For whatever it's worth, I bought 99SE before Oct 1 and therefore get all of the ATS except the upgrade to the next version. So when they published the offer for a C compiler and multitasker, I decided to sign up for it just to see what this ATS stuff is all about. (It'll be a cold day in a warm place when you see me using an 8051 again.) Apparently their offer was in a similar vein, to see how many nibbles they'd get.
When I tried to request the offered software, the website would not take any form of my name, company name, license number, etc., so I went to the link they conveniently supplied for such a situation. The person there wanted all my info plus a faxed copy of my original invoice. A few days later I got an email saying that they'd decided to put my name in their records anyway, even though I hadn't yet gotten around to faxing them the invoice (how generous of them...) One possible interpretation might be that they've lost their customer records and are trying to re-create them. Anyway, in the course of this fiasco I corresponded via email several times with several people at Protel. Most recently I've been getting a bounce of the last email I sent them. Even if that particular person were no longer with the company, I'd hope that any reputable company would use a default address to pick up misaddressed mail (I sent the email with Reply, so I didn't mistype the name; even if I had, somebody should be fielding the mail), and allow someone to deal with it. So I'm wondering if anyone down under is actually looking at their websites lately (I've been on both www.protel.com and www.protel.com.au). Finally, after all this, when I finally got signed up for the "freebie", I was told that it would ship in a few months. On a different note, I've been on their beta test list for several years, and haven't been asked to test anything in the last year or so. Perhaps they just didn't choose to ask me to help test Phoenix; perhaps they aren't ready for beta test yet. Hmmm..... I wonder how long a beta test period they'll need. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to draw any inferences from this experience. Meanwhile, if anyone discovers a reasonably-priced alternative to Protel, especially one which can read Protel files, I'd sure want to hear about it. Protel is adequate for my needs for right now. Steve Hendrix * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/proteledaforum@techservinc.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
