Re: Informix fix policies (LONG) (Was Re: Informix support: Where are you?)
In article <1992May2.070617.26597@mtek.com> bud@mtek.com writes: >john@mks.com (John Postma) writes: > >>In article <1992Apr30.050442.29357@informix.com> aland@informix.com (Colonel Panic) writes: > >>I assume from this that tech support staff have the authority to send us >>fixes then. (hopefully again at just media costs since I've paid for >>maintenance) Is this so? > >Unfortunately, if past experience is any guide, it makes little difference >what someone at Informix tells you "officially", since the next person you >talk to a day/week/month later will deny that this is so and feed you a >new "official" whopper. Take carefully detailed notes -- you'll need them. > This is TRUE !!! Amazing! I though that only happened to me. Warning: The next lines are purely fiction. Anything you can relate with actual facts with Informix, Inc. is just a coincidence. This is TRUE. I agree completely. It could be as bad as: Developer Overseas: We want to distribute Informix products in country. Can we? Marketing Rep: Sure, send me a business plan. --Two weeks of hard work ... Dev: Here is my business plan. I'd like to go to your office to discuss it. Mark: Sure, the business plan seems ok. We need you to forecast your sales. Dev: No problem. --* Developer flies to Menlo Park ... Mark: Welcome, what's your forecast? Dev: Hello, my forecast is 20,000 a quarter and ... Mark: NO, it has to be 40,000 ... Dev: but that's too much, you ... Mark: Don't worry, we will back you up. We have maintenance, free upgrades for you, tech support, blah, blah, ... Dev: Uhmm, OK. If you help me with marketing and legal issues we can do it. Mark: Well, everything is ok. Dev: Can we start investing money then? When do we get the contract? Mark: The contract is going to take some time, but you can place your order today. Dev: Good. --* Developer flies back, gets a loan, places an order, he gets lots of problems to get it delivered the way it should be, but finally he gets the shipment of several copies of informix producta that he has to sell, and ... Phone rings! Mark: Hello, Developer. You know what we looked over your business plan and we can not make you a distributor, but you can keep buying from us. Dev: bbbBut what about the benefits we talked about, the maintenance, upgrades, and P O L I C I E S we talked about. Mark: Well, no you get that but I'll see what I can do. --* 5 years later developer is still working with informix, he still doesn't have a contract, he has worked with 4 different marketing representatives, (the others left), he had seen 5 different Marketing Managers come in and come out, he knows about Informix, inc. more than half of the current employees, like ten different policy changes, etc The etc. is the good part, but that would take too much space in the net. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luis P. Caamano | lpc@dickens.com Dickens Data Systems, Inc. | uunet!ddssuprs!lpc Norcross, GA | (404) 242-5991 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you think you know it all, you'll stop learning. -myself The more I learn, the more I know I know nothing. -somebody else