Rick Faircloth wrote: > I realize that technical support is most likely a profit center for > MM, but what I'm proposing is what an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) > is to a patient. Upon first having a problem, a patient needs immediate > attention. EMT's don't arrive on your accident scene, notice you have > serious injury and ask for credit card assurance that you can pay. > Their job is to treat as best they can and stabilize the situation. > If further treatment is required, they take you to the hospital (Technical > Support) where more expert care can be provided, and, naturally is more costly.
EMTs do not provide service free of charge. They just don't get paid directly by the person in need of assistance. EMTs get paid via your tax dollars and donations. A more complete analogy would have MM charging you an annual fee (like taxes) for this EMT-like service. This is typically called a Support Contract. > It seems reasonable for MM to be willing to spend some of its profit to > provide *some* free support to the location where the patients are showing > up. MM is providing plenty of free support. They have a website with tons of documentation (granted it needs some work, but we've already heard that it's being upgraded), they provide the resources to maintain a CF Community focal point on their servers, etc. They just don't offer the kind of free service that you're looking for. But there's likely a reason for that; to provide emergency support services for free would likely bankrupt them. > >For a company that charges for technical support, it makes little sense > >to then provide *free* technical support through a mailing list of > >forum on a formal basis. > > Why not? Is there too much money to be made that would be sacrificed? Apparently, you'd be amazed at how much money there is to be made in provided customer support. Also, there are plenty of software companies (so far as I remember reading) that would not break even, let alone turn a profit, were it not for tech support. > >As it is, several of us at MM provide free support here because it > >helps. It isn't Macromedia's policy to provide free support. > > I'm suggesting that maybe it should be as far as can be expected on > forums/lists. > > Why is this an inappropriate scenario? Because, as a company, MM needs to be profitable. As a business owner, I'm sure you can understand. Providing free support, even if "only" in the form of having one or more full-time employees covering the forums is expensive. When I first started programming professionally, one of my additional responsibilities was to act as the public frontman for the user community (covering mailing lists, newsgroups, website forums, etc.). It soon became apparent that I couldn't handle my programming responsibilities *AND* be the frontman. There's just too much time that has to go into providing support like that. Especially for as complex a product, with as large a user base, as Cold Fusion enjoys. Anyway, hats off to MM and all the MM guys here on the list. And with that... back to (prolly) not responding to this thread. -- Mosh Teitelbaum evoch, LLC Tel: (301) 625-9191 Fax: (301) 933-3651 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] WWW: http://www.evoch.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists&body=lists/cf_talk FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm
