Sparx Support - or lack of..

[dude]

Firstly I am new user of EA, but have used many other simular products..
I think the EA product is great...and like the flexibility; but there seems to be a disconnect betwen the product and the support or lack of it from Sparx..

As a product is only as good as its support, before investing yet more time and effort into this I was looking to see if my experience has been the exception..

1. Support does not seem to know the product, they offer suggestions which are not even close to the symtoms.
2. They dont seem to take any notice of what is provided, i.e if a details set of steps to reproduce and screen captures to show settings they take no notice, and run off on tangents ( perhaps scripted)
3. The send us you IP type request seems typical rather than look at the problem..
4. There does not seem to be any tracking of bugs/issue and emails..
There are no tracking ids internally or externally..
5. Why is the paid for support form require entering the same user info all the time? perhaps this si related to the lack of any tracking?
6. The support is paid for, but has none of the normal escalation type procesess, in fact they refuse to actually do anything about the lack of competent support ( i.e phone calls produces no result).. Dispite the issue problem corrupting weeks of work, not even a work around nothing..
7. There appear to be some very basic performance and other issues like dangling elemenst after deletes, which do not seem possible with the advertised user population..

Any comments/suggestions welcome

 

[KP]

Hello,

If you wish me to chase up your issues, please e-mail [email protected] and mark it for my attention. I will look into it for you. Please let me know all the names and e-mail addresses you use (I can only find two very brief bug reports from your gmail address).

Regards,

Neil


PS "dangling elements after deletes" sounds like you need to use Ctrl+Delete. The Delete key on its own just removes an element from the diagram, not the model.

[dude]

Thank you..

Have re-sent ( they are already in the support email box), but have added ATTN:NEIL..

But this is part of the problem, you should not need my email address, just my account or in this case the Bug reference.
I am not sure how you could possible track all the emails without such a reference..

They should have all the details, but have not heard anything since yesterday the last thing I sent them a copy of a simple test project using common data, when they could not seem to follow the basic instruction steps provided.. see attachment test.eap file..


Anyway, just need to know how to a) get it to work, and b) how to now remove the duplicates without destroying all my linkages as there are no 3000 odd stored procedures manually deleteing them is not viable especially when deleting a linked stored procedure removes the DataModel entry ( I would end up with a set of blank data models) many weeks of work gone!...

With regards to the deleet I use the stanadard Delete from the (right click) menu item ( labeled "Delete <item>) not remove from diagram!
Delete should delete, just as sync should sync...
 
 

[Eve]

I just remove the name of the person who you had described as unhelpful from your last post.  That is really something that doesn't belong on a public forum.

[KP]

Have re-sent ( they are already in the support email box), but have added ATTN:NEIL..

Received thanks. All I needed was your other e-mail address and it enabled me to find a complete record of all your correspondence with us.

The person you have been corresponding with is a developer, not a support engineer, and I can assure you that they do know that particular part of EA very well. They are out of the office today, but another developer, who also knows that part of EA very well, is going to look through your correspondence and try to follow your steps and reproduce your problem. They will get back to you when they have something to report/suggest or if they need more information.

[dude]

Simon..
As you have NO tracking the "first name" just like yours, appears to be the ONLY way to find bug activities..
Hence I am at a loss to understand your comment!

I would agree a simple tracking Id is all that is required..

KP,
The issue is that your support ( whom ever) simply had to follow the steps to reproduce, and the details as per the screen snaps..

Suprise, doing something else can produce different results...

In any case as you have finally confirmed this a s BUG with your sofware () given I did all the investigation work for you), I am at a loss to understand why none of the stated 100,000 users do not see such a fundermantal flaw..

Bottom line, I expect qualified support people, providing paid support..

All software has problems, but problems which destroy weeks of work, and that Sparc have stated cannot be corrected! and kept implying that it was a cleint issue .. Is very disapointing..

[dude]

Update...

1. Support did provide a script to remove the duplicates, so the net amount of lost work was minimal.. and mainly due to actualy finding the problem for sparx..
2. The bug has been fixed in 831 and sync appears to work now.
3. See other threads, but all would have been easier if even a very basic tracking/support system existed..

There are numerious other bugs with EA (some very basic, some more complex like performance issues), but none as critical as this one; but it is simple too painful to get anything progressed, so will live with them..