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Ask Slashdot: Dealing With an Unresponsive Manufacturer Who Doesn't Fix Bugs?
moofo writes: I've had huge problems with a security appliance since its installation. Specifically, the VPN SSL client is causing a problem for the majority of my remote clients. The company acknowledged the bug, but they are jerking me around, and no resolution is in sight. I tried third-party clients, but I'm wary of using them since they are not distributed by the manufacturer, and they require some maintenance to keep working properly.
I also talked to various executives at the company and besides giving me apologies, nothing good is coming my way. It's been more than two years (on a three-year subscription that I can't terminate early), and this is continually causing me trouble and aggravation. It also makes my internal customers unhappy. How do you deal with a manufacturer who doesn't fix bugs in a reasonable time frame?
I also talked to various executives at the company and besides giving me apologies, nothing good is coming my way. It's been more than two years (on a three-year subscription that I can't terminate early), and this is continually causing me trouble and aggravation. It also makes my internal customers unhappy. How do you deal with a manufacturer who doesn't fix bugs in a reasonable time frame?
One way is to give the public the name!
If your company is large enough, have a quick chat with your legal department. A 3 year support contract that isn't providing you with any value is something that's worth addressing. A brief letter from your legal counsel ought to result in an interesting response (whether or not it results in action is another thing entirely).
And if it doesn't, why the hell didn't someone flag that up before signing on for 3 years of payments with no legal recourse? The problem isn't really the vendor here, its the dumb ass that signed the contract which allows the vendor to get away with shit like this.
Pull the contract, when they threaten to sue for breach then you threaten to counter sue for non-performance and non-compliance as the product isn't fit for use.
If you're trying to get slashdot to finally deal with some of their old bugs, I'm not sure that shaming them on their own front page is the way to do it. Granted, the exodus of users hasn't done it, either...
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Just stop paying the subscription and inform to them upfront that you consider them to have terminated the contract through their own negligence. Go elsewhere.
Proper escalation goes something like this:
0: Make sure you aren't doing something that's going to get you sued / fired. Meaning if this is already on your plate, I hope your manager knows about it. Tell them that you are going to be talking to legal/purchasing first about stopping the bills being paid. AKA "never make a threat you can't carry out".
1: Call your sales rep. Tell them that you find their product unacceptable, and you are withholding payment on the contract until such time as you are provided a list of fix dates, workarounds, etc for the product. Be sure to provide a list of the bugs as you understand them, listed in priority order. Be reasonable -- if you have ten bugs and items 1 and 2 are causing the most grief, it might be reasonable to accept immediate fixes for those, but the other ones my need to wait longer, or you can agree that they can be closed.
2: Start lining up a bake-off of similar devices now, to prep when the contract runs out, and start testing them with the people who found all the bugs in the other one. If the original vendor is unresponsive, switch off their device early. It may look like crap from the financial side, but depending on who and what is riding on this bit of equipment, better reliability / less bugginess / etc may have an immediate ROI and it might be worth it.
Other tips:
Never curse, lose your temper or be less than professional. Save that for when you get off the phone.
Schedule an in-person meeting if possible. Barring in-person, phone. Emails don't convey urgency well.
If the sales rep doesn't give you satisfaction, call their boss, then keep on working the way up to the top. Top managers do not like it when their lower level managers aren't doing their jobs. They want to concentrate on long term, not stuff like this. Make them irritated enough and you will have the management chain ensuring you go away because you make them look bad -- but this is the flip side of the "being professional" bit -- if you keep using words like "unacceptable", "does not meet advertised uptime numbers", "does not match your published specifications", "crashes when XXYY happens", you stay on issue. If you go off issue into raving lunatic, cursing land, you lose your credibility and are dismissed as "angry customer", not "that guy who has a legit list of 10 major bugs and who has his lawyer and finance department witholding payment".
According to OPs slashdot profile, his personal website is: http://www.moofo.com/ He has a posting on there about purchasing a watchguard in 2012, their buggy SSL client, and the ineptitude of Watchguard support. http://www.moofo.com/2014/07/1...
I think it is normal to start with a "cure letter" telling them they are in default on the contract and giving them 30 days to come into compliance or face termination. This usually leads to something both sides can live with.