Re: [hylafax-users] It was a good try at Open Source....

[Frank Griffith <glassdude45@xxxxxxxxx>]

Not to sound ungrateful, but if you solved the issue for me twice it went right over my head both times.

 

As I recall in one reply you added a few comments to the log that said the last page received too many bad lines and ended up as garbage...I already knew that otherwise why would I be asking for advice...

 

and another comment about having them resend the fax. We did and still the last page gets garbled no matter how many times they resend. You then closed the message by stating, and I quote you here:

 

"But, they hang up. Guess they didn't want to really send you this fax."

I'm trying to figure out how that solved my problem....

 

I then went to the front office and from another fax machine (in the same area code) sent this server 2, 3, and 10 page faxes without a hitch. The next morning they tried again from the out of town offices and we got garbage again. So we had them send it to the fax machine in our receiptionist office and had no problems, no matter how many pages or how many times they resend.

 

In another reply you said to swap out the modem. The modem works fine because it does all the other tasks we ask of it. I tested it thoroughly, but knowing it could be anything, I did swap out the modem. Same results. I thought it could be something like noisy phone lines so we swapped those out too. Same results.

 

We brought in a standard $100 fax machine and put it on the same phone line and it works everytime. This is what they meant by "we told you so!" and what I meant by saying the issue was never resolved.

 

As for hyping HylaFAX, the only reason they let me even try it was because it was free of charge. And it's not really the money issue as much as it is about how do we resolve problems when they arise. I never made them any promises. I even agreed with them in the beginning that we might run into a situation where it does not work.  And some tech on the other end of a mailing list would be sending vague and cryptic e-mail replies to our requests for assistance thinking that we're all at the same level he is and understand what to do with carefully worded instructions like:

 

"But, they hang up. Guess they didn't want to really send you this fax."

 

Your assistance is appreciated in any case.

 

 

<faxguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 2004.03.08 09:05 Frank Griffith wrote:
> > Well gang,
> > 
> > We tried HylaFAX for almost 6 months. In that time in went from being
> > a teriffic ideal to a bust.
>
> I'll bet we're about to read one of those "we should feel bad because 
> you couldn't use this free software due to the poor level of free 
> support and now you've got to use some non-free software and support by 
> some competitor" stories. Before we go there, let me state that this 
> topic is already well-covered in the archives; search for "whine". So, 
> as usual, you could have saved yourself the time by just doing an 
> archive search.
>
> > Sending faxes was no trouble but receiving faxes became the real
> > issue. The server seemed to work fine but then as larger, multi-page
> > faxes began arriving it began whacking the last page of any fax it
> > received. This
>  happened only when the call came from a long distance
> > fax machine. I tested this from home and from other faxes in this
> > office with no problem. But when our branch offices send in faxes, the
> > last page always appears as a few wide black lines at the bottom of
> > the page. When I would ask the sender to resend it to our standard fax
> > machine, all went well.
>
> I already explained it to you.
> http://www.hylafax.org/archive/2004-03/msg00020.php
> You chose to end that discussion/thread.
> I also already advised you.
> http://www.hylafax.org/archive/2004-03/msg00143.php
> You chose to end that discussion/thread, too.
>
> > And there we have it. No matter how much I prod our IT people, they
> > throw the "I told you so!" up in my face.
>
> Truly, I feel your pain. But it's never wise to try to sell something 
> to someone when they already have a predisposition against it. 
> Generally you'll just waste your time. Next time,
>  realize that if 
> "your IT people" express a predisposition then you pretty much have to 
> honor that unless you don't care about wasting time and being told "I 
> told you so!".
>
> > They are not interested in a
> > product that requires me to wait for replies from users groups and
> > this issue in particular wasn't solved at all.
>
> I solved it for you twice on the mailing list. Had you actually hired 
> someone they would have certainly solved it for you much more 
> directly... but yes, that costs money, and so you see you were doomed 
> to begin with because you tried to sell your idea without even the 
> price of a modem attached - let alone the price of a consultant or the 
> price of an extended time investment.
>
> > Too bad because I was
> > really looking forward to rolling this out for the entire company. But
> > they are headed into talks with other vendors now.
>
> You see, they were willing to invest properly. You didn't
>  have to sell 
> them on the too-good-to-be-true lie that HylaFAX would cost them no 
> time no money and no problems.
>
> Lee.
>
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