About a year ago, I purchased a piece of hardware that came with little documentation. After a bit of poking around and reaching a dead end, I contacted their technical support and was only given a link to their document download page. To download any manuals or guides, you had to register an account with them (username, password, etc), which I did, albeit with an increasing level of irritation. The manuals turned out to provoke more questions than they answered, prompting another email to technical support, in which I added that I thought it was "ridiculous" to have to register an account and remember a new password just to access manuals and the like. I received a terse email stating that because of my "abusive" treatment of their support staff, they would no longer be providing technical support and, if I would like an RMA number in order to return the (relatively expensive) hardware, they would be happy to provide one. This was somewhat surprising, as "ridiculous" was the strongest word I had used so far and, curious, I checked their website to see if there was anyone else at the company with whom I could discuss the situation. As it turned out, their front line technical support was also their CEO, which complicated matters, but eventually we took them up on their offer to RMA the hardware.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
