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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.