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Mandriva Linux Fails to Deliver!


Guest stu8_UK
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Guest stu8_UK

I would dearly like to become a mandriva user and on friday 30th march

I ordered a boxed set of Mandriva Linux PowerPack from the official

mandriva.com website in Europe and I paid up the 90 or so euros it

cost.

 

Then I waited... and 13 days later, I am still waiting!

 

I cannot believe it takes 13 days to get a small package from Paris

to Hertfordshire and despite several attempts at emailing mandriva

through their website, all I can find out is that they "dispatched"

my order through some french courier company called Chronopost, which

does not appear to have agency in the UK.

 

The Chronopost website nominates an outfit called Geopost in the UK,

but when I phoned them, they said they no longer deal with Chronopost

and they suggested that the new agency may be TNT, but they don't deal

with Chronopost either... and guess what?

 

Chronopost is a french outfit and therefore prides itself on having no

english speaking web-pages or contact numbers.

 

As I said, several emails of complaint to Mandriva have have met with

deafening silence.

 

It seems to me that mandriva.com don't mind taking UK-£ off their

english speaking customers, but are quite reluctant to ensure that

they deliver their products in a reasonable period of time!

 

Therefore, my advice to people reading these pages, who are considering

the purchase of a mandriva product, is DON'T!

 

What I suggest to the management of Mandriva, if they bother to read

these pages, is to think carefully about ignoring customer complaints,

to think carefully before you dispatch products to couriers who fail to

deliver and to remember that one disgruntled customer can warn off

MANY potential customers.

 

Thank you.

 

stu8_UK

 

moved from talk-talk by mystified. Edited title to remove all caps

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Chronopost do actually have english pages.... If you know about them :D

 

http://www.chronopost.com/en/

 

if you have the tracking number you can stick it in and try...

If you need any help on translations (like if after sticking in the number it directs you to a French page give me a call.)

 

Sorry to say like java guy....

I paid for it once back when it was Mandrake. I'll spare you the details, but it was not a good experience, to say the least.
Except I was actually stubborn enough to pay for it several times!
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I would dearly like to become a mandriva user and on friday 30th march

I ordered a boxed set of Mandriva Linux PowerPack from the official

mandriva.com website in Europe and I paid up the 90 or so euros it

cost.

 

Then I waited... and 13 days later, I am still waiting!

What did you order? 2007 or 2007.1? I think they are taking preorders for that. 2007.1 is the new release and it's not out yet so it's too early to complain.
What I suggest to the management of Mandriva, if they bother to read

these pages, is to think carefully about ignoring customer complaints,

to think carefully before you dispatch products to couriers who fail to

deliver and to remember that one disgruntled customer can warn off

MANY potential customers.

 

Thank you.

 

stu8_UK

 

moved from talk-talk by mystified. Edited title to remove all caps

This is an unofficial fan site so I can assure you that the management of Mandriva doesn't bother to read this with a few exceptions. You should write to the official forum on club.mandriva.com.
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This is an unofficial fan site so I can assure you that the management of Mandriva doesn't bother to read this with a few exceptions. You should write to the official forum on club.mandriva.com.
What he said :D
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Guest stu8_UK

Thanks for the moral support guys!

 

I kind of suspected I wasn't an orphan in their attitude to customers,

but it's reassuring to hear it from others.

 

I shall try that website you mentioned dexter11.

Ill'e get my moneys worth out of them one way or the other ;-)

 

Cheers,

 

Stu8_UK

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What did you order? 2007 or 2007.1? I think they are taking preorders for that. 2007.1 is the new release and it's not out yet so it's too early to complain.
I'd second that question - if you order a product that's not yet officially released then it may indeed take more than 13 days to arrive. On the other hand, if you ordered 2007.0 then you maybe should have waited a couple of weeks!

 

Obviously the communication is poor, I'm not defending that, they should be able to tell you when your stuff will arrive.

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What did you order? 2007 or 2007.1? I think they are taking preorders for that. 2007.1 is the new release and it's not out yet so it's too early to complain.

 

all I can find out is that they "dispatched"

my order through some french courier company called Chronopost

 

Would seem to suggest that whatever it was that he ordered has been, well, "dispatched"

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I am sorry to see that you are having this trouble. I sincerely hope that Mandriva communicates with you and makes good on their delivery.

For many years I have used Mandriva. I first purchased a boxed version, 7.0, from Best Buy. It was on the shelf, covered with dust. My request for service, as they promised with one year support, went unanswered. I have never received any communication from them. This board, two versions ago, is why I still use Mandriva.

 

Mandriva is a good distro. It is not as esoteric as some would like, and it is not as "geekish" as others would like. Mandriva has worked on a nice gui since version 7.0, which was their first version that had a graphic installer. Mandriva is easy to use and easy to support. I still like the distro.

 

Mandriva has spent some time choosing to ignore aspects of customer service that are considered fundamentals here in the US. Friends in France have suggested that there is a cultural thing in this, and that it is not really bad business. There are Mandriva employees who come here from time to time which are genuinely interested in improving this aspect of Mandriva. These folks are good people and are attempting to affect a culture in their company. Nevertheless, the fact is that getting them to listen to customers is a problem that should not exist but simply is a fact of life.

