[RESOLVED] Stupid software vendors.

[CobraTekMax]

RANT MODE ENGAGED.

This one's gonna be a long one. I've been itching to get it off my chest for a while.

One of my largest clients is a company that builds floor and roof trusses. I've been friends with several of the guys down there for years, before I even officially started handling their computer needs. When they were looking for someone to do their computer service and sales last year, they put in a good word for me with the higher ups and my company took over.

They use a special set of software that handles all of their truss engineering, layouts and job information files. The company that writes this software also makes another utility for scheduling, shipping, invoicing - basically everything on the accounting/sales side of things. My client decided to start using this accounting package at the beginning of this year. Before they did, though, they decided to bring in a new server, as the drives were getting pretty full on their P2-200 server, and they felt it was time to upgrade.

On January 2nd, I installed a Dual P3-900 Dell Power Edge 2400 Server, with 512MBs of RAM and 4 disk RAID-5 array with a total capacity of 80GB. Running Win 2K advanced server. Win2k adv. serv., by the way, was a recommendation of the software company. Their previous server was running Win NT 4.0.

So anyway, about a week after I installed this server and got everything set up with (ugh) active directory, the software company came and installed this new accounting software. I should point out here that the software uses the same FoxPro (double ugh) database as the engineering and layout programs. Everything was hunky dory for a few more days...until people started using the new software.

Every couple of hours...CRASH. The database would totally freeze, locking the entire company (30+ users) out of ALL the programs this company provided - engineering, layout and accounting. Everything else being handled by this new server was running fine, just that particular database. After asking the software company for help, they insisted that this problem was totally new to them, they had never seen it, so therefore, I must not have something set up right on the server.

Okay, that's fine, I haven't set up many active directories before, so that's not totally unfeasable. I check everything over. Find no such settings that should be causing this problem. Spend approximately 2 weeks bugging this company and seeing if they have any suggestions as to what I should be looking for. One of their techs lets it slip that they see this problem about 1/3 of the times they install this accounting software. (Huh? I thought you've never seen it.) He suggests that I look at increasing the network bandwith.

So I replace their 3 24 port 3Com 10/100 hubs (30+users on workstations, with just as many machines scattered throughout the plant to control saws and whatnot) with 3 24 port 3Com smart switches. The problem still isn't solved. Back to tech support I go. Another couple of weeks, and one of their brain childs mention that their database has been having problems on Win 2K server set ups. (What? You RECOMMENDED Win 2K for god's sake). So I get to spend a Saturday backing up all the data on the server, trashing it, installing NT 4.0, restoring the data, and rebuilding all the user databases. Yay!.

Everyone comes in the following Monday, fully expecting the problem (which had been bugging them for a month now) to finally be fixed. Nope. Everyone was locked out within an hour. Just for the heck of it, I check network optimization settings on the server. It's all good.

The next day, we got an e-mail from this company with a self-extracting EXE attached, and it simply said to install it on the server for database maintenence. Never actually said what it did, or why it was released. The file was dated a week before we got the e-mail.

I installed the patch, and lo and behold, they ran for 2 solid weeks with no crashes! Apparently, this patch fixed whatever bug there was in the database, and the company was too ignorant to admit that it was their problem the whole time.

Well, the software company sent one of their reps down to apply another set of patches (they didn't want my grubby little hands touching their precious software) and guess what? They crashed 5 times within 3 hours today! HAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!

So anyway, I've wasted about the last 2 months of my life screwing with this "bug", which was no fault of my own, and I've been outright LIED TO by this lame-*** company, who apparently has nick-named me "the big dumb redneck."

And of course, their response for today's little folly was that it must've been something that I changed...despite the fact that I haven't even been there since early last week...and when I was there, I was dropping off a few toners and replacing a power supply in a workstation. I wasn't even within 100 square feet of the server!

Just wait till those primates see my BOOMSTICK. They'll see who the "big dumb redneck" is. Heh heh heh.

RANT MODE DISABLED.

------------------
Dead, I am the one
Exterminating son
Slippin' through the trees
Stranglin' the breeze.

[poida217]

Ahhh, the "lets pin the blame on someone else until we get the problem sorted routine" eh? Seen it way too many times, although a situation like this would definetly get under your skin. Alls I can say is beat em where it hurts and throw in a few extra from the rest of us

------------------
I can't get lost, everyone tells me where to go.

[MacGyver]

It sounds like to me that the new software is not getting along with the old stuff because of the database. i don't know if this is feasible, but I would put the new software on it's own server. That way if it goes FUBAR you don't lose the whole network.

That is a big problem in our office, we have one Netware 4.11 server that handles EVERYTHING, and if it goes down you can't even check your voice mail.

------------------
Tech: "You need to pack up your entire computer and bring it back in to us."
Customer: "Why?"
Tech: "BECAUSE YOU'RE TOO STUPID TO OWN A COMPUTER!"

[CobraTekMax]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by MacGyver:
It sounds like to me that the new software is not getting along with the old stuff because of the database. i don't know if this is feasible, but I would put the new software on it's own server. That way if it goes FUBAR you don't lose the whole network.

</font>

This was one of my first ideas, but the thing is the accounting software HAS to share the database with the engineering, because of all the changes they make to the lumber size and pricing.

I just heard a rumor that this company is currently re-writing their accounting software from the ground up because of complaints from their major customers.

------------------
Dead, I am the one
Exterminating son
Slippin' through the trees
Stranglin' the breeze.

