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::headdesk::
Jul. 6th, 2010 01:28 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
agmlego.livejournal.comA little background:
We are an industrial automation company in SE MI, and were bought out by a large corporation one year ago, so the old name and company no longer legally exists.
One of the oldest customers the former company had has been having issues recently, and because my boss is a nice guy, and he and I both know that system was designed by an idiot and installed by a flock of seagulls, he offered a limited support contract to get them off the ground again. The system down there is a vision inspection system, specified to have two Firewire cameras, one at 1280 x 960, the other at 1024 x 768. These are set up specifically for that job, and they work fine. They are triggered externally by the site PLC, so our software does not have to handle the tight timing needed for the system from a Windows base.
Here is where the fun comes in. I had the following conversation by email today, my thoughts in square brackets:
Customer: "I will be installing new cameras on our vision system next week [unilaterally, and this is the first we have heard of it]. They are ... [2448 x 2048 resolution, GigE instead of Firewire, and do not support the hardware triggering we currently use]. After I get the drivers installed [Windows ships with them, so I have no idea what he means] and the cameras configured [how?], is there anything I will have to do other than choosing the right camera for each view?"
Me: "[Well yes, the system will need to be redesigned, pretty much from scratch] May I ask what prompted you to purchase new cameras for the system?"
Customer: "Well, [brand-new plant we helped set up] is using these cameras, and they said that everything is running smoothly, so I thought it would help us out too."
Me: "[Well, duh, because we designed that system correctly from the ground up, because it is a brand new plant, and our system is not hacked in as an afterthought like it is in your plant. Also, the idiot who designed your system was fired shortly after designing your system for being incompetent.] The issues we fixed in the last support contract had nothing to do with the cameras. [So, I am sorry, but you purchased those cameras on your own, for almost eight times what you could have gotten them from us for, without consulting us. I fail to see how this is our problem at all.] If you have further problems with the issues we previously worked on, please let me know, so that we can evaluate them and determine whether the old contract should be reopened. Please talk to Sales for pricing on a support contract to cover any further changes to your system. [And go FOADIAF]"
Why do customers think that changing major parts of their complex systems, without any idea of what they are doing, is a good idea?
We are an industrial automation company in SE MI, and were bought out by a large corporation one year ago, so the old name and company no longer legally exists.
One of the oldest customers the former company had has been having issues recently, and because my boss is a nice guy, and he and I both know that system was designed by an idiot and installed by a flock of seagulls, he offered a limited support contract to get them off the ground again. The system down there is a vision inspection system, specified to have two Firewire cameras, one at 1280 x 960, the other at 1024 x 768. These are set up specifically for that job, and they work fine. They are triggered externally by the site PLC, so our software does not have to handle the tight timing needed for the system from a Windows base.
Here is where the fun comes in. I had the following conversation by email today, my thoughts in square brackets:
Customer: "I will be installing new cameras on our vision system next week [unilaterally, and this is the first we have heard of it]. They are ... [2448 x 2048 resolution, GigE instead of Firewire, and do not support the hardware triggering we currently use]. After I get the drivers installed [Windows ships with them, so I have no idea what he means] and the cameras configured [how?], is there anything I will have to do other than choosing the right camera for each view?"
Me: "[Well yes, the system will need to be redesigned, pretty much from scratch] May I ask what prompted you to purchase new cameras for the system?"
Customer: "Well, [brand-new plant we helped set up] is using these cameras, and they said that everything is running smoothly, so I thought it would help us out too."
Me: "[Well, duh, because we designed that system correctly from the ground up, because it is a brand new plant, and our system is not hacked in as an afterthought like it is in your plant. Also, the idiot who designed your system was fired shortly after designing your system for being incompetent.] The issues we fixed in the last support contract had nothing to do with the cameras. [So, I am sorry, but you purchased those cameras on your own, for almost eight times what you could have gotten them from us for, without consulting us. I fail to see how this is our problem at all.] If you have further problems with the issues we previously worked on, please let me know, so that we can evaluate them and determine whether the old contract should be reopened. Please talk to Sales for pricing on a support contract to cover any further changes to your system. [And go FOADIAF]"
Why do customers think that changing major parts of their complex systems, without any idea of what they are doing, is a good idea?
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