Question: Did we made a mistake in choosing Oracle?

Dear Oracle users:

Is this what we should expect to put up with in the future? We recently decided
to stop development on Ingres (due to lack of CA support) and start new projects using Oracle. Even though the product is shipped with no documentation
(we were assured documentation was included in the product before ordering),
the installation went fine.

Now while waiting for the documentation to arrive (at an additional cost of course)
we decided to print off the forms tutorial and step through it. At about step 4, it
says compile the form. Of course it does not work, some error about PL/SQL
source not found.

An excuse to try support. First you need to get the CSI number. Why wasn't it
shipped with the product? Answer: to force new users to listen to 20 minutes
of Oracle info-mercials (on the users' nickel). Received the CSI and a TAR and
was put through to the holding pattern for technical support. After another 15
minutes of dead time (other then making Sprint happy), we hung up.

Our question is, what is the average time it takes to talk to a human and once
contact has been made to get an answer?

This is a serious question, since we would rather eat the cost now rather then
waste six months and then throw it out in frustration.

Thank you in advance for any responses and experiences shared.

Marvin Hubenthal
Sophistry Inc. Received on Wed Sep 06 1995 - 00:00:00 CEST