Re: Informix support: Where are you?

gardner@psd.uucp (Gardner Pomper) writes: >I have been following this Informix support thread, and it seems that >there are two arguments. I believe that the point that Greg Hogg was >making was that (for whatever reason) he wanted to be able to upgrade >his Informix products without having to purchase Tech Support and he >objected to the argument he should be willing to pay for Tech Support. >This issue is of interest to me because of a recent problem I have had >with Informix. I own several Informix products (4GL RDS, Debugger, SE >Engine) on Interactive Unix. As part of a contract with a client, I >was to be paid by the transfer of their copy of Informix (4GL RDS, SQL, >Debugger, ONLINE engine). This was version 4.0 of 4GL. >Well, it turns out that my clients maintenance agreement expired in >December 1991, and the transfer was not made until January 1992. >Version 4.1 of 4GL was released in Sept/Oct, but my client was not >notified, so they never requested the update. Informix states that >they are not required to notify their customers that updates are >available and if you don't request it, you don't get it. >When I received the copy of 4GL, I tried to get the upgrade which >they should have gotten for free. Informix refused. My client tried >to get the version directly, before the transfer. Informix refused. >Their position (stated by my sales rep, her boss and the head of >Informix tech support) was that Informix was never obligated to give >away upgrades, they had just done so as a "favor" to their customers. >They have since changed this policy, so they are officially not >giving upgrades for free. Now you have to buy maintenance AND pay >extra for upgrades. >So, I am now in the position of having to pay maintenance (about 20% >of the product price), plus a 50% penalty for having let maintenance >expire. (that is up to 30% of list). Then I have to pay 25% of list >to get the new version. Well, I would have then paid 55% of list for >a product that I was supposed to have gotten for free. >This is so frustrating that I have enrolled in the Oracle Developers >Alliance, after 6 years of Informix work. I truly believe that >Informix will fail in the marketplace because of their support >policies. As I'm sure you have noticed, Informix has mangement policy problems. You seem to have voted in the best way possible: with your checkbook. You might want to (if you have not already) probably write a letter to the President of Informix (or CEO or whatever the current officious title is) and let hom know how you voted and why. I have personnaly written letters to the head of tech supt indicating that I would never recommend to a client that they use Informix because of bug and support problems (especially bad on AT&T 3b2 and AT&T 386 machines running Sys V) and the only result was that the sales rep called the President of my company pretending to be the President of Informix and essentially demanding that I be fired! This incident did wind up in the hands of the tech supt manager who gave me his personal telephone number, but it did NOT change the Informix Management policies about things such as you have mentioned. Perhaps if enough people scream lound enough or vote with their check books, then Informix managment will listen, and will change policies; but I believe the problems lie at the top, not in the technical portions of the company. As a product Informix is OK - nothing brilliant, but adaquate; and its portability across Unix and MS-DOS have some very good points. chad price@helios.unl.edu