Nov 88 Mousehole
Volume Number: 4
Issue Number: 11
Column Tag: Mousehole Report
Customer Service Problems 
By Rusty Hodgee, Mousehole BBS
MouseHole is currently taking new members. There is no charge for MacTutor
subscribers. (MouseHole DownLoad, which is a separate system, has a $10 annual
charge.)
At this time, we have four 2400 baud modem ports. We have access to Usenet
newsfeeds, including “comp.sys.mac” and many other Mac-related topics. MouseHole
can send mail to the UUCP world, and gateway to ARPA and BITNET.
The main 2400 baud number for MouseHole is: (714) 921-2252, and there are 4
lines on this number. We also have a Telebit PEP high-speed modem on (714)
998-1199. Once you connect, hit return once or twice until you get the “login:”
prompt. At this point, type hole. At the ‘hole’ login, type none to get a password. In
the future, type your assigned username here.
On other notes, Orange County is a PC Pursuit area ( currently 1200 baud only). This
should make calling MouseHole much more affordable. The node is ‘SAN’ for our part
of the 714 area code. Also, if you can email to an UUCP address, you can mail posts in
to MouseHole. The following mail gateway addresses are valid:
{anywhere}!crash.cts.com!pnet06!chatter
Assorted Mac Topics
{anywhere}!crash.cts.com!pnet06!rumors
Hot Mac Gossip
{anywhere}!crash.cts.com!pnet06!pascal
Pascal Programmers
{anywhere}!crash.cts.com!pnet06!c
C Programmers
MouseHole DownLoad has 2 lines and supports 2400 baud. It can be reached at (714)
533-6112. You can use your Visa/MC and sign up online, or browse (and upload of
course) for free. The MouseHole Download Sysop is Larry Nedry.
From: robert (Rob Anthony)
Subject: PC Pursuit
I finally reached someone at PC Pursuit who would give me the straight
dope:apparently (they say) 714 area code is reachable, but the link there is in beta
testing, so they don’t usually tell anyone about it. They refused to speculate when it
might be “up” on a regular basis. I think I’ll take my chances.
From: bhall (Brian Hall, Houston, TX)
I’ve been using the San Jose (CASAN) outdial for a week or two, and it seems to work
fine. Unfortunately, I suppose it’s only 1200 baud; I haven’t bo thered to try 2400...
From: rusty (Mr. Rusty Hodge, Orange, CA)
You mean Santa Ana, I hope, if you are calling MouseHole. San Jose is about 400 miles
away.
From: rdclark (Richard Clark, Tustin, CA)
Subject: LightSpeed C Updates
For the rest of you who are waiting for LSC upgrades (and myself), here’s the scoop:
I spoke with Symantec’s “Customer Service” (sic) department this morning.They are
currently backordered, and out of stock on the product. (Currently, they are waiting
for manuals to come from the printer.) The lady on the phone swore that all
back-orders will be filled by September 15. Rumor has it that the upgrade packages
are different than the “real” LSC 3.0 which is currently shipping. Care to bet that the
upgrade costs them less to manufacture (although the $70 upgrade cost must be pretty
close to the wholesale cost, considering that the mail-order houses have it for $95.)
If your time is worth more than $1.00 a day, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to stop
payment on your checks and get the product from an honest distributor.
From:davidw (David Whiteman,La Jolla, CA)
I would stop payment on my check, but Symantec cashed the check 5 weeks ago. What
makes me even madder is that three weeks ago I called to ask whether LSP 2.0 would
support MacApp; at that time they said it would, now they say they are writing their
own version of MacApp which will be available sometime in the future. Of course they
already cashed my check for the LSP upgrade as well.
From:emmayche(Mark Hartman,Fullerton)
Subject: Re: LightSpeed C Updates
I have already received my LSC update, and it is a FULL package, with new manuals and
disks. Word of warning - keep your old manuals. If you’re like me and sometimes
need to look up how a particular argument should be passed, you’ll need the V2 book -
the V3 book has nothing comparable.
