A Line in the Sand

[Retro]

I have emailed support on many occasions and have only ever received 2 replies, both of which had no real meaning when compared to the question. In the early days of Rail Simulator these Forums where monitored on a regular basis and the Support was then second to none. The company had fewer employees then. Of all the companies I have used Support for RSC come out as the worst one. It is a simple as that. The only saving grace has been that Derek has often gone above and beyond the call of duty. Due to circumstances which I understand he is now taking less of a part on the Forums but still drops in every so often.
Support is the main customer connection point between user and the Manufacturer of goods in this case Software and gives an overall impression of how the company operates and cares for it's customers.
Kind regards James.

[jimmyshand]

I have emailed support on many occasions and have only ever received 2 replies, both of which had no real meaning when compared to the question. In the early days of Rail Simulator these Forums where monitored on a regular basis and the Support was then second to none. The company had fewer employees then. Of all the companies I have used Support for RSC come out as the worst one. It is a simple as that. The only saving grace has been that Derek has often gone above and beyond the call of duty. Due to circumstances which I understand he is now taking less of a part on the Forums but still drops in every so often.
Support is the main customer connection point between user and the Manufacturer of goods in this case Software and gives an overall impression of how the company operates and cares for it's customers.
Kind regards James.

Have to agree with you there. In the early days I could not fault RSC and indeed was full of praise for them. There was a good thing going on with both supplier and customer almost working together as mates! Conversation was open and honest and issues were taken onboard and acknowledged. To this day I still can't say a bad word against Derek because he has been exemplary in his conduct and a great ambassador for RSC. Not so sure about the others though.
I've used the analogy before about the new, larger, multi-national RSC being like McDonalds as opposed to your old local chip shop that used to be there. If you wanted to speak to the owner of McDonalds and have a chat about issues and how they could make their burgers less plastic and mass-produced then you'd fire off an email to the faceless suits at "McSupport" and no doubt get a generic mass-produced answer back. If you wanted to chat the owner of your local chip shop then you'd find him right there behind the counter and willing to listen to his valued local customer!

Progress is not alway progress is it?

[transadelaide]

Multi-national? I thought they were still at Guildford and Chatham, working on future enhancements to the program and mostly UK addons?

Of course it's one thing to tell the guy at the local chip shop how you would like your chips.
It's another thing to repeatedly bore people around you by banging on about how wrong it is for them to sell a few hamburgers to other people who want them when you think they should just be forcing everyone to eat chips only even when they order a hamburger. Or indeed a schnitzel, witjuti grub, sushi roll or escargot for that matter.

[jimmyshand]

Multi-national? I thought they were still at Guildford and Chatham, working on future enhancements to the program and mostly UK addons?

Of course it's one thing to tell the guy at the local chip shop how you would like your chips.
It's another thing to repeatedly bore people around you by banging on about how wrong it is for them to sell a few hamburgers to other people who want them when you think they should just be forcing everyone to eat chips only even when they order a hamburger. Or indeed a schnitzel, witjuti grub, sushi roll or escargot for that matter.

Of course it's also boring to be someone who makes continual thinly disguised digs at people?

[bigvern]

Have to report the tide washed over my line (a bit) this afternoon as I reinstalled RW on the laptop...

Two or three days of wrestling invisible stations and frogless splines with red and green arrows in the other sim had me back on the beach again!

Taking Derek's advice from another thread, I've found myself a nice little 8 mile branch line to build (and no, it isn't by the seaside!).

[chrisreb]

Vern - will look out for hints as you progress!

[SouthernElectric]

Have to agree with you there. In the early days I could not fault RSC and indeed was full of praise for them. There was a good thing going on with both supplier and customer almost working together as mates! Conversation was open and honest and issues were taken onboard and acknowledged. To this day I still can't say a bad word against Derek because he has been exemplary in his conduct and a great ambassador for RSC. Not so sure about the others though.
I've used the analogy before about the new, larger, multi-national RSC being like McDonalds as opposed to your old local chip shop that used to be there. If you wanted to speak to the owner of McDonalds and have a chat about issues and how they could make their burgers less plastic and mass-produced then you'd fire off an email to the faceless suits at "McSupport" and no doubt get a generic mass-produced answer back. If you wanted to chat the owner of your local chip shop then you'd find him right there behind the counter and willing to listen to his valued local customer!
Progress is not alway progress is it?

Must say Jimmy this sums up my feelings on the topic, somebody posted previously about Fastlines Chatbox and I must admit that feature slots into the "local chippy" owner where if i'd got a problem with my TEA tanker or VDA vans I could talk to said Proprieter directly, they've also got a Forum where I can raise issues.
Simon

[bigvern]

Vern - will look out for hints as you progress!

Let's just say "chocolate and cream" land, for now. Actually (and veering OT in a positive way) the GWR "branch line" as espoused by numerous Layouts Of The Month and track plans in 1970's Railway Modellers/MRC's was a bit of a myth. Sure, there were some but if you look at areas like the Cotswolds - the favourite haunt of people like Alan Downes with his superb buildings - or South/Mid Wales many of the routes were in fact secondary cross country routes, rather than the stub end branches of popular legend.