> Rather than ragging on the list, I sent a note to the sales department
> with the hope that they had a better path to upper management. The
> short story is
This was the /exact/ same thing with the initial PM-3 code release, then
again with the 56Flex release, and now with the v.90 thing.
Something like:
1. New product/feature announced by industry
2. USR/3Com releases unstable "release" code
3. USR/3Com releases patches to make "release" code usable
4. Livingston releases unstable beta
5. Livingston ISPs start losing customers to USR/3Com ISPs
6. Livingston ISPs ask Livingston for update after month+ of no updates
7. Livingston ISPs scream at Livingston mailing list--no response
8. Livingston ISPs scream at Livingston sales department--no response
9. Livingston ISPs start leaving Livingston for USR/3Com to save business
10. Livingston says (first peep out of them in months) delay is to release
stable code and will be out "soon"
11. Go back to 4 at least one time
12. Livingston releases next beta which is stable enough to slow migration
of customers to USR/3Com ISPs
13. Livingston releases final release with 20 new features that nobody
needs but finally has stable code everyone waited for
14. Wait a month, go back to Step 1.
With the PM-3 and 56Flex (which both had their own "oops" announcement
violently rebuked by the non-marketing Livingston people), the reason for
this whole thing was that Livingston was privately held and underfinanced
and understaffed, but that was good for ISPs because Livingston cares
about ISPs.
Now Livingston has Lucent, and supposedly the near-infinite resources of
Lucent and still the same thing where they're asking ISPs who have bet
hundreds of thousands or more on their platform and are losing customers
because not only can Livingston not produce code, they can't produce any
information either.
I wish I could sell my customers the awesome future, but unfortunately
most of them are very short-sited and just want what works today. That
means they are again seeing that our choice of Livingston has set us not
days or weeks but months behind what all of their friends and co-workers
have, and they're starting to question whether we are cheap or just
stupid.
Woo hoo, is anyone awake there at the Lucent RABU?
Pete Kruckenberg
inQuo
> 1. Roy said :I am losing customers because of lack of V.90:
>
> 2. Sales said :Try the beta:
>
> 3. Roy said :The beta doesn't work satisfactorily:
>
> 4. Sales said :We will report this to support:
>
> 5. Support said :If the beta gives you problems, back out:
>
> 6. Go to step 1
>
>
> I wonder if there are deep problems in the Lucent V.90 that are not
> software and they are desperate to find a fix that doesn't involve
> recalling every K56FLEX card.
>
> Roy
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