The Cutting Edge: COMPUTING / TECHNOLOGY / INNOVATION : FORUM : Readers Voice Beefs With Bugs in PC Software, Hardware
Last week, The Cutting Edge asked readers for their views on the problem of bugs in PC hardware and software products. Specifically, we asked whether readers felt the PC industry did a worse job than other industries in maintaining quality, and what the industry might do better.
The query drew dozens of comments, with many people relating stories of frustration with PC products: Poor technical support was a particularly common complaint. Below are excerpts from a some of the responses we received:
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The computer industry is definitely guilty-as-charged when it comes to selling products with known defects. One thing that would enhance its respectability in this regard: Use the registered user databases to actually communicate with users!
There hasn’t been a single computer product, hardware or software, that I’ve used in 15 years of computer experience that has not come with a registration card and an admonishment to “Register now! Registering entitles you to notifications of product updates, etc., blah blah blah.” Usually these are merely market research surveys and mailing list builders disguised as bona fide support tools.
Computer product manufacturers should use this database to notify users of known product problems. Why is it that every user has to discover these problems on their own, either through word of mouth or bad experience?
TODD RUSTON
Pomona
It appears that the emphasis on quality control isn’t the same for each company. Maybe standardizing quality control (through standards organizations such as ANSI and VESA) could help filter out some of the problems.
If a company believes in their product, they should offer a “10- or 30-day customer satisfaction guarantee or your money back.”
DEAN MENES
Port Hueneme
One of the great contributions the software industry could make would be to adopt a standard practice on support phone calls, such as “first five minutes free, after that we charge by bug category.” Suggested categories: Stupid mistakes we made. Stupid mistakes you made. Stupid mistakes in the operating system.
HUGH WAHLIN
Covina
The PC industry does a much better job of producing quality, cost-effective products than almost all other industries in this country. I’m afraid that if the industry were forced to produce bug-free products, the pace of hardware and software innovation would slow to a crawl. I’m not willing to pay that price.
ROBERT W. DUCKSON
Long Beach
A couple of observations after years of working in quality assurance:
* A secondhand source at Intel responded to a co-worker’s question about the Pentium problems. He said: “What’s the problem? The 486 had hundreds of defects and so does the Pentium.” Past indifference to product quality is used to justify present indifference rather than confronting the problem.
* If the automotive industry were run as the computer industry is, then most new model cars would have the wheels fall off driving from the showroom, at which point the car maker would issue an new car with secure wheels but with brakes that malfunction.
JEFFREY CONTOMPASIS
Placentia
Anyone who purchases a personal computer as a right to expect it software to function properly. All too often, however, it does not, prompting numerous back-and-forth phone calls to hardware and software manufacturers to correct problems.
I suggest that the computer and software manufacturers continue to work toward universal standards in the design of computer equipment and production of PC software, especially multimedia titles. For instance, is it too much to ask that the software industry to develop a standardized installation (or “setup”) program which is the same for all multimedia titles running under Windows?
DEAN C. SHERER
Tujunga
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