Tony: Just a couple of comments to follow up your excellent points. :-)
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tony Gravagno Sent: Friday, July 07, 2006 2:05 PM To: u2-users@listserver.u2ug.org Subject: RE: [U2] UV - tech support TG: IBM is a publicly owned company and manages its IP assets in a consistent manner. As David says, this is NOT a democracy. That said, someone in the U2 group at IBM might have some latitude in this matter, so contact your IBM sales rep, your Support manager, or your U2 development contact and present your case or ask them who can help with making documentation available. (I don't know the corporate structure for U2 like I do other MV companies, sorry.) BH: That is what has precipitated this thread. Sales reps have been contacted. VARs have been contacted. Support is difficult to contact. Cases have been presented. Many have dealt with the corporate structure. Many are striving to improve the business arrangements. TG: Regarding paying to report bugs - c'mon, how long have you guys been in the IT world? I am all for open support whenever possible but there are business concerns where lines need to be drawn. Think about how expensive it is to have people answer the phone or email, and how many people abuse free services. Most of us in this industry include yearly maintenance fees as part of our normal business model. If you don't pay a vendor a support fee why do you think you are still entitled to the same support as those who do? Asking off-support customers to pay for services they use ensures that only those who are serious will get through. The offer to refund payment in the case of bugs might seem like an obvious thing to do, but in this world it's actually a generous practice that many companies do not employ. By a show of hands, how many people here pay their clients back if a bug is found in their software? I didn't think so... BH: Most, if not all, involved in this thread __are__ paying support fees. That's the irony of this all. As a side note, our company never charges for bug reports and go out of our way to track them down. TG: Regarding going through a VAR for support, I've been through this at RD. There are mixed blessings on the policy but in general it's a good policy. An informed VAR channel is a good VAR channel. BH: This may, or may not, be advantageous. The principal reason for business, which many in the IT industry are forgetful of, is there's a mutual benefit in engaging in a business relationship. The key concept here is "mutual". This thread exists because of, and the above comment illustrates, the one sided nature a business relationship can take, and the consequences such a turn can have. TG: I wish people would consider the larger business issues before complaining about policies. BH: Be careful what you wish for. :-) Bill ------- u2-users mailing list u2-users@listserver.u2ug.org To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/
