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From: kevind@pogo.WV.TEK.COM (Kevin Draz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Mac companies still not working together ...
Message-ID: <8309@pogo.WV.TEK.COM>
Date: 22 Dec 89 02:22:27 GMT
References: <95392@pyramid.pyramid.com>
Reply-To: kevind@pogo.WV.TEK.COM (Kevin Draz)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Wilsonville,  OR.
Lines: 48

In article <95392@pyramid.pyramid.com> alh@pyrnova.pyramid.com (Alan Holzman) writes:
[stuff deleted for brevity]
>
>	Here is yet another example of two well-respected Macintosh companies
>engaging in "finger-pointing" without probably even discussing the issue with
>each other. Don't we; the users, deserve better than this ? How do we get some
>of these recalcitrant companies to drop all the B.S. about whose "fault" a 
>problem may be and just work together. Surely good service must go hand & hand
>with a good product or people will find another source for their needs ...
>
>	Anyone had a better experience of two companies working together and
>providing timely problem resolution ?
>
I would tend to think that "finger pointing" is an unfortunate exception,
not the norm in the tech support world.  I have worked at technical support
in several companies and it is generally considered tasteless to accuse
others products of having bugs to a customer. It is SOMETIMES clear that a
bug is undeniably in the others vendors product.  In these cases, we generally
attempt to avoid laying any blame, and refer the customer to the other
party.  What else could be done?  We can't patch someone else's code.

If the problem is unclear, we put the situation in a queue to be verified,
and possibly turned over to a systems programmer for a more thorough
evaluation.   We also have a 3rd party relations department whose job is to
"trade beta" software and hardware in order to head off problems before a
product is released.  I have made many happy return calls to customers after
working with another vendor and arriving at a solution.  Unfortuately, this
usually took more than 10 minutes.  Because of priority to incoming calls,
and first-come, first-served (some emergency exceptions) job queueing, it
can takes a week or two at times.

Alas, it is easy to get negative (although not excusable) when a product has
an incompatibility, and you get to talk to fifty or more angry users per
day.

>
>Al Holzman                 |  Internet = alh@pyrnova.pyramid.com (always)
>Pyramid Technology Corp.   |  UUCP = pyramid!pyrnova!alh
>1295 Charleston Road       |  Compuserve = 76665,3406 (frequently)
>Mt. View, CA. 94043        |  Connect = AlHolzman (occasionally)
>(415) 335-8951             |  FAX (415) 967-4344
> 


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kevind@pogo.wv.tek.com
Tektronix Color Printers Technical Support