From: jhowarth
(Jack W. Howarth, Houston, TX)
I have had my upgrade for about a month and the manuals I received were soft bound
like any other software publisher might use. No problem there. The only thing you
don’t get is the box with the smiling programmer’s face!
From: rdclark (Richard Clark, Tustin, CA)
Well, after calling them 3 times today (the first 2 times, I was placed on hold for 10
minutes each time, hung up, and called back), I spoke with the manager of Customer
service. (Note: the phone number is now 415/964-4440) She was not certain when
my order (sent August 9) was scheduled to go out, and wasn’t certain if they were
waiting for the disks or the manuals. However, she just called me back, and claimed
that the order is going out tomorrow. I’ll let you all know if they keep their promise.
Was the sudden improvement in my order status accidental? Probably not. If you’ve
been waiting the better part of forever for your LSC upgrade, call Symantec and
express your extreme displeasure at the way you’re being treated. DO NOT LET THEM
PLACE YOU ON HOLD, and ask to speak to the manager of customer service (Alice)
directly. Let’s hope they do better with the LightSpeed Pascal upgrade that they’ve
been advertising. I’m looking into the Mail Fraud regulations, just in case.
From: rdclark (Richard Clark, Tustin, CA)
Okay, so they lied again. I called Symantec again today, and they claimed that the order
is going out “sometime this week”. The manager of Customer Service was unavailable
for comment, so I learned this from the girl who answered the phone. (By the way, if
you DO call them, be prepared to wait. First, they take a while answering the phone.
Then they disconnect you. Then you call back, and go on hold. Maybe you’ll get
connected; maybe you’ll get dropped. I’m not exaggerating.) Whoever else is tired of
waiting for them to get their act together, let me know. If several of us complain,
maybe we’ll get action. (BTW -- the Postal Inspector’s office is sending me a
complaint form. I may even get to use it -- now wouldn’t that be fun?)
From: davidw
(David Whiteman, La Jolla, CA)
Well here are my experiences with Symantec: the Friday before Labor Day they told
me that the order shipped “yesterday” since I paid extra for 2 day shipping I should
receive the order the Tuesday after Labor Day. It did not arrive. Wednesday I called
again and was told it was really shipped out Tuesday, the day before. Nothing arrived
again on Thursday. On Friday, I called back again -- now they are really clever --
They did not answer the phone all day Friday. Monday they have an answering machine
answer the phone. The message says “If you are calling about a software update please
call our update center at 408-446-9994; calling this number I get a message from
the phone company that this number is disconnected the new number is
415-964-4440 which is the original number I have been calling all week.
Furthermore they still tell people that the LightSpeed Pascal 2.0 is fully compatible
with, and can compile without changes, MPW Mac App. This is not true -- Think is
planning on selling another version of MacApp.
From: billd
(Bill Dugan, Huntington Beach, CA)
Compuserve’s LVTFORUM (Symantec territory) is up to its armpits in customer
complaints. Everyone’s complaining to the poor representatives, and all they can do is
forward the letters to people ‘higher up’. Customers have claimed they’ll do
everything from filing a complaint of mail fraud to placing a medium-sized bomb in
the corporate board room. The sad part is that you can call MacConnection (where I got
mine) and get guaranteed shipment the next day, or you can send in for an upgrade
from 2.xx and wait for a month. Sumthin’s wrong out there....
From: davidw
(David Whiteman, La Jolla, CA)
Well yesterday September 13, I received LSC 3.0. The UPS label said it was shipped
on the 9/12, six days after they said they shipped it. I must compliment UPS they
shipped a 2nd day Air package in one day. A friend of mine in LA received his copy
earlier today, as did another friend of mine who lives in Poway (a suburb of San Diego,
even though he would kill me if I used Poway and San Diego in the same sentence.) All
of us could not use the update because we would all get “Read Errors” copying the files
from floppies to our hard disks. Furthermore the binding on the User’s Manual on my
LA’s friend documentation was not glued on -- all the pages came apart. My Poway
friend tried calling Symantec today. Operator “151” (they don’t use names there
anymore) said that the warranty only covered the original LightSpeed purchase, not
the upgrade; so we would have to get an RMA #, ship the packages back, and pay a
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