Re: Informix support: Where are you?

Neat! I really love the net, where else can you make a statement and be nailed for it in front of so many people? :-) In article <1992Apr21.193436.19122@informix.com> dranney@informix.com (David Ranney) writes: >In article <1992Apr14.141938.726@halexv.uucp> greg@halexv.UUCP (Gregory F. Hogg) writes: >>Craig, >> >> Good luck getting anyting from INFORMIX in the way of a fix >>or work-around. In all my years of working with INFORMIX products (8 >>years) the best answer I have gotten from them is "Yes it is a bug >>and No we don't know when it will be fixed". This is why I see >>paying for INFORMIX tech support as the biggest waste of money. They >>have never, and I mean NEVER, been of any real help. > >You paint with a pretty broad brush there, Greg. > >Your comments disturbed me since I used to work in the front line tech support >organization here, so I took the liberty of looking up your old cases. With >three exceptions your cases were just quick one sentence questions on the order >of what product is needed to call C from perform. How did you look up my old cases? I have worked for a number of clients on a number of different projects. Did you lookup my name? company? If so that would not find all cases as some if not most would be under my clients name. > >One exception was a bug you ran into. The engineer immediately gave you the >appropriate bug number and gave you all the information about the bug as she >could > Would that happen to be the one where query on last field casues the program to dump core (in 4.0)? If so then it was the classic INFORMIX line of "Yes it is a bug and No we don't know when it will be fixed". Now let me say that I understand and don't blame tech support of this answer, how can they don't when a bug will be fixed for my port? What I don't like is paying good money for this answer. >One exception was functionality you wanted which didn't then exist in 4GL. >The engineer immediately gave you the appropriate feature request number and >added your name to the list of people requesting it. Incidentally, that >functionality was implemented in the next version of the product. > This must be the one where you can now find what is in the field before the user presses ENTER. Great I have wanted this for years. Now can I get this version WITHOUT paying for maintance. NOTE: I am welling to pay for the update say 25% (ok 50%) of the price of the product but all I want is the update NOT tech support. >One exeption was a limitation on string space you were running into. In that >case the engineer immediately found and faxed you some appropriate technical >articles, which, I might add, are comprehensive and very descriptive (IMO). Thanks for reminding me of this one. The faxed info was good but did not really help. I.e. it told me why my program did not work but this was no fix. I did rewrite my program to work around the string space problems and have continued to do so for years. > >After reviewing your history, I'm at a loss to understand why you feel as >hostile as you do toward Tech Support. In every case you got the appropriate Sigh, this is the big problem with news/email people get the wrong impressions. I do not feel hostile toward Tech Support, well maybe a little. Tech Support is a hard a dirty job and I for one would not want that job. >answer in the first call. Maybe I'm biased, but I don't see how that can be Now how can you really know this? You are looking at a database that is created by tech support calls. It does not have my impressions of the call. I agree that most of the time tech support has been nice and tryed to help. But the bottom line is that in allmost every case they did not fix the problem just told me that it was a bug and that I would have to call back from time to time to find out it there was a new version for my port and if the bug was fixed. >improved. All I can think of is that you were upset by the fact that a given >feature wasn't implemented, or a given bug fixed immediately and a patch >sent to you. As we all know, things just don't work that way in the software >game. You can do that sort of thing with a small install base and a low number >of platforms, but Informix is too big to make that workable. > >You also need to realize that throughout the industry, technical support >organizations have little impact on the fixing of bugs or the implementation of >feature requests. While they influence the process, they don't make the final >decision and are left to deal with the consequences. > >Am I saying that Informix Technical Support is perfect, no. What I am saying >is that while you may feel hostile towards the organization, it is not based >on any case you had with Tech Support. Furthermore it is unfair to brand an >entire organization on the basis of things outside the control of that >organization. Again I don't feel hostile towards Informix tech support. I am very hostile about paying for this tech support that I feel has not been of any real help. If I had deep pockets the money would not matter. All I want is some way of getting updates to INFORMIX products without paying for maintance. Is that really to much to ask? In the DOS world it is very common to sell updates without requiring maintance why can't INFORMIX do this also? +++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++ Greg Hogg +++ +++ ++ ++ HOGG'S SOFTWARE +++ +++ +++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++ voice : 410-538-7241 ++++ ++++ ++++ ++++ fax : 410-538-6130 ++++ +++++ +++++ ++++ uucp : uunet!halexii!greg ++++ ++++++ ++++++ ++++ cis : 74176,1320 -- +++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++ Greg Hogg +++ +++