Have you ever wondered what would be to find a really nice software product that you want, that is reasonably priced and working flawlessly on your personal computer from the first installation? Sounds good, huh? Imagine now, for a small problem you call the technical support,… suddenly a real, knowledgeable and friendly person answers the phone and within a few minutes everything is back to normal flawless performance… Yeah! You have got me now – I am dreaming.
Well, let us wakeup and take a little different approach, less demanding, perhaps more realistic. Let us say the first two requests are met – the software is nicely designed and built, and you want it. Let us not be way too demanding and let us not start complaining after the fifth unsuccessful installation attempt on two different off the shelf computers built by the two of the leading computer manufacturers. It is not a big deal after all. You can always call a few skilful friends to help, call uncle Harry who is computer wiz working for Dell or IBM and the best part – while they are wrestling with the installation of the software, you can listen to some nice music on the phone while hopelessly waiting somebody from the technical support to answer. Sound’s familiar? I told you that we will get down to earth, didn’t I.
Don’t loose hope. Wait! Somebody will pick up the phone. They always do… eventually. And here it begins – none of the observations on the problem that your small team made is worth anything. Please, let us be patient and listen to the technical support gurus. They know what they are doing when they ask you to restart the computer 2-3 times, unplug all the cables and plug them in again, check the weather outside or check the phase of the moon… and some other important manipulations. You better follow closely the instructions if you want to spear your own time – the tech guru obviously enjoys unlimited time. Who cares for the next sucker on the phone - he is listening to the nice music and should not complain.
Ultimately we are getting to the point where it becomes absolutely clear that you need to buy a piece of new hardware for your computer in order to run this software. Yeah, yeah… I remember that both of the machines that you are playing around with are brand new and the leading manufacturers make them… I know that they meet all the listed system requirements… anyway, I am telling you – you need this hardware. Let us not be shortsighted – why argue – your new computer will become even better after all. The software was reasonably priced. You saved a couple dollars. What is the problem with spending a couple hundred more to achieve two goals at once – working software and a better computer. There is a small obstacle though – your local electronic store does not care such an advanced piece of hardware, but that is for you own good – you can order it via the Internet and save even more money. Smart, huh? Usually, in less than 10-15 days we will be almost ready to try the software again. Call you small army of helpers again to install the hardware for you – they have nothing better to do anyway. Look at their faces when they try to install the software again and get the same nonsense error message – it is fun. If you stupidly forgot to start calling the technical support right at the beginning of these events, now all of you will listen to the boring music for a while.
Naturally, you can’t talk to the same person as before but it is not that bad. The new guy sounds even more knowledgeable and he is attacking the problem from a slightly different angle. He is not even mentioning the word hardware and he is kind of talking for different things. You are under the impression that he has no idea about you case. The truth is that he indeed has no idea about your case. There may or may not be a record of your case, but even if there was a record, why bother reading it, since you are on the phone anyway and you will tell him the story.
This guy begins guiding you to update every single driver in your newly purchased system. Then he is making you close anything and everything that is running on your computer, including the antivirus software and the firewall. The firewall may need only to be setup correctly and to let it be there, but you don’t know how to do it anyway, so don’t complain and shut the darn thing off, please. Once we bring up-to-date every possible thing in our new computer and all the test shows that our machine is really ready to do some computing, the tech guy is instructing you to uninstall the software and to start a new installation again… only to get exactly the same result as before. Then… then there is a pause. The problem is complicated and should be elevated to the next technical support level. Wow… next level! I bet you never thought of such a thing but now while you are listening to the annoying music again you are thinking… you are thinking what support level you might need if the installation actually passes.
In the mean time your helpers are bored to dead, run out of beer and finally decide that they have reached their limits. They are living you on your own.
After good 10 minutes or so the music is interrupted by the voice of the same person that you spent last 45 minutes with. What else did you expect?… only the level has changed. Now the tech-guy is giving you an Internet URL address where you can find and download the latest patch for the software that you purchased a few days ago. The patch is applied flawlessly and… YES!!!… No, no, don’t get me wrong the software is not running yet but the error message is different. It is somehow refreshing, isn’t it? Now the tech-guy makes a really long pause - so long that you are not sure whether he is still on the other end of the line. Since you have nothing else to do but wait, you have enough time to start your second machine with the off the shelf hardware and old drivers, and to apply the software patch. Then suddenly… the software starts running on this computer. Wow! Unbelievable! You proudly announce this fact to the tech-guy perhaps expecting to sense some confusion or maybe to get some explanation about the recommendation to purchase the expensive piece of hardware that you obviously don’t need. Don’t be so naive! All you get is – “Good job! Finally WE did it. What else can I do for you?” Now you got really scared – what if you accidentally ask him about that weak sound that you heard the other day while you were driving your car… better don’t. Just say thank you and be happy. After all you have enough reasons to be happy – The software is running and you made it yourself. You also have a really well updated and upgraded second computer. It is true that you may need to call again your helpers to remedy some of the updates made in order to make it usable but what is the big deal. Forget about this now, and let us concentrate on the running software – we have more fun on the way.
Now since we have running software it is completely new ball game. It doesn’t take long to realize that whoever wrote this software never had any idea that there is other software that you may want to use on your computer. The guys that wrote this piece of software had in mind all the resources that you computer can offer.
