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Disappointment with Technical Support

ids-removed295
Beginner
750 Views
We have used the Intel compilers and Math libraries for many years. The software quality, and performance benefits over alternatives have been very compelling. Recently, however, we upgraded to the most recent versions of FORTRAN and the Math Kernal Library and have been extremely disappointed with the quality of support. Given that we paid over $700 for this software we find it unacceptable that phone support is not provided. To further the grievance, getting e-mail support has required a registration process that is onerous, and the support site through which we are required to submit problems is frequently down. In addition, when all of the hurdles have been navigated and we get e-mail support issues submitted we often do not get a response for a long period, if at all.

Given the high quality of Intel software products we would regret abandoning them, but the current lack of quality support will eventually necessitate that for our business.

Beau Paisley
Harmonic Software, www.omatrix.com
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8 Replies
Steven_L_Intel1
Employee
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I'm sorry to read that you've had a bad experience with Intel support. What we hear from a lot of our users is that they like our support, so I'd like to find out what went wrong in your case. Would you please send me as many details as you can in an e-mail to Steve.Lionel@intel.com? I'm particularly interested in what aspect of the registration you found onerous. Please also give me the six-digit ID of at least one of the reports you've filed, since my search of our support database does not show any.

I hope that I can work with you to resolve the issues you have with Intel support and help restore your satisfaction with our products.

Steve Lionel
Intel Compiler Support
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ids-removed295
Beginner
750 Views
It gets even better. I got an e-mail that an incident had been updated, (note it did not provide any information in the e-mail itself it says I have to connect to the premier site.), then when I attempt to connect to the site it has changed my password yet again.

Given that I can seldom connect to this site, please respond to harmonic@omatrix.com


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gfthomas8
Novice
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I can appreciate what this user is going through. It's not the quality of support but rather the tedium of delivery. I had numerous problems loggging into premier support as they changed my password whenever I succeeded, the web site has demands that are at odds with in house protocol that I have to follow, etc. Now I don't bother. I haven't installed an IFC update for months now so effectively I get no support, premier or otherwise. And we're expected to pay for this?

Steve, don't take this personally: you and vf-support have always provided prompt, courteous, and useful help. It's regretable that that ethic has yet to rub off on Intel Premier Support.

Ciao,
Gerry T.
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Steven_L_Intel1
Employee
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Mr. Paisley has written to me offline, and I'll pick it up from there.

I want to stick up for the compiler support team, of which I am now a part. They are all dedicated and knowledgeable people. The problem here is the actual Premier Support web site, which is giving headaches. I'll make sure the right people find out about this.

Steve
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kdkeefer
Beginner
750 Views
I agree that there are some flaws with Intel Premier Support. The password system is a mess. Apparently if your password expires, you are not informed and get bumped to a different screen asking for a password, etc. and by that point one is no longer sure which of the last three versions (counting the the original and the two that were typed in and rejected). However, the Quadsupport people, whose address gets listed somewhere in this chaos, are very helpful and can get you back into the site within 15 minutes.

Another problem is "the first line of defense". I can understand that the first people to respond are supposed to be checking for a serious problem and to screen out user errors. They seem often not to be well trained and fresh out of school with no experience in either the Intel products, MS products or troubleshooting in general. For instance, I filed an error report on a problem that was obviously a misset or misordered environment variable and aske what the correct settings were. Three days later I'm told, yes it's an environment variable problem, check this, which I had already checked several times before I notified them.

Another issue is the matter of example code. This is a shared problem between user and tech support. It takes a long time to prepare an example that can be shipped off, pretested to ensure that it generates the error and accompnied by suitable data files and instructions. The tech support people don't always realize that they are usually only contacted when a problem is very mysterious and complicated and a simple snippet won't do. On the other hand, their job is not to debug user programs either, and a complex problem may require a complex example. And tech support is slow, although always polite and responsive, even when short on answers. It helps to bug them and if the problem really is a "showstopper" tell them so.

This forum is usually the fastest way to get expert advice on problems that are not directly related to the bugs in compilers. However, it is presumably the money we spend for "premier support" that keeps it going and (I hope) pays for the time that Steve Lionel, Tim Prince and other Intel people who answer questions here (Jugoslav should be paid, if he is not.)

If you want technical support by phone, Lahey did an excellent job. I can understand that Intel might not find it cost effective to provide phone support if they have a large customer base.

But, when you are not happy with support, make noise. Intel people do care a lot. As a corporation, software may not be as profitable as chips. The Intel software team knows they must deliver a high quality, well supported product to make a difference to Intel's balance sheet, which, after all, is the reason for their employment, from the corporate point of view.
Regards,
Keith
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Steven_L_Intel1
Employee
750 Views
Interesting comparison with Lahey - you need to pay $300 more than Intel Fortran to get phone support, and that's limited hours. I've never been fond of phone support for compiler issues, since it's nearly impossible to adequately describe problems over the phone. Intel has support engineers watching the queue around the clock - most are in Hillsboro, Oregon, but we have people in other countries as well.

The first-line compiler support people here are good, better than I would have predicted before I came here. Agreed, not all have the same skill level, but they have the second-level folk like me to back them up if needed. Most do a good job on the first try, but please try to be understanding if they don't.

As for corporate bottom line - Intel doesn't run compilers as a profit/loss center. Neither did Digital nor Compaq. But the success of Intel compilers is very much in the corporate eye, and unsurpassed support is part of that.

Steve
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kdkeefer
Beginner
750 Views
Steve,
Maybe I'm too thin skinned for newsgroups/forums. I always get the impression that my comments are annoying. For example, the operative word with regard to Lahey was "did". I obviously switched, but did not feel that an Intel sponsored forum was appropriate to make anything but verifiable technical comments about a competitors' product/service/price. I (and I think most of us) are very polite and express our appreciation to the "first liners", regardless of our percieved value of their support. I do think better training would be helpful, as at least one person with whom I communicated had only a rudimentary knowledge of Fortran, but I do not regard this as his fault. My problems are always sent up to the "second line of defense" when warranted. My comments about software being a "profit center" were mostly directed at the folks who did not seem to think that they were getting their money's worth. I see it as somewhat of a quid pro quo. Believe it or not, even on my almost non-existent budget (a compiler for me is one less Christmas present for my kids), I bought IFC 7.0 because I wanted to vote, with my dollars, in support of what I perceived as a nascent effort by Intel to provide what may be (or become) the only high-performance, native code Fortran compiler for a computer I can afford. Best of luck to you all at Intel.
Keith
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Steven_L_Intel1
Employee
750 Views
Thanks for the kind words, Keith. We'll work to exceed your expectations.

You're right that a lot of the support team didn't know much about Fortran. That's changing rapidly.

Steve
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