"Bill Drake" wrote in message
...
D.Currie wrote:
"Bill Drake" wrote...
D.Currie wrote:
Personally, I'd like to see some way to enforce the rule that OEMs
have to support the software. Or maybe lose the ability to sell OEM.

There is no way to enforce this rule. It is always possible for the
unethical provider to come up with a plausible excuse for
non-support.


As a small system builder, my customers can come in and ask me
questions face-to-face, and that's fine. Or they'll call. But I also
get plenty of calls from people who have bought from the big guys,
and they can't get an answer.

And as a result, the unethical providers are dumping their support
costs on your back -- increasing their profits at your expense.
Their shareholder dividends are the direct result of your altruism
-- and this is a very conscious and deliberate policy on their part
IMO.



Then there are the people who sell the oem software with trinkets,
and have no intention or ability to answer questions.

See above. Another example of the same. You've just described
simply a more-obvious example...


I don't mind answering customer's questions, and even the not-yet
customers -- I figure some day I will get their business.

No. Many customers are just as unethical as the abovementioned
providers. They'll rape you and leave you freezing -- pay you 5
cents on the dollar and scream with outrage at that -- and drive
your business into the ground.

Save your time and energy for clients who come to you straight-out
looking for value and willing to pay a fair price in the first place.
These are the only people worth your time and energy.



But it does irritate me that others shirk the responsibility to give
the technical support they're supposed to. They aren't footing the
cost for proper support, so they sell their stuff cheap, which is
fine for the customer until they need help. And in the meantime,
I'm providing free tech support in the hopes that I'll get work
from that person in the meantime.

You're a fool to give these people the time of day.


The advice I offer on the phone costs me as little as what
responding on these newsgroups does. And the ones on the
phone have the potential of becoming customers.

If you are successful at this, you will find yourself spending more
and more time giving "free" advice to these people. As long as
you *have* free time -- this is fine.

I've owned the store for 6 years, and I've managed to work it out. Some
things can't easily be solved over the phone, and some people should not
stick their hands inside their computers. In six years, I've had very few
people who simply waste my time, and if I have other things that need to be
done, that's what I do. If it's a problem that intrigues me, or a person the
I enjoy helping, it's my time to waste.


It's when you get busy and start saying things like "I can't help you
now" -- that you will find there are unreasonable and loutish clients
who are simply rude and demanding -- even when you are being a
"nice guy".

I've done that. No one's gotten rude or demanding.



Actually I've gotten quite a few customers who've come in for
service after calling, since some people, even with instruction,
are skittish about doing certain things with their computer. And
I have quite a number of customers who ignore their warranty
and bring the computer to me for repair. Or I diagnose they
problem, they get parts under warranty, and I replace them.
So it's not all bad.

Fine. They're paying you for this service.


And many have come to me because they called first, and I offered some
simple suggestions. If it was something they couldn't do, or didn't work,
they bring the work to me. It doesn't always happen, but we also get a lot
of referrals from those sorts of people because we're not rude when people
call with questions.


As far as the enforceability of it, there's no way they could get
all of the ones who don't provide support, but they could crack
down on the most blatant offenders. And you'd think it would be
easy for them to muscle companies like Dell and Gateway and
the like. When people call for support and day, "Dell won't help
me" they've got the evidence right there.

Of course, they won't do it, but it would be nice.

I noticed you didn't quote the further paragraphs in my previous
post. Nor did you comment on that. Yet you made the above
remark. I find that sad.


I snipped after Mike B's header as that seemed to be a response to what he
said. Why you find that sad, I don't know, as now that I've looked back on
it, you snipped all of his post and responded to Testy's one line. As far as
my not commenting on it, this "marketeer" thing seems to be one of your
personal hotspots, which is fine. But I tend to respond to things that
either I can help with or that I have a comment about because it interests
and/or amuses me.

I'm sure that you also pick and choose what you respond to.

The "Of course, they won't do it" is *intimately" tied into the whole
airhead marketing-mentality avoidance-of-responsibility mindset
that dumps marketeer-created problems into other people's laps.

And your high-minded "noble" attitude to the problem is part of
the reason this silly nonsense continues.

Oh, I doubt that I'm being noble at all. I help non-customers on the phone
because I find that it's a good way to turn a percentage of them into
customers. If I look at what it costs me to answers those questions vs. what
it costs me for print advertising, then look at the number of customers each
gets me, the "being nice to people" on the phone gets me more customers.

As far as answering questions on the newsgroup, it's a great way to learn
what sorts of problems other people are having on their computers, so that
when I run across the same issue with a customer's computer, I have some
ideas what to look for. It's certainly more interesting than memorizing the
knowledge base.


Marketeers need to be ground up, spit out and pounded into
the ground for turning this business into a circus that only a fool
could love.

Well, you've already called me a fool, so there you have it.