beginning to realize Microport's changes in service policy and pricing have righteously pissed off people hooked by the original "low cost + 24-hour service" pitch. His own people have been saying as much, and from his reactions I think hearing it articulated by a potential major customer (me!) really got home to him. The man sounded shook. A good part of their problem, from what he told me, is that they're expanding so fast that it's hard to for him and others there to step back and get a good perspective on what's going on and how uPort is coming off to the outside world. An active USENET liaison will help. Subsequently I got a call from the chief engineer for the 286 software. We went over several current "official" and unofficial bug lists. He claims that about 3/4 of these are now fixed, including all the nastiest, data-losing ones I mentioned. He also took the time to explain problems in detail, admitted where they'd screwed up, and owned up when he was puzzled. So don't give up on Microport yet, guys and gals. Despite recent appearances, I think they have the right attitude. They're trying hard to dig themselves out. Whether economics and the limits of their own abilities will prevent this is another question. But there are, from my experience, a whole bunch of really bright, motivated, open-minded people there. I think they can make real-UNIX-for-cheap work if anybody can. Naturally, I have no connection with Microport other than as a customer. -- Eric S. Raymond UUCP: {{seismo,ihnp4,rutgers}!cbmvax,sdcrdcf!burdvax,vu-vlsi}!snark!eric Post: 22 South Warren Avenue, Malvern, PA 19355 Phone: (215)-296-5718