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List:       zaurus-general
Subject:    [Zaurus-general] Re: the kompany's tkc e-mail support list is
From:       Shawn Gordon <shawn () thekompany ! com>
Date:       2003-10-21 16:18:49
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Greg,

Everytime you've been removed from the list, it was because you didn't 
follow the list rules and we received repeated complaints from our other 
customers.  There are thousands of people on this list, and for the most 
part they don't want to hear your call for revolution.  The massive 
majority of our customers are totally happy with their software and only 
need to ask periodic questions, they don't even move to the latest updates 
because they haven't a need for it.  At the end of the day you had just 
stepped on too many toes between our customers and ourselves, we were 
getting too many complaints and without exception since we shut down the 
list, every email has been "I found the list useful, but I don't blame you, 
those few people were really getting on my nerves".

We have tens of thousands of customers all over the world and sell software 
every day through multiple channels, we have extensive internal testing, 
sometimes things slip through the cracks because we rush a release out for 
whatever reason.  The entire problem you had with us was because you bought 
our software for a B500 when we didn't claim to have support for that device.

I don't know why you felt compelled to take it public, but there is my 
public response and the only one I will make.

Shawn

At 08:23 AM 10/21/2003, Greg Conquest wrote:
>Over at the kompany (http://www.thekompany.com/embedded/), they have (had)
>an e-mail discussion list. Shawn Gordon, the president of the kompany, has
>been trying to keep the levels of politeness up and complaining down and
>recently he has taken to shutting the list down completely for a day or two
>when too many posters began complaining. The kompany also runs a new
>web-based forum to handle some of the discussion
>(http://www.thekompany.com/support/forum/viewforum.php?f=8). The discussion
>there is kept more civil -- Big Boss just deletes posts he feels are, um,
>undesirable.
>
>On Saturday the email list finally closed, this time apparently for good. In
>the past, after each shut-down, it often felt like people were walking on
>eggshells with a lot of self-censorship and off-line discussions trying to
>figure out what was going on -- and why. Then, after a while of polite
>discussion, the next "hot topic" would surface, and the cycle would repeat
>itself. I understand that there may sometimes be a need to control some
>posters, but the tkc list was actually fairly well-behaved. And I don't know
>what shutting the whole list down actually accomplishes. I imagine that if
>Shawn does "grant" the tkc customers the gift of opening up the list again,
>many satisfied customers will begin to shout down the unsatisfied customers
>when they begin to complain. It would become "self-censoring". That would be
>an accomplishment -- with little ultimate value though. The free flow of
>ideas, though not pretty, is needed for the development of quality software.
>
>I was one of the dissatisfied customers of the kompany till a day or so
>before the shutdown. Shawn removed me personally from the list, took me
>totally out of the support system and then gave me a refund for all my
>purchases. He made me out to be the bad guy in our relationship (rude and
>abusive, he said). I actually would have preferred a refund for the two apps
>I couldn't use (Calendar and Addressbook) and I had asked for such. My other
>apps were working OK. I would have considered buying the two apps again when
>they were finished. Shawn took away my ability to do this, however. Shawn's
>reaction was, in my opinion, undeserved on any account. I shouldn't be
>expected to change my personality (yes, I can be retentive at times, I know)
>to one the president of a company approves of just to have a discussion on
>software I purchased.
>
>I think the whole community of Zaurus users ought to know this before
>purchasing a suite of tkc applications. And if you think I am somehow
>unreasonable, a trouble-maker clouding the issue, just look at my 36 or so
>posts here (and elsewhere, especially on the USENET
>http://makeashorterlink.com/?J12C34246). I think I ask decent questions, try
>to learn from my mistakes, try to help others, and complain when I think I
>should. Some of my motivation is personal, but I genuinely try to be a good
>community member. Besides, Shawn has shut the list down plenty of times when
>I wasn't involved at all. So, this issue is not just about me.
>
>Buyer beware -- and if you still want to try the kompany's apps, my advice
>would be buy the cheapest thing on your list, get into the customer support
>system, and then judge for yourself what more purchases would entail. The
>specific problems that exist now will all be fixed eventually; they're just
>the details this time. I'm not trying to air those specific problems here.
>The attitude toward customer support? Time alone can't fix that. This is the
>issue I'm airing publicly here -- off the tkc list.
>
>      ----- Greg Conquest -----
>       http://gregconquest.com
>
>BCC'ed to Shawn Gordon


Regards,

Shawn Gordon
President
theKompany.com
www.thekompany.com
949-713-3276


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