🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1992Sep30.130721.28046@lsa.umich.edu> Hal.Varian@umich.edu writes:

>In article <1992Sep29.130436.20940@menudo.uh.edu> sears@tree.egr.uh.edu (Paul  
>S. Sears) writes:

>> Things might be alittle  
>> better if they provided a provision for temporary passwords that last a few  
>> days so you can use Mathematica while your copy is getting officially  
>> registered.
>> --

>That is a great idea!  I hope WRI picks up on it.

WRI can do this NOW!!!  

I've dealt with WRI many times, by phone, mail, E-mail, etc. etc.  Overall
I rate them fairly high, but, like a lot of small companies (and a few
countries I've lived in) it seems that the "rules" are determined by the
person you speak to.  I've never had any trouble, provided I used the
"polite but firm" approach to things, i.e. I don't p*** off the person 
I'm talking to, but I also don't necessarily just take what they say
as God given.  If you have Mma, expect them to give you a password after
you've made a reasonable argument. If they say "We're trying to give
out fewer passwords by phone" then tell them to mail you one but request
a temporary password (I know they have these because they issued me a 
couple when we had a NeXTdimension on loan for demonstration purposes).
You may have to talk to th eperson in charge of licensing about this
--- I believe her name is Peggy Forbes --- but I would be surprised if it
didn't work and you got a temporary until the real one arrived.

Incidentally, while I haven't discussed these latest licensing problems with
anyone at WRI, I *have* heard their side of the whole Mma-NeXT bundle
configuration and they have some legitimate complaints about the way the
software distribution/passwords/upgrades are handled.  My impression is
not that NeXT or WRI is particularly at fault, but rather that the deal
was not clearly thought through at the beginning so each side ended up
unhappy with how things are handled, particularly as the # of copies
has risen.  I find neither NeXT nor WRI to be one of the "greats" of
customer service, but neither have they been noticeably bad --- actually, one
time NeXT was quite good, but I suspect that was becuase Paula Lorenz, 
an all round good person, was handling the problem.

Hope this is Helpful --- Tom