Taking risks on software (ISC)

[Jack F. Vogel]

In article <935 at zoom.Clik.QC.CA> marc at Clik.QC.CA (Marc Boucher) writes:
 
>	I have also been disappointed with your telephone support. I have been
>stupidly asked many times for the "exact error message" with to the word
>precision! so that the ignorant interactive employee could look it up in her
>miracle problem solving database.

I can't really speak for Interactive's support, but it seems absurd to
complain about somebody requiring you to give them an accurate account of
some error condition. We require the same thing from our customers, and this
is NOT so some "ignorant" employee can check a database, it is so I can
determine using the source code what was going on in the particular error.
There may be many similar messages in the kernel or application source, so
that an exact quote becomes critical for accurate analysis. Naturally there
are different levels of support, some first level persons may not really
be developers, they may not know the code and thus use some database of
reported problems, but even so their report will eventually need to make
its way to the development level and the report's completeness and
accuracy will determine if it gets fixed or not.

I can appreciate someone's frustration at not having a problem fixed, or
not having a receptive support person, but don't let that cloud the issues!

Disclaimer: These are my opinions, not necessarily LCC's or IBM's

--
Jack F. Vogel			jackv at seas.ucla.edu
AIX Technical Support	              - or -
Locus Computing Corp.		jackv at ifs.umich.edu