Sencha Support Issues

[cntx]

Hey people,

im writing this because im really disappointed of the support that sencha provides to paying customers.
I just brought the simple package, so i can at least get 4 "professional" answers to my problems. (the quote signs have their permission)

But all answers i get were between: 'Its not possible' to '<no answer in ages>'.
I should mention that this is not the first time i dont get a solution for my problems. This is the second and maybe the best example of 'non-help' (The first ticket just vanished out of the system without any 'professional' solution).

I have opened a ticket with a grid scrolling problem. Maybe some of you guys know the bug, that the update from 4.0.1 to 4.0.2a just fu**ed up the grid, so you wont be able to scroll. But anyways, i opened the ticket on July 27th and supplied an example code of mine where the bug happens. The first reply was a simple 'we-have-to-answer-in-72h-or-we-dont-fulfill-the-support-guidelines' on July 28th with the answer that they will come back in mid day tomorrow (So thats July 29th...). But im gracious with this one and will count this as an 'answer'. The next reply from me was on August 1st with the simple question if they need some more information to recall my problem. Nothing happens. Another reply from me, a week later to creating the ticket (August 4th). A miracle happens, i got an answer. Maybe they got a solution for this problem? Oh no... they cant rebuild it and they have problem to provide support because they were 'short staffed'. (Maybe they got to many issues in their perfect little framework? Who knows.) So i thought, 'ok, give them another simple example, just extract and check it'. I have posted this example on August 12th.

And here comes the clue... know we have October 4th! Come on guys are you kidding me? No reply in btween August 12th and now?

Just for the 'non-readers', here is a little timetable:
July 27th Opening ticket with supplied code, and working online example
July 28th Standard response that sencha has seen the ticket, and is working on it
August 1st My first replay if they need some more information or help.
August 4th 1 week hast passed, not answer yet.
August 4th Reply of Sencha... that they cannot rebuild the issue.
August 12th Providing new example, just extract and run.
October 4th No solution or reply yet!

Maybe u guys have the same problems as i got. Maybe not, then u got really really lucky. But it seems that this is the 'normal behaviour' in support overall. Just looking at the forum with tons of threads with not a single response.

But i cant blame the whole Sencha team, the ideas behind the framework are amazing. All The widgets are great... but only if your using them alone on a single page. If you try to combine them in a way you need it, you come up with extending, overriding and so on, which by the way is good, not perfect, but good.
But this cant be. You shouldnt have to override or extend base functionality just to get it working with another base function.

So for me, i think i will reclaim the money i spend for the support, because i simple didnt get anything useful out of it.

Just for you people to recall. The simple support package (ExtJs4 + Standard Support) costs $595. So you spend nearly $600 just to get the opportunity to open four tickets! Thats nearly $150 per ticket! And what do you get out of it? Nothing... just a standard reply, followed up by a long period of 'nothing'. And at the end there is ... what do you think? Right, nothing!

[ssamayoa]

Sad to heard that.

I think that Sencha with ExtJS 4 may made the same mistake as Netscape with its browser. I hope that consequenses aren't as bad as was for Netscape because I already invested a lot of time and effort in ExtJS.

Too many changes at once plus pressure from marketing and stockholders forced them to release a half baked product.

This logically led to too many support request that overwhelmed support people.

I hope 4.1 will be as good as 3.x series and revert this bad taste users have about ExtJS.

Regards.

[danyuen]

Hi, cntx.

I, too, am sorry to hear the report. I won't diminish your experience by trying to offer a series of explanations.

We found the ticket you are talking about and, if you are still interested in working with us on it, we'll stay on top of it going forward.

Also, be assured that our strategy for staffing increases is being implemented. New resources have been added to our team since your ticket was opened with more to come. (Sencha is hiring!)

Having said that, your support package is not only for the right to open tickets. It also includes maintenance, giving you access to any new versions of our product while your Support and Maintenance package is in effect.

Still, I hear what you are saying about your support experience. We will work to resolve this issue and win you back.

Dan Yuen
Sencha Support Manager

[cntx]

Having said that, your support package is not only for the right to open tickets. It also includes maintenance, giving you access to any new versions of our product while your Support and Maintenance package is in effect.

I know that there is also the availablity of maintenance and newer versions.
On the one hand, i can only upgrade to newer version, if my code is running the same way as it did before updating (see my ticket). On the other hand there is the maintenance, which only works if the support is doing fine, which wasnt the case.

[halcwb]

Sad to heard that.

I think that Sencha with ExtJS 4 may made the same mistake as Netscape with its browser. I hope that consequenses aren't as bad as was for Netscape because I already invested a lot of time and effort in ExtJS.

Too many changes at once plus pressure from marketing and stockholders forced them to release a half baked product.

This logically led to too many support request that overwhelmed support people.

I hope 4.1 will be as good as 3.x series and revert this bad taste users have about ExtJS.

Regards.

I agree and have to say that we have similar experiences with the support system of Sencha. Sadly, there is no sign that Sencha is learning from this. They keep pushing products. Recently I upgraded my designer to make it compatible with Ext 4, and guess what, it immediately ran into serious bugs. I would have much preferred less functionality but high quality, consistent and well tested code over a lot of new functionality with all the bugs.

Meanwhile we will stick with Sencha because they still are the best available there is. But I would seriously advice them to take these message to heart, otherwise we will switch when something better comes along.

P.s. To the managers of Sencha: read the Mythical Man-Month by Frederick Brooks.

[edspencer]

@halcwb agreed we didn't do a good enough job last time around. We've learned a lot from this, Ext JS 4.1 and Sencha Touch 2.0 will be much higher quality releases.

I can't speak for the support team but I know they work very hard (they sit right behind me). We haven't made life any easier by throwing so many products at them, but from the frameworks point of view the biggest aim is achieving version maturity so I expect the volume of support issues to go down.

[stevil]

@Ed,

Glad to hear that maturity is a focus, we'll clearly all benefit from that. One question I have for you relates to the product roadmap for Ext JS. In years past, it has been a fairly comprehensive list of major points of functionality. The current one seems rather light (get 4.1 out the door, then Aria and RTL).

OK, I'll actually ask my question - does the lightness in the roadmap imply a shift in focus to other products once stability is achieved?

stevil

[edspencer]

OK, I'll actually ask my question - does the lightness in the roadmap imply a shift in focus to other products once stability is achieved?

stevil

Nope, more that I'd rather be cautious about what we communicate until everything is rock solid and knowable. That holds with new features too - generally we'd like to get on a 3 month minor release cadence but announcing things ahead of time can make that derail...

In general I feel it's important to move to a model where we prove things internally for a longer period then only talk about them publicly when they're in great shape. Talking up things before they're proven is not such a great approach

[stevil]

@Ed,

That seems sane to me. I mean, you're in a different place than the old days when it was a few developers turning out code on a dime...