Christof wrote: > > On 16 Oct 97 at 9:59, Tjaart van der Walt wrote: > > > > I suppose If one was really tired of the quagmire of support, one could > > start mailing one's complaints directly to the big knobs. The 'press > > resleases' > > section one the web site kindly supplied us with the following names : > > > > These are all big names, so mind your P's and Q's. > > > > Friendly Regards > > > > Tjaart van der Walt > > > Dear Tjaart > > If you have got a problem with the high cost of your electricity bill or > your telephone is cut off for the x... time with no reason, do you really want > to complain to Nelson Mandela? > > (You really have to mind your P's and your F's!) > > Regards, > Christof Seeing as you didn't post it privately, I will answer it in public. I think you misunderstood me. I have previously (before you subscribed) stated clearly that the FAE and distributor support in this country is excellent. We also get very good prices compared to other countries. The effort and time you have spent here did not go unnoticed. (For the benefit of rest of the list, Christof is the FAE for PACE Electronics who are distributors of Microchip in SA.) I have also stated that the factory support stinks. Period. We forked out a lot of money for MPLAB-C on the premise that we would get free upgrades ad infinitum. Not so. Microchip has made their problems mine with the obvious lack of interest in supporting *paying* customers. I can only offer them the same answers that our customers give us when we have a problem : I don't give a shit. Sort out your problems. I don't care. Just do it. Get your act together. Hire more people. Cancel your vacation. The truth is Microchip is unable to support MPLAB-C because : 1) The (nonexistent) interrupt service routine context saving code that I have been licking Microchip's ass for since last year, doesn't work. I had to use code hacked from Bytecraft. 2) The so-called header files to support (hahahaha) the 8k devices, actually DOWNGRADES the 8K to 4k. This is preposterous! How the hell can Microchip stay in business with this kind of practise? The local factory rep have been promising me upgrades for MPLAB-C for 10 months. Where is it? Oh sure the 17CXXX will be available 'soon', but this wasn't explained to me when we paid good money for it. To solve our problem, we had to buy MPC (from PACE) too. One compiler for the price of two. Is anybody interested in buying our copy of MPLAB-C? My only consolation is that Microchip will feel the heat now. Scenix and Atmel (AVR) will break the monopoly on the low-ends. Motorola offers chips with an order of magnitude more functionality+flash+on-board-ICE for about 20% more. PS : to answer your question about the electricity bill - of course. -- Friendly Regards Tjaart van der Walt mailto:tjaart@wasp.co.za _____________________________________________________________ | WASP International http://www.wasp.co.za/~tjaart/index.html | | R&D Engineer : GSM peripheral services development | | Vehicle tracking | Telemetry systems | GSM data transfer | | Voice : +27-(0)11-622-8686 | Fax : +27-(0)11-622-8973 | | WGS-84 : 26010.52'S 28006.19'E | |_____________________________________________________________| -- Friendly Regards Tjaart van der Walt mailto:tjaart@wasp.co.za _____________________________________________________________ | WASP International http://www.wasp.co.za/~tjaart/index.html | | R&D Engineer : GSM peripheral services development | | Vehicle tracking | Telemetry systems | GSM data transfer | | Voice : +27-(0)11-622-8686 | Fax : +27-(0)11-622-8973 | | WGS-84 : 26010.52'S 28006.19'E | |_____________________________________________________________|