Don't misunderstand me, I LIKE the Mandrake disto, BUT their tech support has treated me atrociously. Dear reader, please consider...

Mandrakesoft's installation support has drastically failed me. I've had a "paid installation support incident" (for which Mandrake promises 72-hour response time) unanswered for over a month, and three e-mails to Mandrakesoft got me no more than an e-mail saying "Yup, it's been unanswered for a month. Sorry about that." Finally, a week ago, I got a "support response" saying "Er, we'll look into this." Since then, zip nada nichevo. Over half the 60-day support period wasted with no response, and they won't even extend the coverage period to compensate for their screwup. Gods below, I've gotten better tech support from the Beast of Redmond! Is there something wrong at Mandrakesoft, or are my expectations too high?

The chronology:

8 Dec 01: I register my brand-new Linux Mandrake 8.1 Boxed Set and post a support query (my sound doesn't work right) on MandrakeExpert. They guarantee 72-hour response on these queries. Incident shows up on their Web
site, but no answer...

16 Dec: I send e-mail to support@mandrakesoft.com th the effect of, "Hey, where's my tech support, why no answer?" But no answer...

3 Jan 02: I send irate e-mail to mandrakeexpert@mandrakesoft.com and support@mandrakesoft.com, to the effect of "Hey, where the HELL is my tech support? Answer me or I'll go to the press!". This gets me...

7 Jan: A response from JeanDominique Lenard, Customer Care Manager,
which reads in its entirety: " Hello, Sorry to have been so slow to answer
you. I checked upon your incident. It has not received any answer as you
stated and I apologize for that. This is naturally unacceptable customer
service. I will have the support team answer your question. Sorry about
that". BUT, still no answer to my support incident...

10 Jan: I mail jdlenard@mandrakesoft.com to the effect that "Thanks for the reply, I thought you'd all been downsized. Now, about my support question?..." BUT, no answer yet (and it's now been over half the "paid web support" period for that ONE inquiry).

11 Jan: I FINALLY get a "response" to my support incident, to the effect
that they "will investigate our problem with KDE Media Player." I reply with an
inquiry about extending the paid-support period to compensate for the slow response. No answer.

16 Jan: Five days later, still nothing more from Mandrakesoft. I decide to go public.

NOTE: I tried to include copies of the e-mail traffic and support incident, but message-length filter nixed that. Complete text (unless they zorch it) is on the MandrakeUser forum at: http://www.mandrakeuser.org/mub/view...5080&forum=7&3

that is why we have www.linuxquestions.org , a fairly faster and better support for free.

No Offence, but if i were you, in future, i would never buy a linux distro with support in mind as being something you will use. it takes too long, its often hard to work out whats wrong etc etc, and sometimes as in your case, you wont even get an answer. the only people i have had good support from was libranet. a debian based distro who answered my emails in like 8 hours.

Seriously, just post here, and you will have a response within hours, and you will probably have it fixed within 2days

yep, next time, download your distro of choice, then come here for free support.

I have to agree and say that suport from a distro is not going to be as good as from here mainly due to the limited knowledge they are going to have. Also, if you have a problem with a specific app rather than the distro you may find that you get a better respone from the KDE department. With some many different ppl and organisations involved in a Linux distro you can imagine how hard it is to get all to coperate!

Sorry to hear of story.

Well if you have a problem like me, SuSE and any FORUM wont be able to help, see my other post about configuring Xchat/

I also bought mdk 8.1 box set and went to MandrakeExpert for my initial problems. They have a couple of very helpful people there, but also some real jerks. I also had a "no sound" post over there, however, one of the "experts" was able to get me fixed up and he was extremely friendly & helpful. However, the few times after that that I tried to get help there... forget it...

From there I started hanging out at mandrakeuser.org forum, which usually has quick & knowlegable help from the members.

Then I found this place, and I'm still here.

Anyway, you can't expect fantastic support for software that is free, or almost free.....