[CREEPINGDEATH]

well if people don't wanna listen it's thier own problem , just shake the dust off your boots from that whole project and move on man.


oh and by the way WTF is a truss ?!?

------------------
" I ATE A BABY !! " -Fat Bastard.

[Who Me]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by CREEPINGDEATH:


oh and by the way WTF is a truss ?!?

</font>

Go on then I'll bite.

A truss is a thing that holds something up.

------------------
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

[MacGyver]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by CobraTekMax:
This was one of my first ideas, but the thing is the accounting software HAS to share the database with the engineering</font>

Well there's yer problem, everybody knows accounting and engineering never get along!

------------------
Tech: "You need to pack up your entire computer and bring it back in to us."
Customer: "Why?"
Tech: "BECAUSE YOU'RE TOO STUPID TO OWN A COMPUTER!"

[rscos]

it wouldn't have anything to do with the Win2K memory leak bug would it? or am I just barking up the wrong forrest? (sorry, I know a lot about NT4 but sweet FA about 2K)

------------------
rscos
"oi! You use language like that again my son, you'll wish you hadn't."
"sorry dad."
--Lock Stock

[slkdprk]

cobra,
I hope for your sake that the company you are working with (the client) understands that this is not your fault. If I were them I would be sending a bill to the softwaree vendor for your time to offset the loss's they are expierencing. I have a client that uses propeitary software and when ever i have a problem on an update they make it a point ot jump down the throat of the software vendor.
stay strong buddy were with you in spirit.
/slk


------------------
It's a Jeep thing you wouldn't understand.

[Kyr0n]

I feel ya on that one man, i was working on a voting program for the state that kept locking up every time it tried to compile a list of all the voters. After hours of trying to figure out what the problem was with my boss and a few other techs, we had no luck. So hey, lets call the guy who made the program. So we did, and here's the conversation:


Guy:Hello, *stoopidsoftwarecompanynamehere*, how can i help you.
Me: I need to talk to the guy who made *insertstoopidsoftwareprogramname*
Guy: That would be me.
Me: Great, *explains problem*
Guy: make sure its running on a fat partition, not ntfs or linux or anything like that
Me: Its running on an NT server, but the partition is FAT
Guy: Oh, well, i dont know anything about NT, cant help ya there.
Me: I really dont think it has anything to do with the NT side of it.
Guy: Well, i dont know anything about that sort of problem...bye...**click**


I mean, what the hell?!! This guy is paid by THE STATE, and every voting office runs this program...and this is the kinda support we get from it!??? something is very wrong here

------------------
If life is a waste of time, and time is a waste of life, then lets get wasted and have the time of our lives.

[CobraTekMax]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by slkdprk:
cobra,
I hope for your sake that the company you are working with (the client) understands that this is not your fault. If I were them I would be sending a bill to the softwaree vendor for your time to offset the loss's they are expierencing. I have a client that uses propeitary software and when ever i have a problem on an update they make it a point ot jump down the throat of the software vendor.
stay strong buddy were with you in spirit.
/slk


</font>

At first they were kinda in doubt about me and my skills, but once I installed that first patch a few weeks ago, and everything ran smooth, they changed their tune and realized that it wasn't my fault. I told the president of the company my intention to send a bill to the software company for all of my time I spent on site on a wild goose chase looking for a problem they were aware of, but weren't completely honest about. The prez said "No, send me a bill, and let me deal with them". In all honestly, it's really not my place to jump down the software company's throat. After all, they're one of only a handful of companies that write this kind of software, and they are the best. If I piss them off, my customer is up the creek...

------------------
I sell computers and computer accessories, I tell ya what.

[UsePost2000]

Dangit, I want the company name. I have some funny things i want to see how they respond, msg me the name would ya?


------------------
UsePost
A+, MCP, MCP+I, MCSE, CCNA

[underfunded]

Cobra... this software wouldn't happen to be called Made2Manage would it? The company I just left was working on implementing that when I left them... From what I hear it's not going very well now that I am not there to fix the stupid crap that breaks all the time.

------------------
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day. Fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way. ---Pink Floyd

[clascomp]

Man I know how you feel!!

A couple of years ago we completely upgraded a local doctors office for an updated accounting program they were going to use. They were already using an older version off the same software, but new stuff had some added fetures they wanted. We installed all the new hardware, with new OS's and put it in place with the old software. Worked great till about a week later, when the software people showed up to set up the new stuff. After that it started locking up several times a day!! After several conversations with the software people, we finally got it to the point where it was only locking once or twice a day, and they said thats as good as it gets!!!

This doctors office paid a lot of money for a years worth of tech support, and thats as good as it gets!!!

Since the guys that wrote the software were clueless, the doctors worked with it for quite a while this way. The whole time throughing the blame at me because I was the LOCAL GUY that sold them the computers.

I finally tracked a guy down who didn't even work for the software company, in another state, that knew what the problem was. He walked me through several changes in the SQL server settings, and we haven't had any trouble since.

I sent the software co. a bill for many..many hours of grief, and never got a response. They did call me sveral weeks later, and ask me how I fixed the problems. I told them if they would pay my bill I would give them the guys phone # That was a big no go!?!?

All I was suppose to do was set up the new hardware!! You would think if they write the damned software they would know how to make it work. This whole industry, has become a game of pass the buck. And us poor suckers, in the trenches, that are easy to get a hold of are left holding the barf bag!!

END OF RANT

[vikingro]

Out of subject: do you have any idea of a program that converts data from Online Plus to Mitek Engineering and the opposite (from Mitek to Robbins)?