Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!apple!mattd
From: mattd@Apple.COM (Matt Deatherage)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Complaining to Apple
Message-ID: <27559@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 19 Mar 89 19:26:43 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 73

Kareth, please realize I'm not picking on you.  It's just been your messages
that I finally hit reply to.

If you folks, Apple's customers, think that Apple has been negligent in support
and enhancement of the Apple II line, then you should tell Apple.  Exactly
*how* this should be accomplished is a completely separate topic.

I will venture this much, though -- Apple is a large company with a large
installed base of customers.  I *personally* (see the disclaimer below)
believe that it would take a significant amount of letters/emails/phone calls,
all arriving to the same place at pretty much the same time to make anyone's
jaws drop.

There is a tendency among people who fanatically believe in what they do that
those who disagree are merely misinformed.  I can speak from experience; I feel
this way about Apple II File Type Notes.  My purpose in them is to publish
the file formats of applications in a consistent published format so that a
programmer who can understand one note can understand them all.  It's a two-foldbattle to get people not only to disclose their formats, but to let me translatethem into File Type Note format, so that I don't have 200 notes out with 200
separate formats.  True, publishing a format as the "C" structure it was
designed as does add a little clarity - but it's then completely useless to
those who don't speak "C".

The same principle can apply to Apple in some cases -- a group of extremely
talented people who believe what they do is not only their best, but the
best possible.  Those who disagree just may not understand the situation.

If a large number of Apple customers believe that Apple is doing them wrong,
then either Apple must change its ways to retain those customers, or Apple
must convince those customers that they have not been wronged.  Neither will
happen if Apple is not aware that there is a large-scale customer satisfaction
problem.

I would not wish the organization of such a protest/communcation on anyone whom
I held to be a friend.  Not only would the word have to get out to write letters
or send E-mail or telephone on such-and-such a day (form letters tend to be
ignored by large companies), the follow-up to make sure it actually happened
would be essential.  Nothing would hurt any cause more than to have a well-
publicized protest effort, only to find when the day arrived that about 200
people were all that participated.  It would lead those being protested against
(Apple, in this example) to believe that the protests were the work of a very
small, very vocal group of people.

This, in fact, may be the case - it could be true that the majority of the
4.5 million + Apple II owners *are* satisfied.  No one's going to know until
someone takes the effort to find out on a large scale.

There are many ways this could be done:  inCider/A+ could run a survey page
and report the results to Apple; the magazine could run a survey page that you
tear out, stamp and mail directly to Apple.  All those concerned could mail
some symbolic object (like a manual cover or an Apple ad) to Apple -- this
could go on and on.  But if such an effort is well-publicized and gets very
little result from those who are supposed to be dissatisfied, it would hurt
your case more than not doing anything at all.

In case anyone reading this thinks I'm trying to promote trouble at Apple,
it's certainly not the case.  I do believe that if customer dissatisfaction
among Apple II owners is as high as reports on this and other networks would
seem to indicate, that someone needs to do something fairly innovative to get
this message across to Apple management.

And I hope you'll understand that, to keep my involvement with this at only
the above-stated level, this is the last I'll write on this topic.


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Matt Deatherage, Apple Computer, Inc. | "The opinions expressed in this tome
Send PERSONAL mail ONLY (please) to:  | should not be construed to imply that
AppleLink PE: Matt DTS  GEnie: AIIDTS | Apple Computer, Inc., or any of its
CompuServe: 76703,3030                | subsidiaries, in whole or in part,
Usenet:  mattd@apple.com              | have any opinion on any subject."
UUCP:  (other stuff)!ames!apple!mattd | "So there."
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