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From: bhj@bhjat.UUCP (burt janz)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix
Subject: Re: MicroPort Customer Support
Message-ID: <148@bhjat.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 25-Sep-87 11:42:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: bhjat.148
Posted: Fri Sep 25 11:42:27 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 27-Sep-87 07:06:23 EDT
References: <10077@beta.UUCP> <945@minnow.UUCP> <92@sdeggo.UUCP> <137@conexch.UUCP>
Organization: BHJ Associates, Nashua, NH
Lines: 40
Keywords: Does it exist?
Summary: Microport Customer Support exists... ... they are copying other companies

In article <137@conexch.UUCP>, enped@conexch.UUCP (Eric Pederson) writes:
> to send the update releases (read "bug fixes") for a nominal charge.  Now you
> have to have purchased a support agreement, then you can get the updates,
> again, for a nominal charge.  Am I alone when I consider this a ripoff?  V/AT

And what is so strange about that?  DEC has done it for years, and even when
VMS wasn't a "mature" product (like in V2.1, the first version I used).  And
has done it for RSX, RSTS, and RT.  I can't prove it, but I'd venture that
IBM has the same policy for their operating systems.  ATT doesn't give away
updates for free.  So where's the ripoff?

I've heard a lot about this comment from many others.  I can only answer
by saying that customer support is a very expensive part of any software
company.  I was an employee of the now-defunct Cadmus Computer Company, and
was the senior Software Support Engineer in the Customer Support group. You
wouldn't BELIEVE how many questions I dealt with each day, how many tapes
I shipped, and how many hours I spent on the phone (via modem) fixing
systems.  That type of support costs money, if only for the shipping and
telephone costs!

Not that customer support group should HAVE to be a revenue center, but it
should at least be self-sufficient.  The reason that it never could be rests
in the fact that the company involved could never sell enough product to
pay for support.  Each time you sell one package, you gain the possibility
that one more customer will call.  Multiply that by thousands, and you have
thousands of possible calls that must be answered.  That type of support
can't be handled by anything but a support group.  To add in the cost of the
support group would have increased the cost of Microport UNIX.  I think
that Microport took the right road - charging for support past the 90-day
initial period.

Charging for media, shipping, and answering questions after the standard
90-day period is not unusual.  I've done it before, and I'll do it again,
provided I feel the product is worth keeping.

(I have no involvement with Microport except as a reasonably satisfied
customer.)

Burt Janz
..decvax!bhjat!bhj