🚀 go-pugleaf

Subject:	World Class Customer Support


With the increased usage of the Internet, the continuing decline of
Information Services ,such as CompuServe, and the ever increasing use
of support for a fee by software/hardware manufacturers the need
within even small companies of highly trained Help Desk professionals
has grown.

The increasing need for Help Desk staff is a direct outcrop of
manufacturers reliance on "user" moderated forums and failure of
manufacturers to respond to request for assistance via any means other
than fee for support. 

I have run into numerous situations where a problem occurred due to a
failure of a piece of hardware or software, not due to the user, and
have waited weeks for a reply to a message posted on a "user� forum. I
have sent FAXes and e-mail and never received a response. In one
instance I was so desperate I called the Technical Support line and
paid $158.00 to report a BUG in a piece of hardware and five (5)
months later still have not received a patch or even an answer. I
finally solved the problem by turning the card into a rather expensive
paper weight.

It is time for the user community to be more discriminating when
buying hardware and software. They must not only look at the feature
offered by the product but the level and cost of support. New products
are release every day with defects, an example is the much touted
Internet Explorer from Microsoft. In wide circulation only a few
months and there is already, at least one patch ready for download. 

Manufacturers would do better taking the chance of holding wide scale
distribution of products until such time as they can conduct wider
beta testing and offer FREE support for the life of the products first
version. This will allow the general public who has become the beta
test site for products to know that at least they will not have to pay
to be a guinea pig.

Thank you for your time and attention in this matter.