 

I wish you the best. Mandriva does not pay any attention to us, either. Again, not a whine, just a fact.

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This is an unofficial fan site so I can assure you that the management of Mandriva doesn't bother to read this with a few exceptions. You should write to the official forum on club.mandriva.com.
What he said :D

actually, it has been known that some mandriva guys actually read this forum.

Also, when you write to the adress webmaster at mandriva dot com in english, you mail is usually taken care of by none other than Adam Williamson himself, which usually manages to have things sorted out with the store team or give valuable infos.

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As a newer user it's hard for me to compare the present with the past but it seems to me that things are going in the right direction and that Mandriva is putting more focus on the support thing and better management?

 

I sure hope so because I really think Mandriva is a fine product. I absolutely enjoy using it every single day though I must admit that I'm not a paying customer yet. I'll wait this out a bit and see if the benefits from paying will improve. If they do I'll be glad to support Mandriva by paying even though it does seem to me that the club membership after buying Mandriva is fairly short?

 

I would also suggest more/better information on the Mandriva site regarding the different download versions. Especially being more careful with separating the terms "free as in open source" and "free - money wise". Personally I found myself very confused about this when downloading my very first Mandriva ONE install.

 

As I see it Mandriva really can be top of the pop, if the non-product areas improve. So I hope they will.

Edited by opvask
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even though it does seem to me that the club membership after buying Mandriva is fairly short?

 

You may find it better to just join the club, then there is no need to actually buy the physical Mandriva media(Boxed Product), as a club membership gives you access to the .iso's which are exactly the same as what you would get with a Boxed version, and you will have 12 months club membership to boot. You do of course have to download the .iso's, If you actually wanted/needed the physical Media, this way may not suit you of course.

 

Of course you can also just continue using the 'free' version.

 

[Edit] You should check the Club site first though, to see what the different levels of membership, Standard, Silver, and Gold (I think), offer you, I am Silver, and with that you have access to everything up to and including the PowerPack DVD versions.

Edited by jagwah
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As a newer user it's hard for me to compare the present with the past but it seems to me that things are going in the right direction and that Mandriva is putting more focus on the support thing and better management?

It has been so for a while, it doesnt necessarly appears when you're low on ressources, unfortunatly.

The priority has been set first to have the distro get back to what it used to be technically, as the 2006 left a sour memory. Mandriva also had to stop the one year - one release because it wasnt profitable, and instead we went back to the basis, while trying to keep the idea of a more stable - less changes release.

To my knowledge, the 2007 managed to deliver the first point and the 2007.1 seems to be able to deliver the second, as it is, again to my knowledge, the most upgradable mandriva (mdk) I've ever used.

And you just have to put into this picture the influence Adam has had on those last 2 releases to understand all this is connected to the user base through the club forum.

 

An other thing was to stop trying to keep alive unusable services like Online, which would be hacked into kinda functionning at release time, before becoming again a PITA soon after. Instead, it has been redevelopped as a simple, it just works, no nonsense, applet. And it just works. And I use it, while I never used the old one (and I'm the "eat your own food" kind of guy).

This was done quietly over the years, talking with romain without one inch of anger or flame, and instead, doing the FAQ for the old applet, and so on. Meanwhile Romain was convincing the management that it was saner, both in terms of ressources and efficiency. (So they are listening to the user base, you see)

 

Romain has been working a lot at putting expert back online as a official support platform, it's not finalised yet, but it's usable. The hope is to bring that to a point where the club is also a support offer, which is already happening when you buy a Flash or some other products. (And is the OP source of grieves apparently, so it has to be improved)

 

I will let you judge what is good and bad management from that, I don't have the personal knowledge nor the whole picture nor the numbers to really do it. It seems to me it is going in the direction you're talking about.

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even though it does seem to me that the club membership after buying Mandriva is fairly short?

 

You may find it better to just join the club, then there is no need to actually buy the physical Mandriva media(Boxed Product), as a club membership gives you access to the .iso's which are exactly the same as what you would get with a Boxed version, and you will have 12 months club membership to boot. You do of course have to download the .iso's, If you actually wanted/needed the physical Media, this way may not suit you of course.

 

Of course you can also just continue using the 'free' version.

 

[Edit] You should check the Club site first though, to see what the different levels of membership, Standard, Silver, and Gold (I think), offer you, I am Silver, and with that you have access to everything up to and including the PowerPack DVD versions.

 

Yes this offer is indeed more attractive and I am considering this. Like IMR is mentioning in the post below a lot of effort is put in making things work. e.g the expert function and once it does I'll probably sign up. but until everything works (and people start telling stories of success with the support) I'll wait it out.

 

Basically I get everything I need in the free version so I don't really need the pay versions that much BUT I really agree with Ixthusdan. Mandriva is a damn fine product and I'd like to support it (also money wise) to help it improve even further.

Edited by opvask
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