Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!IDA.ORG!pbs!sdroppers
From: sdroppers@pbs.uucp (Seton Droppers)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: open this package and you're stuck with it
Message-ID: <6394.25e39baf@pbs.uucp>
Date: 22 Feb 90 12:58:39 GMT
References: <48c21c82.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM> <777@lectroid.sw.stratus.com>
Followup-To: comp.lang.c
Distribution: usa
Organization: PBS:Public Broadcasting Service, Alexandria, VA
Lines: 28

In article <777@lectroid.sw.stratus.com>, jmann@bigbootay.sw.stratus.com (Jim Mann) writes:
> The problem with returning software you don't like is that there is a very
> fuzzy line between "doesn't work" and "doesn't work as cleanly/elegantly
> as I would like it to."  If you buy an editor, let's say, and it's quite
> kludgy: it uses idiotic key sequences, non-standard menus, and so forth.
> You can't stand using it.  Yet it does all this with no "bugs."  Should you
> be able to return it for a refund?
> 
> If you answer yes to the above, does this mean that you should be able to
> return any book that you buy but don't like?
> 
> Jim

If we were talking about $5.00 to $50.00 investments I would agree.  And for a
really expensive book I can usually check it out of a library before I
purchase, if I really want to make sure that I want to purchase it.  When
software runs $100 to $750 a shot I tend to want to be careful with my money.

My personal guess is that the software companies are more upset at the thought
of one purchasing a package, loading it on their hard disk, and then
"returning" the package.  Cars, microwave ovens, VCRs, etc. all have something
tangible to return -- it is really hard to return a VCR and continue to get use
out of it.
-- 
Seton Droppers  -- "Anything that I say is my opinion and not my employer's."
Public Broadcasting Service, 1320 Braddock Pl. Alexandria, VA 22314
(UUCP: ...{vrdxhq,csed-1,ida.org}!pbs!sdroppers) (Voice: 703/739-5100)
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