User rant

Subject: User rant
From: Dick Margulis <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 20:26:39 -0400


Within the last week my wife and I have brought home to attempt to use:

• Linksys wireless router
• Motorola cell phone (since returned)
• LG cell phone

All suffered from the same problem--inadequate documentation.

The router comes packed with a CD that is supposedly a wizard for
installing the router and creating the local network. The wizard doesn't
work if there was a prior wireless router installed, and there is no
documentation on what to do manually in that case, no explanation of
what to look for in TCP/IP settings, no phone number to call for the
promised 24/7 support.

The two cell phones came with CDs covering the stuff you can figure out
intuitively and promotions for all the neat tones and pictures you can
download for a charge, but with no documentation on all the features and
settings that are not intuitive.

My wife will probably end up keeping the LG phone and give up on the
convenience features she selected it for, only because her old one is
dying a natural death and the LG phone less unintuitive than the
Motorola phone. As for the router, I'm now going to pay a guy $250 to
come troubleshoot the network--something I ought be be able to do myself
if Windows XP weren't such a documentation wasteland--and either install
the new router or keep the old one, whichever solution seems to promise
more stability.

But all in all this has been a frustrating week dealing with products
that ought to have decent documentation. Fie on companies that see
documentation as a drain on profits.





^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Now Shipping -- WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word! Easily create online
Help. And online anything else. Redesigned interface with a new
project-based workflow. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

Doc-To-Help 2005 now has RoboHelp Converter and HTML Source: Author content and configure Help in MS Word or any HTML editor. No proprietary editor! *August release. http://www.componentone.com/TECHWRL/DocToHelp2005

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.



Follow-Ups:

Previous by Author: Re: Graduated... or graduated from?
Next by Author: [Fwd: Re: User rant]
Previous by Thread: Help system with a Custom IDE
Next by Thread: Re: User rant -- as employment tactic?


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads