Tech Support fm Microport

[Bill Kennedy]

I have seen a lot of grumbling and growling about the level and quality
of technical support from Microport and from time to time I feel the
same frustration that seems to stimulate the noise.  My experience with
them has been spotty but there has been one constant theme, they always
want to help whether they can or not (sometimes they can't).  Let's face
the arithmetic, there are at least hundreds of us, thousands more that
do not have access to usenet and how many, 20?, of them.  We have (at least
I have) a menagerie of equipment, incredible variances in skill and
knowledge level and they have their development lab and support staff.

Since removing moderated status I haven't seen any increase in the noise
level, good!  But I propose that we form a habit.  Post questions here
first and let John Sully and company look them over ignoring the obvious
ones that other readers can answer.  If we don't hold their feet to the
fire for help volunteered onto the net we can get a lot done.  I know that
this will work, I coordinate the PC 6300 PLUS mailing list and we get a
lot better unofficial support out of AT&T via usenet than we do from the
official tech support.  Also the "newcomers" get a lot of definitive info
from the others that already ran up that particular dead end street.  That
is only a fair analogy because the 6300 PLUS is rather finite and not as
susceptible to "creative configuration" as AT's and AT/386's which brings
me back to the first point.  AT&T is somewhat larger than Microport and
the quality and quantity of their tech support is *still* better through
the unofficial channel.  The unofficial channel works best with a heavy
dose of self help punctuated from time to time with straight skinny from
the manufacturer.

That was rather a long way to ask for some moderation (not moderate the
group!) and cooperation.  We'll get a lot more help out of Microport if
we make it a pleasure to deal with us rather than skinning their hide every
time they do something silly.  Sure, I've been mad at them too, but I never
got any help until I started cooperating.

Bill Kennedy {rutgers,cbosgd,ihnp4!petro}!ssbn!bill or bill at ssbn.WLK.COM
              (Tolerant is letting me use their facilities)