Word Perfect Support

[Edward M Dumanis]

On Thu, 1 Jun 1995 twoofus at execpc.com wrote:

> Edward M Dumanis said:
>
> >I do not think we should believe WordPerfect's promises.  Unfortunately,
> >after being bought by Nowell, they no longer provide friendly support to
> >the users, the one we used to enjoy.  Before they were bought, when I
> >had called them reporting the bugs, they always tried to correct them,
> >and they would sent me a free copy of a new version when they could not
> >correct the problem with the existing one.  Not anymore!  Now they simply
> >suggest that you buy a new release, possibly one with new bugs.  Their
> >support service used to be a very important advantage for desk-top
> >publishing.  Nowadays, I would recommend other software packages.
>
>
>  Your absolutely correct that with 5.1 WP had no problems sending out free
> copies to fix the bugs and whether they continue that policy for 6.1 remains
> to be seen.  The thing to remember though, is that what they sent out was a
> new release of the same version (5.1) and not a new version.  Of course,
> whenever a software company moves on to a completely new version (as WP did
> with 6.0 and now 6.1), the previous versions are no longer completely
> supported in the sense that the company no longer attempts to fix the bugs.
> Instead, they suggest you buy the upgrade.
> This is standard industry practice and it does make sense, as much as we
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> may hate to admit it.
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I disagree.  They did not have such practice before.


> I think that the
> support problems you describe probably reflect an unfortunate coincidence
> between the purchase by Novell and the move from a Dos-based software to
> Windows-based software and the release of new versions of each.
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I tryed to work with their Window-based program, and immediately ran into
bugs there.  So, what's the bargain to upgrade?


> I'm not sure what bugs or problems in which versions you called them about,
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Most of them were related to typesetting in desk-top publishing.


> but in my personal experience the support people have always been very nice
      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> and very helpful.
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You are right about the people, but I mean also their policy which used
to be very friendly, and it is no longer the case.  Somehow, I always
thouhgt that I was doing them a favor when reporting to them their bug that
had not been known.  I am not talking about asking them trivial
questions.  The quality of any support is determined by their ability
to quickly resolve difficult problems.  If I promissed my client to do
certain work based on functionality of their software, the least of all I
would like to run into a problem just a day before the deadline.  I won't
be paid if the work is not complete.  But it does not seem that the
WordPerfect is much concerned about it now.

> I sometimes work as a temp, so I've had plenty of occasions
> to call them about 5.1, 6.0 and 6.1 with problems ranging anywhere from
> trivial questions to document-threatening crises.  Again, the problem I ran
> into with my Russian module for 6.0 wasn't so much due to a change in the
> customer support policy as it was to the fact that the company had moved so
> quickly into 6.1 that there wasn't time to produce a de-bugged release of 6.0.
>  Instead the solutions were incorporated into 6.1.  Consequently, the only
> thing they could say was for me to buy the new version.
                                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sure, somebody ought to pay for their lousy work testing the quality of
the product that they release porematurely.  So, why not you?


> I'd be interested in knowing which software packages you prefer.

I know that Mac users do not have the problems that tortured me.  My
problem that I cannot switch to Mac because I have the whole group of
translators working on PCs.  We have to have compatible hardware, and
replacing all of it is cost-prohibitive.  Corel software was suggested
but I never tested it.  Does anyone has any experience with it?

Edward Dumanis <dumanis at acsu.buffalo.edu>