This is primarily a public forum. It's intended as a peer to peer discussion area and anyone can post here. A lot of the support here does come from partners who are voluntering their time, knowledge and experience, but some of the top posters are long time end users as far as I can tell. Microsoft is also using this area as part of their tech support package, but if one of your 'peers' answers your question, MS will close it. It seems like they've gone out of their way to make it difficult to get your posts recognized as coming from a supported customer, but that's been covered before.
If you want timely support direct from MS, you have to open a service incident which you will (probably) be charged for.
Thanks everyone. I'm glad I spawned such a lively debate. I've decided to not deal with the hassle of getting a used license and will just go get it new.
Like Glenn said, this is a public forum. Public, as in a place where MS RMS and MS POS end users can support each other, with a healthy dose of reseller input as well.
If you pay for MS Support at any level, you can sign up for the 'managed newsgroup benefit'. Basically, with managed newsgroups you will get a response from MS *if no other response is posted in 48 hours*. As you can see by a quick look at this forum, not many questions go 48 hours with no response.
If you thought that posting to this forum guaranteed a prompt response directly from Microsoft, you were quite mistaken.
I'm working with a reseller (and yes, they charge way too much) while still trying to do as much as possible by myself. But I'm not just some shopkeep with a computer (no offense to shopkeeps intended)--I'm an IT guy that just happens to be working for a retailer. When I find something beyond the scope of my ability or knowledge, I come here and ask for tips, advice, etc. Sometimes I get much more than I could ever have hoped--other times less than I wanted. Once in a while, I offer an opinion or even some advice. In the end, forums like this are a tremendous resource when used properly.
If you want to participate in MS bashing, I'd recommend browsing some linux groups or the following very real usenet forums: alt.destroy.microsoft alt.microsoft.sucks alt.microsoft.crash.crash.crash
No offense intended. I was an IT sales rep once upon a time and didn't have much trouble selling our services at $120/hour. Now I'm on the other side of the fence and $2/minute (or more, with my reseller) adds up fast.
Well, I don't like to be the one with the last words, but if you like to buy my business, Scott, I will be more than glad to sell it to you because I want to resell my RMS license!...;=)
To other resellers, I meant no offense. I do notice many are here with genuine kindness to help, to learn and to improve. However, if you noticed, every time I critized MS, a little more strongly than others, some reseller would jump to its defense and become very ironic or bitter towards me. So it went!.....
Keep in mind that many retailers don't have the technical skills but much less money to pay professional consultants becase this software is very high maintaince to begin with, for reasons only God knows!..
Only for people like Terrible Tom has an easier time, and he worked in tech support for another larger retailer (any owner who can get outside tech support without having any technical skill is large enough). As for me, I have a decent amount of education. My brothers are also techies in different fields. I can get help when I'm ready to network, or when my hard drive corrupt, etc....I thought I could pull this off. But I couldn't ask anyone else who's not using the software about its logic. I already spent over 10k for both new software and hardware, not a small amount, to invest in possible growth!....
As explained before, I was a trained programmer in college, very strong in logic and programming languages. In my opinion, the difficulties we're facing as end users are not acceptable with a software that proclaimed to be so good by such a powerful company--MS. This is a shame and must be improved!....
I have been a retailer too long and might be a bit slow with new technology, but I can get the logic to work rather more easily than most small retailers you know...
Most of my questi> Thanks everyone. I'm glad I spawned such a lively debate. I've decided to
Call out Roto Rooter, yeah the drain cleaners. My mom did, they re-seated a toilet, ran a drain snake down a pipe, spent about 1 hour at her house. Charges were $230.00. I just wonder how many would complain? My mom did not. She was happy her toilet stopped leaking and her drain was draining. I wish I could charge that and get away with it. But since all I do is sit and type at a keyboard, I am a bandit charging $110 and hour. I guess if I ran a drain snake up a pipe while I was there then I would be worth more. I wish I could toss my college BS Business Admin degree and my MS certs and just focus on drain cleaning. I would make more and be less criticized. mt
Thank you Kay for your typical response to my comment. Kay you bought software. With NO SUPPORT. Yet you come here and bash everyone and everything for YOUR mistake of not purchasing support or setup. Now your unhappy and want to make the world think it is everyone else's fault and not yours. I find when people blame their problems on other people, it is always their fault. So, get a grip on reality and own up to your mistakes, get out your checkbook and be happy that a smart person spent the time to learn this and pass the knowledge on to you. Or, get some tools and become roto router...LOL. People that expect something for free, are not being realistic. Good luck, but with your negative comments, I would not look for much help and most certainly NONE of my help. People's tolerance for that wears out fast as has mine. Good Luck, mt
BeanSmart website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.