Word: micropro
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...high cost of help is especially irksome because many of the calls come from owners of pirated disks, who often do not have manuals. Indeed, better use of the manuals could solve most legitimate owners' problems. MicroPro International estimates that 70% of the customers who dial for help are first- time users who find reaching for the phone easier than wading through pages of instruction. Says MicroPro Manager Lee Lensky: "People don't want to read a manual, whether it's a 300-page tome or a clean, well-written...
Some software manufacturers have begun charging for what they used to provide free. MicroPro still lists its overburdened customer-service number but also offers a $90-per-year premium service contract with an unlisted help line. Bargain-basement software firms like Paperback take credit-card numbers, time calls with a stopwatch and charge customers by the minute. One result: fewer queries. "If people have to pay a few dollars for the phone call," says Osborne, "it's amazing how smart they...
...expect to get billed when they talk to their doctors and lawyers. But when they talk to a technical-support person, they expect it to be free." There are signs, however, that this attitude may be changing. Robert Refvem, for one, happily plunked down $65 for six months of MicroPro's premium service. "I call them up, I get a technician, I'm off and running," says the Burlingame, Calif., real estate agent. Besides, he adds, "it's the only way they'll answer the phone...
...software, even the systems software inside the computer, can be protected by copyright, but that does not stop dedicated pirates. Ric Giardina, general counsel of MicroPro, which publishes WordStar, estimates that as many as 20 fraudulent copies of a program may be made for every one sold. Manufacturers are aggressively defending their products. In February Lotus Development sued Rixon, a Silver Spring, Md., computer-accessory manufacturer, for $10 million, charging it made copies of Lotus' popular business program 1-2-3 for its own use. Declared Lotus President Kapor: "Software piracy is the theft of intellectual property." When...
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