Re: How long does technical support take?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg62145] Re: How long does technical support take?
- From: michael_chang86 at hotmail.com
- Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 03:32:47 -0500 (EST)
- References: <dl1k1k$3v$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Hi, Oh my ... although on a different matter, I hope that my recent inquiry to Wolfram also does not meet the same fate. In my situation, after about a week's waiting, I finally received a message stating that the "developers" regarding my question were contacted. I sure hope that this doesn't drag on like the *month* you stated below! Yikes!!! Michael John Sidles 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.