Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!think!bloom-beacon!gatech!ncsuvx!ece-csc!ncrcae!ofc!rogers
From: rogers@ofc.Columbia.NCR.COM (H. L. Rogers)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Commercialism
Message-ID: <16@ofc.Columbia.NCR.COM>
Date: 10 Jan 89 13:26:37 GMT
References: <8901070414.AA00305@ETN-WLV.EATON.COM> <8901091248.AA00853@nsipo.arc.nasa.gov>
Reply-To: rogers@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM (H. L. Rogers)
Organization: NCR E&M Columbia, Columbia, SC
Lines: 37

In article <8901091248.AA00853@nsipo.arc.nasa.gov> goldstei@NSIPO.NASA.GOV (Steve Goldstein) writes:
>Darn it,
>
>I **like** this kind of crass reverse commercialism.  It's still one person's
>opinion.  The guy was burned, and he is warning the rest of us.  The message:
>
>"SUMMARY: Do *NOT* purchase [*********] s/w for VMS 5.x and SMP at this time!"
>

The really sad thing about this situation is that it exists at all.
I mean, the fact that any company will produce a poor quality product
and then make it worse by not responding to calls for support is 
inexcusable.  This represents a complete lack of professional ethics.

My own experience with this particular company (you will note that 
I have asterick'ed the brand name above...sorry, I *do* have _some_ 
ethics :-)) was also bad.  No...bad is the wrong word.  I finally 
threw their salesman out the door and told him never to come back
(really...I actually escorted him to the door!).  We acquired the 
source and fixed it ourselves...had to change about 95-98% of the 
code, by our estimates.  I believe some of the original includes 
were okay!

For their sake, I hope some of this "reverse comercialism" wakes them
up.  I try to put the shoe on the other foot and imagine what I would
do after reading these reports of poor product quality.  I would be
totally embarrassed and proceed to do everything I could to correct
the situation.  On the other hand, I was associated with this
particular company for three years before I finally gave up.  I
doubt they will get the message.

Well, this type of posting requires a special disclaimer:  My
opinions are my own and in no way represent those of my employer.
Any actions I have taken in the past with regard to supplier
relations is not necessarily supported by my employer.
-- 
HL Rogers    (hl.rogers@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM)