Re: Informix fix policies (LONG) (Was Re: Informix support: Where are you?)

aland@informix.com (Colonel Panic) writes: >> choice. After wading through the front ranks, you can >> find some in tech support who understand the bug you are >> running into. Unfortunately, they are prevented from helping >> by company policy. (other than giving workarounds. Whoopee.) >More bullshit (and this "prevented from helping by company policy" is >*pure* fiction), as indicated above. I've been following this with some concerened interest. Just yesterday we had three Informix people here telling us about how great the world is etc. We are about to become an Informix developer. We wanted to know all about 'policy' before we bought product. We were, and still are, somewhat confused. Even AlanD is confused by his own admission. The company has some strange policies which have me scared about making any kind of comittment in their direction. Do I invest mucho man/years and get milked to death in the process waiting for bug-fixes? Paying for the newer releases again and again and again? Even if I don't want any support? We have been there with other DB companies and subsequently purchased db_Vista from Raima where we were able to get the source, pay a reasonable upgrade fee (which also covers maintenance but which we've never used). We were tired of having customers blame us for the problems we could not fix because we had no source. In many cases we could just about point out the page and line number for the fix, but too bad, you have to wait till next year for the next release. In the meantime your customer thinks you've sold him a bill of goods and credibility is lost. Source has put our destiny into our own hands and we like it. But now certain people want us to rescue their developmental investment in Informix and we need to join the binary only crowd again. It's scary. We were told that for only 10% of the purchase price, or maybe of list, we would get bug-fixes for free. It's strange terminology, but there it is. But if we paid $100,000 to become a Premiere VAR we would get everything for free - but not quite. Not the really new releases. I guess for now, we'll test the waters carefully. We'll continue to develop our main application in vista but we'll see just how bad the problems are before we make any major investment or lengthy developemnt comittment. In a way it will be up to Informix to show me that they are worth every penny they charge. I'm the customer and I will expect a working product. I will not be happy to have to pay to make something work - again. Fred >>o The origin of this thread, a nasty bug in the current C-ISAM and >> Informix's refusal to provide a fix, shows that this policy >> is still firmly in effect. >Care to give a specific bug # ? Has this claim actually been acknowledged >as being a bug in the first place? >>Informix's maintenance and support *policies* seem designed to milk >>the maximum money out of developers and customers with the minimum >>possible investment in customer support. Thus, in the fashion of (at >Maybe to you. To me, the policies seem designed to make the price of services >more reflect the actual cost to provide them, rather than shifting the cost >burden to new customers. >>least the old) IBM, the customer is motivated to pay for maintenance >>by the cost of changing development environments, rather than any >>benefit of tech support. >In your opinion. >Are Informix's policies (e.g. that updates require maintenance agreements) >really that out of line with the competition? >>If any of these decision-makers had to *use* their products, that >>policy would change fast, because it is *VERY FRUSTRATING*, and left >>me with an abiding distaste for the company (and an abiding sympathy >>for the tech support people who really wanted to help). >> >>Probably the best thing an Informix employee reading this thread could >>do is digest it and slide a copy under company officer's doors (late one >>night). >Did it occur to you that upper management might give such comments more >weight if they came direct from the field rather than from within? >>Philip Bohannon (bohannon@paul.rutgers.edu) -- Fred Rump | 'A little learning is a dangerous thing/Drink deep CompuData, Inc. | or taste not the Pierian spring' Alexander Pope 10501 Drummond Rd. | SCO Advanced Product Center Philadelphia, Pa. 19154| Internet: fred@COMPU.COM (215-824-3000)