Linked by Fred McCann on Wed 25th Aug 2004 21:00 UTC
I recently had a bad experience with an application service provider that illustrated a growing problem with technology companies- lack of service and support. We have grown complacent as technology consumers and we allow vendors to offer very poor levels of service that wouldn't be allowed in other markets.
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There are software companies that provide horrible paid support, miniscule documentation, and expensive software that turns out to be crap in the long run.
There is this company that makes insurance software which costs about a million dollar. Almost a year later, you will discover the insurance system is very buggy. So buggy, it is an infestation. There is no technical documentation about it, so you have no way to fix it. Support is not free, you have to pay for it. If they provide source, that's another million dollars. If you did ask for paid support, that's hundreds of dollars per hour you have to pay. In several months, they may get back to you with something. The company will not acknowledge any problems in the system.
Another words, its like buying broken glass, but you don't notice how badly broken it is until many moons later and numerous dollars wrong in the system. What do you do? And because its software - you can't get your money back. So, you're stuck with software like flies on (organic waste).
I even had a big retailer/grocery store refuse to refund me money for software I bought the day before. This company accepts almost any purchases back EXCEPT software. I only returned because it refused to install on my computer. Maybe that's another issue for another topic.
In my opinion, "Customer Support" for software whether paid or not is an ugly joke! The only "real" support I get from software is with any communities or web pages you can search for on the internet.