Support versus Bug Fixes (Was: Can't backup to floppy)

[Michael Nagel Jr.]

In article <8229 at alice.UUCP> debra at alice.UUCP () writes:
>I don't understand why customers need a support-contract (available or not)
>to get bugs fixed.
You mean you have to pay for support when you buy the product via their
higher price and then have to buy a support-contract on top of it :-). 

>When you buy Unix you get a set of manuals explaining (briefly but rather
>completely) what each program or routine should do and how to use it.
What if manuals are optional, as per Bell Tech. 

>If one of the programs or routines do not do what the manual says it is
>BROKEN. It means you did not get what you paid for and you should get a
>bug-fix FOR FREE. There is a BIG DIFFERENCE between getting bugs fixed
>and getting support to get help with manuals you don't understand,
Here's the rub, a lot of bugs I've had reported to me in my consulting
days were those misunderstandings you mentioned, I still had to spend time
(and lots of it) figuring out what they were talking about and telling them
what they were doing wrong. To them it was a bug, to me it was their own
stupid mistake and a waiste of my time (well not quite, they paid for it).

> If you want bug-fixes you should get them for FREE.
You do get them for FREE, in the next release. When I decided to buy Bell
Tech's Unix, price (and their more than reasonable update cost, $50), was the
deciding factor. I was not worried about support and am willing to wait for
the next release to get BUGS fixxed for almost free. All in all, I very happy
with the product. I've had it for three months now and have been able to
work around any bugs I did find, and there weren't that many. Ok, maybe I
got lucky in that I have perty standard hardware, or I could say I was smart
in picking it out.

>I have no experience with Bell Technologies, but if they do support
>installation in the sense that you get your money back if the floppies are
>bad, I don't think they have a leg to stand on when you discover bugs. The
>manuals describe what the product should do, and if it doesn't, the floppies
>did not contain the right information so you should at least get your money
>back.
What if the manual is wrong, guess they could send an update to the manual
and say now it works ;-). You do get your money back, even if you just say
you changed your mind and don't want it. Try that with someone elses product.

> The fact that your floppies contain exactly what they put on them does
>not matter. They should contain programs that work.
They do.

> but I wouldn't mind if all reader's of this group would express
>their opininion, so that at least the vendors would be aware of the fact that
>every license should cover free bug-fixes, and that this has nothing to do
>with support!
OK.
I think its great we have a choice. If you want to pay more for the same soft-
ware go ahead. If you want to buy a good product at a reasonable price, go 
ahead, but don't whine about later. You (and I) made the choice. Im just glad
that choice its there to be made. Lately Mr. Rotow has been talking about
support with v3.2, I hope I still have a choice in whether I want it or not.
I've never called Bell Tech with a guestion about Unix, I have no plans to
start now and don't want to have to pay for a privilage I don't intend to
use. The only time I do call, other than to order something else, is to report
a bug and a workaround if I have one (I make sure its a real bug befor I call,
I have access to several other systems and system programmers). Here Bell
suffers, there does need to be a better way to report bugs. It gets a little
frustrating calling 10 to 20 times before you can talk to someone. Dimitri are
you listening, here Microport is way ahead. A bbs would be nice, or how about
someone from tech-support we could mail to.

>Paul.	(This may not express my employer's opinion, but I hope it does
>	express many others' opinion too)
Me too.