Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!think!husc6!kolodny@husc4.UUCP
From: kolodny@husc4.UUCP (Jonathan Kolodny)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Beware: MICROSOFT FLAME
Message-ID: <2409@husc6.harvard.edu>
Date: 9 Aug 89 20:58:56 GMT
Sender: news@husc6.harvard.edu
Reply-To: kolodny@husc4.UUCP
Lines: 35

To all Microsoft Excel 1.5 users, and concerned citizens:

I don't usually flame about software companies, but I just had an
experience at the MacWorld Industry Day which really angered me.  As a
Microsoft Excel 1.5 owner who just purchased a Mac IIcx, I noticed that my
version of Excel did not print the "running 6888x coprocessor" message
which it prints upon startup on the Mac IIs here at work.  I figured that
the version of Excel did not print out the message because it found a 68882
instead of a 68881, but it used it nonetheless.  When I asked a product
support person at the Expo, however, he informed me that, due to an
"undocumented change in the System software upgrade by Apple", Version 1.5
of Excel will not recognize math coprocessors on machines newer than a Mac
II running System 6.0 or above.  He told me to call the Customer Support at
Microsoft, and they would mail me a copy of 1.5a, (though he told me that
they may not know what it is, and I should tell them that it is the version
that solves the aforementioned bug).  He said that the product support
people at the Expo were not equipped yet to deal with the problem.  When I
asked him if registered Excel owners would receive notice of the bug, he
replied (and this is the kicker): "No, we figured that such a small
percentage of our users will have this problem, it isn't worth mailing
about it.  And besides, you can always upgrade to Version 2.2 which also
solves the problem..."

Great - I can pay an additional $100 for features I don't want, to solve a
problem I had to find out about myself.  Some product support!  And to
think I'm actually considering working for these people some day!

If anyone else was bothered by this problem, I urge you to call their
product support and ask for Version 1.5a.  Tell them I sent you.

Flaming off,

Jonathan Kolodny
Programmer/Software Developer
Harvard Computer Services