Subject: (usr-tc) Big News coming May1?

From: Mark Thornton <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 17:12:04 +0000

I just got of the phone with the evil ones and confirmed that I will have to
start smuggling drugs in order to pay for software downloads only with no
tech support. The cost of the actual tech support would require more than
the profit margin on drug running allows!

While on the phone it was noted that something is going to happen on or
about May 1 the will significantly affect 3Com RAS customers. I don't know
whether it will be good or bad, but when has something good come from this
company? They claim they are losing money on support. My response is that if
you make a poroduct that is reliable there wouldn't be a support problem. I
also indicated that if the support contracts were reasonably priced ( I
described my Cisco contracts and the level of support I get) then they
wouldn't be losing money. Let's face it, we are professionals. What we need
is good code, not a bunch of phone support folks. Sell software support at
reasonable price and a lot of folks would buy it.

BTW, given the tone of the conversation I don't think there is a chance in
the hot place that quads are going to be supported. I got the feeling they
are trying to figure out how to not support anything at all, but then they
pretty much have that wired now. I am going to contact my equipment rep now
and see what the options are going forward, but it doesn't look good. My
initial thoughts were that with the cost of DSP's under $2500 and a software
contract it didn't make sense to look at the Patton's or others. Patton
couldn't give a good enough price to meet the difference. If software
support is no longer available then that analysis is no longer valid. I
don't really want to take on a new lease for dialup gear but that may be the
way to go.

Mark Thornton
San Marcos Internet, Inc.
512-393-5300

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From: Jeff Mcadams <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 18:01:40 +0000

Mark...my apologies if I've overstepped here.  I thought about trimming
more of your quoted text below, but I think Al and Irfan need to hear
what customers are saying about 3Com/CommWorks.

Also sprach Mark Thornton
>I just got of the phone with the evil ones and confirmed that I will
>have to start smuggling drugs in order to pay for software downloads
>only with no tech support. The cost of the actual tech support would
>require more than the profit margin on drug running allows!

>about May 1 the will significantly affect 3Com RAS customers. I don't
>know whether it will be good or bad, but when has something good come
>from this company?

>They claim they are losing money on support. My response is that if you
>make a poroduct that is reliable there wouldn't be a support problem. I
>wouldn't be losing money. Let's face it, we are professionals. What we
>need is good code, not a bunch of phone support folks. Sell software
>support at reasonable price and a lot of folks would buy it.

I don't think this thought can be emphasized (and forwarded ;) enough.
If support contracts were available reasonably, then more people like
the people on this list would purchase them.  By and large, the people
on this list only call 3Com/CommWorks when we either have equipment die
and needs to be replaced, or we find a bug in *their* code and want to
report it to them.

I can pretty much guarentee you that if support were reasonably priced
IgLou would get 24x7xnext business day hardware and software support on
our equipment.  That's a pretty significant amount of revenue for
support that 3Com/CommWorks *isn't* getting right now.  And you can
pretty much ask anyone around Rolling Meadows that about the only time
they hear from me is when 3Com/CommWorks pulls some sort of idiotic move
like EOL'ing the quads, when I have hardware fail, or when I am
reporting a bug to them!  That's easy money Al, but you're not getting
it right now, because you're being so fascist about your policies.

Go back to Econ 101...Sometimes the solution to making more money on a
product is to *lower* the cost of it.  Supply and demand curves and all
that jazz.  3Com/CommWorks pretty much has a whole list of people right
here hosted at XMission that they could get extra revenue off of if
they'd just make their pricing reasonable.

>BTW, given the tone of the conversation I don't think there is a chance
>in the hot place that quads are going to be supported. I got the
>feeling they are trying to figure out how to not support anything at
>all, but then they pretty much have that wired now. I am going to
>contact my equipment rep now and see what the options are going
>forward, but it doesn't look good. My initial thoughts were that with
>the cost of DSP's under $2500 and a software contract it didn't make
>sense to look at the Patton's or others. Patton couldn't give a good
>enough price to meet the difference. If software support is no longer
>available then that analysis is no longer valid. I don't really want to
>take on a new lease for dialup gear but that may be the way to go.
-- 
Jeff McAdams                            Email: [email-masked]
Head Network Administrator              Voice: (502) 966-3848
IgLou Internet Services                        (800) 436-4456

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