Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:12619 rec.ham-radio.packet:991 Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdahl!amdcad!indra From: indra@amdcad.AMD.COM (Indra K. Singhal) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,rec.ham-radio.packet Subject: DESQview Bug, Quarterdeck "response". Message-ID: <20600@amdcad.AMD.COM> Date: 1 Mar 88 07:13:13 GMT Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, Ca. Lines: 114 Keywords: DESQview raw mode, Dan Frank's complaint Dan Frank (dan@speedy.WISC.EDU) wrote on Feb 2nd that he got very poor service from QuarterDeck. I just bought DesqView and along with my registration I sent them a copy of Dan Frank's posting (copy at end of this posting). The following is the reply I received from Quarterdeck. Please excuse the length of this posting and any typos. Personally, I was indeed very happy to receive this letter, it restored my faith in user support. Please post followups to comp.sys.ibm.pc (I do not subscribe to ham-radio.packet. You may also e-mail me (address at end). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Quarterdeck Office Systems, 150 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica CA 90405 Feb 19, 1988 Indra Singhal, Santa Clara, CA, Dear Mr. Singhal, Thank you for bringing to our attention the message from the USENET system. We are sorry Mr. Frank was dissatisfied with our customer service. We are a small, but growing company. We have pu a number of new tech support people on recently, but there are still times when teh phone backs up and users have to wait. While I dont offer this as an excuse, it is true that most successful software companies, new or established, occasionally have this problem. I also must mention that Mr. Frank has never sent in his DESQview registration card and while we do not refuse to talk to unregistered users, this does not help to push you to the top of the queue. We have not had any significant number of reports of problems with programs utilizing the raw mode, but if Mr. Frank would like to contact me, I would be happy to talk to him about his problem. If you can get his voice number, I would also be willing to contact him about the problem. If he is a programmer and can produce a short test program that demonstrates the problem and would be willing to send it to me or upload it to our bulletin board system, it might help in isolating the problem. The Quarterdeck Bulletin Board system operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The telephone number is (213) 396-3904. Supported baud rates are 2400/1200/300. Preferred communitations parameters are 8-N-1. You should plan to download using one of teh following error-free protocols: XMODEM, XMODEM CRC, YMODEM or KERMIT. Thank you for your interest in DESQview. Stan Young, TEchnical Support, QuarterDeck Office Systems, (213) 392-9701. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- =>Newsgroups: rec.ham-radio.packet,comp.sys.ibm.pc =>Subject: Desqview bug, Quarterdeck "service" =>Date: 2 Feb 88 22:04:27 GMT =>Reply-To: dan@speedy.WISC.EDU (Dan Frank) => => There is an interesting bug in the latest version of Desqview. Apparently =>DV doesn't do a very good job of keeping track of console "RAW" mode status. =>Sometimes a program is started in raw mode that shouldn't be, and other times =>you can't get DV's console driver to go *into* raw mode when you need to. =>The upshot is, there are some very simple, well-behaved programs that don't =>work right under Desqview (one of the them is the BM mail program used by =>amateur radio tcp/ip'ers). => =>... => Fool that I am, I thought Quarterdeck might be interested in fixing this =>bug. For all I know, their technical people might be, if there were any =>way to reach them. Quarterdeck is one of those companies who apparently =>hired psychologists to tell them how to discourage people from ever, ever =>bothering them for service. => => I've been trying to call them on their non-toll-free number for about a =>week, and getting constant busy signals. Finally today I reached their =>telephone answering person. She put me on hold for tech support, and for =>the next 20 minutes I was treated to a rather expensive conversation with =>their computerized telephone system. Finally I accidentally failed to =>push the proper combination of keys to stay on hold, and was zapped back =>to the telephone answering person, losing my place in the queue. Exasperated, =>I explained that I didn't need help installing the program or running =>Dbase; that I was a software developer and wanted to report a real, live =>bug. I was put through to a sales manager. She listened politely while =>I explained my problem, then immediately zapped me back to the telephone =>answering person, who said, "Please hold for tech support." => => "Wait a sec," said I. "Does this mean you put me back on the end of =>the queue, and I spend *another* twenty minutes talking to your phone =>system?" => "I guess so," she answered. At this, I became a bit upset. "Look, =>I have spent a lot of money on this call, to be put back at the end of =>the queue. I don't need help installing the stupid program. It has a =>bug, and I'm trying to report it." => "It seems," she answered in a *very* snide voice, "that *everyone* =>who calls us has a bug." Well, this was the last straw. I demanded =>to talk to the president's secretary. "You wouldn't be permitted to =>do that," she said. When I began sputtering something in return, she =>said, "I'm going to put you on hold until you calm down." *click*. =>I tried to call back, but of course, I got a busy signal. => => I've heard people say that, for example, Microsoft has bad customer =>service. Microsoft may not be great, but I have never, ever been treated =>like this by them, or for that matter any other software company before. =>For all I know, Quarterdeck has *no* support people at all, and simply =>abuses their customers until they give up. Can anyone top this? => => -- Dan -- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Indra K. Singhal |The truth doesn't mean anything | {ucbvax,decwrl,allegra}!amdcad!indra | | amdcad!indra@decwrl.dec.com | It just IS ! |