On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 15:56:36 +0000, Ted MacNEIL wrote: >>Tech support, however, has a different responsibility: to analyze and repair >>any reported defect, and never to question the users' choice of method, >>regardless of however inefficient or bizarre. > >I disagree to some extent. >If a user is doing something inefficient, tech support has an obligation to >point out alternatives, and, if serious enough, to escalate. > I agree to some extent. But it should always remain the customers' prerogative to insist that the defect be addressed.
"escalate"? By whom? Via what channel? Rarely should tech support inform the reporting programmers' management of perceived unwise programming techniques. Too often I have distilled the scenario that exposes a defect to a minimal test case, only to have tech support react, "Your program appears to do nothing useful; why don't you omit [the statement that precipitates the failure] since its output appears never to be used." The OP appears to have submitted such an abbreviated example. -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
