Cadalyst - October 2007 - (Page 42)

mcadmodeling Scary Customers To be fair, software support gets their share of frightening users: A new employee called the Help Desk to complain that there was something wrong with her password. No, it wasn’t the usual caps-lock problem. “The problem is that whenever I type the password, it just shows stars,” she said. “Those asterisks are to protect you,” the Help Desk technician explained, “so if someone were standing behind you, they wouldn’t be able to read your password.” “Yeah,” she said, “but they show up even when there is no one standing behind me.” A Reader’s Story: Going in Circles Customer support is available only if you can find a path to it. For those older than 30, it seems to be a place that one cannot find. You wind up going in circles, always getting back to the same place but not to a place where you can send an e-mail to customer support. It should be listed at the top of the page, and one click should take you to the proper place. No matter what program I’m in, the same thing should get me to customer support every time I try. — Rudolf Nordman, by e-mail and your schedule might as well be dead. It’s sad but true. The only thing worse is when the software people are overseas and the company asks you to sign a release to send your file over the border. This one is tantamount to the final nail in the coffin. (Cue the creaky door closing.) I don’t know about your company, but most of the companies I’ve worked for have to send the release form to the legal department to ascertain whether it puts the company at risk. Lawyers don’t move quickly when dealing with something like this. As hard as it may seem to believe, they have an aversion to letting proprietary information leave the company. Most of the time, you might as well not bother. “Huh?” Another frustrating thing I’ve heard more times than I care to remember is, “Why ever would you want to do that?” I called in a problem I was having, and the customer support person couldn’t understand my problem. Just because it was an industry standard — something software companies say they strictly adhere to — didn’t mean anything. Try as I might, that person never did get it. I asked the person to write an enhancement request. He did, but I could tell by the sound of his voice he didn’t think it would ever happen. (Cue the wolf howl.) I’m the customer! If I want something, I feel I should get it — or at least be understood. Another bad experience is when you call in to customer support to talk to a person who is supposed to be the expert about the software (why else would you want to call them?) and at some point they exclaim, “I didn’t know it would do that.” (Cue cat screaming.) What? I’ve been doing that forever! You didn’t know it could do that? Aye-yi-yi! And then there are the times when you are trying to get something to work, and you try to get some help. After asking a few questions the expert will end up blaming your troubles not on their software but on some other hardware or software that is installed on your computer. (Cue the eerie, distant laughter). My mother raised me to take responsibility for my actions. Come on, guys! If your product is at fault, fess up. Advance your career in CAD management. Broaden your tech, business, and management skills with savvy insights and real-world advice from Cadalyst columnist Robert Green. There’s Always a Way In the end, there’s always a way to work out whatever problem you have. It might involve substantial work on your behalf, but you can do it. As scary as all this sounds, most modeling programs are of relatively high quality, and you should be able to figure them out. If you call customer support, more than likely you’ll get good and speedy help to resolve your issues. But if on a dark and stormy night you manage to find customer support . . . heck, beware . . . beware! c Mike Hudspeth, IDSA, is an industrial designer, artist, and author based in St. Louis, Missouri. 978-0-470-11653-1 www.cad-manager.com/book Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and /or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 42 October 2007 | cadalyst | www.cadalyst.com http://www.cad-manager.com/book http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - October 2007

Contents Editor's Window Cad Central Tech Trends: First-Hand Architecture in Second Life Rev It Up — Graphics Cards Pack Power for Today’s Hottest Designs TurboCAD Pro 14 — 3D Modeling Software SimEnterprise R2 — Design Simulation Software CADopia 6.2 SP3 Professional Edition — 2D and 3D Modeling Software Cad Manager: Programming Resources for CAD Managers MCAD Modeling: Customer Service Horror Stories PLM Strategies: Manufacturing Across Time Zones AEC in Focus: Digital-Asset Management in AEC/O Cad Cartoon Issue Indexes Cadfidential

Cadalyst - October 2007

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