CompuServe Messages

Greg, You bring up a good point concerning free phone consultations for software support. It would be unreasonable to expect to be taught about a program talking to customer support. That is what good manuals are for. But, I imagine problems will always arise adapting a program to the various hardware and software configurations that users will have. Depending on the complexity of the program and how easily it adapts to different configurations, a company could get few or many calls. Some companies offer free support. Some large ones even have 800 numbers for support. But, it does seem reasonable to offer free support for a period of time, such as 90 days, and then charge for calls after that. I realize that a company only makes money from the first time that a copy of their software is sold. If it is resold there could be several ways for a company to handle registration. Free phone support, even for 90 days, could cost a certain transfer fee. Minimal support, such as charging for each phone call, could cost nothing, or a small fee to change the database. The problem of registering older versions of software (and trying to "double-upgrade") could be approached another way. If someone registered a transfer of ownership for the newest version of a program, the name could just be changed since the previous owner would loose the upgrade potential. Someone transfering an older version could be required to upgrade to the newest version if they want to be registered. If the company's database is good enough, they could keep track of the upgrade status of older versions. Then if someone wants to transfer ownership of an older version they could, if the upgrade potential had not been used yet. The previous owner would loose the ability to upgrade. One way of doing this is giving each user a registration number. As they upgrade, the registration number stays the same, just the version number changes. If they sell their software, the number goes with the transfer and they couldn't "double-upgrade". Another method to avoid "double-upgrades" is to require the return of previous version disks or a manual cover for an upgrade. Then only one upgrade could be done. This was a long explanation. No matter how it is done, I would think the software companies would like to know who is using their products so they can sell them more in the future. John