Re: How long does technical support take?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg62143] Re: [mg62109] How long does technical support take?
- From: Clifford Martin <camartin at snet.net>
- Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 03:32:41 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
John, If you are a Premier subsciber why don't you get on the phone and try to talk with someone in person? Sometimes it takes a bit but generally you get someone who is interested in the problem, eventually. From your posts it looks like there is a problem but it may be (as you suggest) more widespread than just Mathematica. Don't give up. Regards, Cliff Martin --- John Sidles <sidles at u.washington.edu> wrote: > Dear Mathgroup folks > > Once a week I send a message to Technical support > like this: > > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > Dear Mathematica support > > > > It is now one month with no substantial help > regarding request > > [TS 28968] Mathematica SingularValueDecomposition > failure. > > Please send a status report soon, addressing: > > > > (a) Have you reproduced this bug? > > (b) Do you know a workaround at present? > > (c) If no workaround is known, when will one be > available? > > > > If none of the above can be answered, please > reply estimating > > when *any* substantial reply will be forthcoming. > This is > > a serious bug that is obstructing a large > research program. > > > > Thank you for your (hoped for) customer support. > > > > Sincerely > > John Sidles, Professor > > UW School of Medicine > > UW Quantum System Engineering Group > > ( http://www.mrfm.org ) > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > Within a day or two, I receive this reply, which > never varies: > > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > We wanted to let you know that we have received > your email and > > that we're working on answering your query as > quickly as possible. > > > For questions such as these, we often rely on the > expertise of > > our development team for help. As soon as we have > more concrete > > information on your request, we'll contact you > again. > > > Thank you for your continued patience. > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > The irritative thing is, this reply is completely > non-responsive, > and it promises action at a vague future date that > never seems to > arrive. Since it never varies, it seems originate > from an automated > script, and not a real person; no real person would > be so obtuse! > > I polled my colleagues at the Institute for > Mathematical Analysis, > and many of them have also experienced sporadic > problems with singular > value decomposition, not only in Mathematica, but in > other analysis > packages too. > > What these packages have in common is, they are all > based on LAPACK. > What my colleagues think is, the bug may be in the > LAPACK code itself. > > We'd be very happy to help Wolfram Research track > this bug down, but > we hope for some reciprocal respect from Wolfram > Research, in the form > responsive replies to bug reports. > > I regret to say that many of my colleagues have > simply given up filing > bug reports, for reasons that must be pretty > obvious. In the long run, > this can only reduce the quality of Wolfram > products, IMHO. > >