misc, Powerbasic - business ethics?

Hi All,

Does anyone else have experience of an appalling attitude from the
PowerBasic staff?

Extremely poor (and childish) responses from sales staff must make you
question the actual product. The attitude and response from sales makes me
seriously question the business ethics of PowerBasic.

This is my (unbelievable) response from sales here:

----

To: "Rod Badcock"
From: PowerBASIC Sales < XXXX@XXXXX.COM >
Subject: Re: Power Basic (Windows)


That's ok. You really aren't qualified to use a compiler of this
sort anyway. I imagine you'd probably hurt yourself.

Have a nice day!

At 12:55 PM 1/19/2007, you wrote:
>In short - no!
>
>I was prepared to give powerbasic a punt and spend the time adapting
>to the different environment, however I found your sales policy
>inflexible and unhelpful and did not address my email (that is
>below) in an effective manner.
>
>Your product is an unknown quantity for me which I was prepared to
>invest time in adapting my coding to. However:
> * You have no time/feature limited trial version.
> * If I bought online and found unsuitable then I cannot get a
> refund after trial.
> * I live in NZ; postal delivery is relatively expensive and you
> offered no reseller here.
>..... There wasn't much incentive for me to try an independent
>product and invest my time to shift my coding over for the public
>domain software I write - I might as well stick with my licenced
>Micro$oft products. Unless something changes in either your sales
>policies or a trial version this is unlikely to change.
>
>Rod
>
>On 20/01/07, Sales <<mailto: XXXX@XXXXX.COM > XXXX@XXXXX.COM >
>wrote:
>Hi Rod!
>
>Did you get all the information you need? Any way I can help?
>
>Tim Robbins
>PowerBASIC Sales
>
>>On 03/12/06, Sales <<mailto: XXXX@XXXXX.COM > XXXX@XXXXX.COM >
>>wrote:
>>Hi Rod!
>>
>>Thanks for writing! I'm afraid we don't have free demo copies available
>>at this time. However, if you review the PowerBASIC FORUMS at
>>www.powerbasic.com, you'll find over 200,000 messages fro9m programmers
>>just like you who've made the move to PowerBASIC with great success. Of
>>course, there's also the moneyback guarantee when purchased for physical
>>delivery which may make it an easier decision.
>>
>>Do you have any questions about the product? Any way I could help at
>>all? I know you'll be very pleased with PowerBASIC when you do get
>>it... virtually everyone who uses it just loves it! <g>
>>
>>Please let me know how I can assist?
>>
>>Thanks!
>>
>>Tim Robbins
>>PowerBASIC Sales
>>
>>
>>
>>At 08:01 AM 12/3/2006 +1300, you wrote:
>>>Hi,
>>>
>>>Do you have a trial / demo version of the compiler/IDE available?
>>>I'm interested in PB, yet I want to make sure that it will do what
>>>I want easily with serial port routines and with installation packaging.
>>>
>>>You can probably understand that (as a current user of Visual
>>>Basic) I would be looking at ease of use, but I notice from your
>>>'satisfaction guarantee' that electronic delivery has no such
>>>guarantee. If ordering from NZ the electronic delivery is the most
>>>sensible option.
>>>
>>>Rod

----

With this attitude then it must be kicked into touch.

Rod

Rod,


Just-in-case the product is "exactly" what you want:

- Across about 50-60 BASIC products, I have PB ranked in the top 5 - but,
obviously, that depends on "my" needs.

- If I were worried about very specific serial handlers, I'd check all
documentation. I'd might send some sample (difficult) code to the PB sales
chap, and ask him/her if PB can handle it. I'd also ask on the forum, and
maybe post some test code there that others might be able to try for you -
something "simple", obviously.

- I'd check the forum anyway, to establish the types of problems users
have, how well and how quickly they're resolved (or ignored!), the general
attitudes, etc, etc.

- Check on Support, Updates, short-term and long-term plans for PB, etc...

- The cost of PB, and similar products (perhaps 200 USD) might be very
small - relative to other "costs" associated with changing to the product,
and relative to the benefits of changing... don't lose sight of the
"benefits".

I reckon the PB Sales person had heard the old yarn of the Dell support guy
who was so frustrated with a user that he (the Dell chap) advised the user
to send the PC back to Dell - because folks like him should not use PCs -
Pure Fiction, I'm sure <g>.

- Mike

i,


I've been using the following products from PB (some for years:

PowerBasic (DOS)

PowerBasic (Win)

PowerBasic Console Compiler

I am a recently retired programmer for a major Corp (also wrote many
side-job" stuff over 25 years....from the early days of CP/M (before
DOS) on a 4 Mhz (not GHZ) system using 8 inch floppies with a total of
64 KILO(!)bytes of data up through Win 200//98/XP/...using Basic, C,
Visual basic/C and well....you get thie idea.

The range of apps was/is from business apps, but mostly REAL (aka
"boxed SW) for a US$ nillion plus worldwide corp...heavy in realtime
industrial enviornment communication /interface/data logging,
including Ethernet, rs232, etc.

(ok, just so you understand my prospective).

Back to Powerbasic...actually I'd first like to make two points:

1. Over the years (I suppose now to) I often wished PB offered
"trial-type" versions....for the reasons you stated. But, I have to
say most similar (programming languages) also do not offer
trials...(you may have mor such knowledhe covering the past 2 years
than I do...no matter).

In their defense the cost of their products, compared say to Microsoft
Visual Studio is consierable (much less....). Their manuals (default
in integrated help, printed manual (really the same info, in book
form) is VERY good...in my opinion...it reminds me of the days when
Boralnd (aka Pascal) or even MS (as I ecalled to get a decent MS Basic
(VBx too) "Language Reference" I had to (still true) purchase a rather
expense set of MS Press books (the VB6 set was about 6 Kilos!)

No matter, the Powerbasic (DOS, Win) version manuals provide the REAL
programmer with what he needs in terms on concise syntax and examples.

...and yes...their website...and user group type database of infor and
method of pier-support is quite good.

I would say that the PB product quality is quite good and performance
is VERY good. by the way, when is the last time you phoned Microsoft
with a tech support question for programming !..oh well !

2. One of the responses from PB staff you included questioning if
"you are qualified" IS QUITE disturbing if true!!!!

I cannot imagine who/why this person has made such a comment.!

Have you browsed the documentation (it's virtually the same as the
online integrated help of the program)???

I hope this helps.....




===========
On Sat, 20 Jan 2007 07:55:00 +1300, "Rodney Badcock"
< XXXX@XXXXX.COM > wrote: