Re: free vs commercial
And open source has the same thing. You search the relevant mail-list
archive/message boards/online documentation and if that doesn't answer
your questions you email an "expert" directly. Cut out the middle
man/women, who is not needed, since if you couldn't find what you needed
in FAQ's then talking so someone looking at the same FAQ's is not likely
to be helpful. PLUS, like I said, the people you ACTUALLY called are
most likely not working for the company that provides the product,
therefore no engineers will be available...only high school/college
students trying to make some extra cash and their managers(whos primary
job is to make sure they workers actually work!) Not to mention adequate
documentation is rarely provided with hardware.
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Marsh <michael.a.marsh@gmail.com>
Date: Friday, January 14, 2005 9:53 am
Subject: Re: free vs commercial
> On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 09:46:09 -0600, Colin J. Ingram
> <cjingram@wisc.edu> wrote:
> > I have to take issue with your assessment of commercial/proprietary
> > customer assistance.
> [...]
> > First of all, the person on the other end of the line is rarely,
> if ever, an
> > expert of the product of interest. More than likely, the person
> will be
> > in an entry level position with a high turnaround rate. They
> read from
> > prepared statements which they look up in a database of problems
> (often> the same database which is available in the FAQ on their
> website). This
> > is rarely helpful.
>
> The reason that customer service is done in this way is that for most
> people it's successful. You look for the information first -- that
> puts you in a small minority of their customers (where "they" are just
> about any company). If you make it clear from the start that you've
> searched their online database already, then hopefully they'll be more
> likely to pass you to someone more knowledgeable, possibly even an
> engineer. If they *still* try to give you an answer from a script,
> then I'd agree that their customer service is lousy.
>
> --
> Michael A. Marsh
> http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~mmarsh
>
>
> --
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