Hi There are some flaws in your way of thinking... First, when you talk to a support guy, there are more things that cost money than only his salary... Think of the Electricity bill, PBX, the cost of his computer and the network he is connected to, with all databases and systems. Also think of that that this person should have used some of his time for learning what he has to say, and if we talk about Linux, than it takes more time than normal Windows dialup support Another thing to think about is that I presume you are quite a technical guy that know his way around computers... Think of all those guys who have bought an internet account because they heard it's cool and it's the first time they sit on a computer. There are much more users from the above type than real technical users... Arie -----Original Message----- From: Nadav Har'El [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 10:46 AM To: Eli Marmor Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Pay for linux support (was - Re: iix and the rest og the world...) On Tue, Jan 02, 2001, Eli Marmor wrote about "Re: Pay for linux support (was - Re: iix and the rest og the world...)": > > And please, don't complain. Even support for money is better than nothing, > > because support FYI costs quite a bit. According to a Compaq survey it's > > something like $40 per phone call. (Eli Marmor, please correct me if I got > > the numbers wrong). > > Yes. The exact number in the original research was $35 (Average costs > of "kria" by phone. What is the exact translation for "kria"?), but > considering the inflation, it must be at least $40 today (and even $50 > if you count the extra inflation in the costs of a technical manpower, > caused by the prosprity in the hi-tech and start-ups). I think this $35 number is highly exegerated. Let's get down to earth, people. The minimum wages in Israel are $4 an hour. Let's assume the ISPs are generous, and paying $8 an hour (I think they don't - most support people are young people without formal education or training in these subjects). Even if we exaggerate and assume extra costs (computers, food, rides, etc.) raise this to $10 and that each support call lasts a full hour, we end up with $10 a call. Still a lot (I'd bet the real figure is much lower), but only a quarter of the $40 figure. Of course, these figures change completely if they hire people taking $40 an hour, and each call lasts for 2 hours. Of course, the ISPs know the *real* statics very well, and can see that giving support is good for them. For example, perhaps a typical customer stays with an ISP for 24 months, and calls support 3 times, the cost of which is comparable to the revenues of just a single month. Just as an example, I've had a Netvision account for about 3 years. In all this time, I only called support once, and the call lasted 10 minutes (the bottom line was that they didn't really understand my question, and I gave up). If half the people are like me (solve simple problems on their own, or ask friends to help them in simple problems), this makes the support offer even less expensive. -- Nadav Har'El | Tuesday, Jan 2 2001, 7 Tevet 5761 [EMAIL PROTECTED] |----------------------------------------- Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |AlGoreithm, n: Repeating a calculation http://nadav.harel.org.il |until a prior desired result is produced. ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
