RE: Software Vendors

Try taking your daily rate then putting overheads and profit on top of
that, 
and you'll see that it is very expensive to develop software. 

Go to any software house and ask how much it will cost to develop even a
simple report. Even if it is only 1 or 2 days, the cost will probably be
in the thousands. 

Multiply this up for even a modest change to a software package, and
then to a whole system. Very expensive. 

So basically if there was unlimited liability for all errors in
software, or perfect software, either software companies would all go
bust fixing errors in software, or the software would never get
developed, because they would run out of money before they made it
perfect.

I dont know if you work at a software house, but I have worked at
software houses, and many development projects lose money, for various
reasons,
so there are two sides to it

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Debbie Panco [mailto:dpanco43@ix.netcom.com]
>Sent: Monday, November 29, 1999 5:18 PM
>To: MIDRANGE
>Subject: Software Vendors
>
>
>I have a question that has been plaguing me.  Say you have a 
>software vendor
>who sells
>you a package and you have so many days to test the software that you
>received.  During
>your test period you find some problems, bring it to the 
>vendor's attention
>and they
>get you the fixes.  Now, say that the test period has expired 
>and during
>some further
>testing, you come across some other problem that was obviously 
>resident in
>the original
>code. You bring it to your attention, but they now tell you 
>that if you want
>the problem
>fixed, you will have to pay them to fix it because time spent now comes
>under consulting
>fees which are billable to you.  Now, this may be the way it is per the
>contract and it
>may be all legal and such.  But, from an ethical point of 
>view, I have a
>problem with this.
>My thought is that regardless of how much time goes by, a 
>vendor should be
>financially
>responsible for correcting programming or other technical 
>problems that are
>found within
>their product.  I feel that their position should be: "Thanks, 
>for finding
>that error for us
>and we will get right on coming up with a fix for it.".  But 
>the attitudes
>that we have
>come across seem to be, "Well, you bought it as is and if you 
>want it fixed
>you will have to
>pay us our current consulting fees to fix it.".  Is it just me or does
>anyone else see
>anything wrong with this logic?  Am I outdated in my thinking?
>
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