At 10:21 AM 1/24/97 -0500, Wireless Scientific wrote:

>Bob,
>
>You sound like a manufacturer yourself. My company is continually fielding
>technical support questions from developers and end users alike. Sure it
>would nice to help everybody but we are business to sell product. We really
>help our customers, or potential customers, who convince us that they will
>buy serious volumes.
>
>So a word of advice to PIC developers. Buying a single product and expecting
>serious support is unrealistic. If you want support you have to convince
>the supplier of your market. Your "neat" idea that could help to world is
>something they hear everyday and for the most, it doesn't mean anything.
>
>So sorry that the truth hurts.
>
>craig
>

Craig:

Thats a attitude that is quite common. Its also a reason for me not
to deal with a company. Case in point... I had to spec a low end
microcontroller for a project. Looked at a number of companies
(Motorola being one). Motorola had almost exactly the attitude
you mentioned... I just wanted a few samples to evaluate them..
The only company that provided the support I wanted for my evaluation
was MicroChip. They got my business and so far I have bought over
$10,000 in product from them in 1996. Small potatoes, maybe... but
as my company grows I won't forget the snub I got from Motorola. Remember,
many companies (like HP..Apple) start in garages... I think its short
sighted to snub these people. Analog Devices is another one that is
ignoring smaller companies... at least in the multi-media market.
Suppliers, we won't forget this as are companies grow.

I'm sure Jan's case is a different issue, but you hit upon a hot
spot of mine.


Regards,

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| Jeff King      Aero Data Systems |
| jeff@mich.com  P.O. Box 9325     |
| (810)471-1787  Livonia, MI 48151 |
|F(810)471-0279  United States     |
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