Yesterday was a crappy day at work. It was one of those days where I spent hours and hours working my ass off, but making absolutely no progress. I was trying to implement a new backup solution on a new network I'm building, and attempting to get an Exchange server on that new domain, so folks could send and receive email once they were moved to the new network. I spent a couple of hours trying to make Exchange work, but my efforts were totally fruitless. So I figured I'd work on the easier of the two tasks -- and spent the next six-plus hours trying to get the backup software to install.
My company has been using Veritas (now Symantec) as our backup solution since God was a child. Yet when it comes time to upgrade, they won't give me any live support until I buy their product. I can cruise through their online help, and I can use the online forums, but in this case, it was a complete waste of time. I tried everything they mentioned on their site, but it was all useless. In fact, about four of the six-plus hours were devoted to sifting through the shit to find the nuggets of useful information. But in the end, it was all crap. So let's see here... they won't provide me any support until I buy the product. But I'm not going to buy the product until I know it works. Here's a little hint for you software vendors out there. Give us tech-type folks a little support when we're evaluating your product. Quit being so unwilling to give us real support until we buy your product. Newsflash, dumb-asses! We're not going to buy your product until we're convinced that your product -- and your tech support -- is worth the purchase. Do you see how you're hamstringing yourself here? If I like the product you're producing, I'll buy it. It's not goot business to piss off the potential customer when they're evaluating your product -- especially when there are plenty of competing products that will work equally well.
Fast forward to today. I spent the first few hours once again beating my head against the wall, trying to get my "easy" project finished. Eventually, the headbanging worked. I gave up, and started back to working on my Exchange problem. At the end of the day -- success! I got my Exchange problem fixed; and in all honesty, beating my head against the wall is a contributing factor as to why I feel so much personal gratification over making the Exchange server work.
Now, tomorrow, I'm going to try to do an end-around and call Veritas' (oops, Symantec's) sales rep and see if he can get me the tech support. If not, I guess I'll just take my business elsewhere.
My company has been using Veritas (now Symantec) as our backup solution since God was a child. Yet when it comes time to upgrade, they won't give me any live support until I buy their product. I can cruise through their online help, and I can use the online forums, but in this case, it was a complete waste of time. I tried everything they mentioned on their site, but it was all useless. In fact, about four of the six-plus hours were devoted to sifting through the shit to find the nuggets of useful information. But in the end, it was all crap. So let's see here... they won't provide me any support until I buy the product. But I'm not going to buy the product until I know it works. Here's a little hint for you software vendors out there. Give us tech-type folks a little support when we're evaluating your product. Quit being so unwilling to give us real support until we buy your product. Newsflash, dumb-asses! We're not going to buy your product until we're convinced that your product -- and your tech support -- is worth the purchase. Do you see how you're hamstringing yourself here? If I like the product you're producing, I'll buy it. It's not goot business to piss off the potential customer when they're evaluating your product -- especially when there are plenty of competing products that will work equally well.
Fast forward to today. I spent the first few hours once again beating my head against the wall, trying to get my "easy" project finished. Eventually, the headbanging worked. I gave up, and started back to working on my Exchange problem. At the end of the day -- success! I got my Exchange problem fixed; and in all honesty, beating my head against the wall is a contributing factor as to why I feel so much personal gratification over making the Exchange server work.
Now, tomorrow, I'm going to try to do an end-around and call Veritas' (oops, Symantec's) sales rep and see if he can get me the tech support. If not, I guess I'll just take my business elsewhere.
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