e-support contract: Pro and Cons

[alexx]

i am and have been under full contract for some years.

i had both good and bad experiences.
sometimes you get an answer in a day or if it is a bug you found a workaround.
sometimes i got solutions for a feature i was looking for that were really brilliant.
but sometimes i had a tough problem (bugs mostly) and i had to wait like weeks for a solution. in a tight production schedule that is worth about nothing then, since you have to find a way around much faster. but that case really happened very seldom.

is it worth the money?
hmm.. if i would have to pay for it on my own and not my company i would rather say no, especially in the days of cgtalk. usually you get help here a lot faster and a LOT better (just think that you get your questions answered by real professionals that are used to production schedules and time pressure environments - which in most cases is not true for support ppl at allias wavefront). even since i have full support i usually post my questions here on cgtalk to about 90%.
on the other hand if you have a problem that no one can answer here (or is willing to) alias support is the better deal, since they have to help you and they - as stated above - do in a good way.

additionally whenever you report a problem or bug to alias, you help to make the software better. either they log a bug or if something makes trouble they can change it in a way to fix that.

but still: a definitely maybe from me to the question if it really is worth the money..
like everything in life: as soon as you have it you wont need it and if you quit it, you will need it in the next second :)

cheers

alexx

[joie]

Well, I had Spanish Support for a while and I found 3 bugs in MAYA and nobody gave me a workaround or solution, I only ask 3 or 4 question and I was at the same level of knowledge as they, so my advise is not to contract it.

Cheers

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