Re: Informix support: Where are you?

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. 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 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. 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). 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 answer in the first call. Maybe I'm biased, but I don't see how that can be 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.