Informal Survey about Symbolics Software Services

["Christopher M. Maeda" <MAEDA@AI.AI.MIT.EDU>]

- How often do you use the 800 number for software support?

	They have an 800 number?

- How often do you use customer-support e-mail for software support?

	Whenever I find a bug in the software.

- When did you last do so?

	I last submitted a bug report on the same day the
	internet worm trashed the net.  (I can't remember
	the date.)  I got a reply sometime in January.

- Any comments/criticisms/praise for the quality, speed, value of the
aid you get?

	The speed of replies sucks.  I've had to fix every bug
	that ever held me up on a lispm.  (Praise for having full
	sources.)  In the last bug, I sent a report to Symbolics,
	waited a day for a reply (I marked it priority 1), and then 
	fixed it and sent my patch.  A few months later, a Chatsworth
	guy said he was having trouble reproducing the error so I had 
	to send him some test code.  I never found out what they 
	did about it.

- Do you notice any change since 1988 in the quality, speed and/or
value of the e-mail responses?

	No.

Other comments and questions always welcome. Thanks again.

	My big gripe with customer service is that the guys at SCH
	are nice but not the most accomplished hackers I've ever
	met.  There also seems to not be much communication between 
	the developers in scrc and the tech support guys at sch.
	The Chatsworth people always say they will forward patches
	to developers or that they will get in touch with developers.
	I don't think the two groups have ever met.  Symbolics should
	come up with some solution to this problem like make each
	tech support person spend a few days per year on a development
	team.

	Chris Maeda
	MCC and MIT AI Lab