Good Support Requires More Information Than "It Doesn't Work"

I'm going to visit a client tomorrow. The entire day will be a day of collecting information about their systems and how they use CorelDRAW. This is a client that understands that a proper answer can't be provided without fully understanding the issues.

Unfortunately the messages I passed along last year in It Doesn't Work and It Still Doesn't Work haven't sunk in with all users. I encourage you all to read them again to fully understand.

Let's evaluate a comment we got on yesterday's post on QR Creator Macro and QR Code Docker for CorelDRAW. The entire comment said "Bunch of garbage, nothing works." When reading this comment, I had no way to provide an answer because I was provided no information on the problem.

First, did both macros not work or only one? Since they are both for CorelDRAW, did the user have CorelDRAW installed? If the user doesn't have CorelDRAW, of course they aren't going to work. What version of CorelDRAW? Both macros clearly list the versions of CorelDRAW supported so if an unsupported version of CorelDRAW was being used, no surprise the macros don't work. One of them has an installer and one requires placing the macro file in a specific location. Could the problem be with the installer or placing the file? From the comment, we certainly have no idea.

Maybe the macros have installed correctly and they run just fine. The problem could be that the user enters information and they don't create the desired QR code. Of course they could create the code just fine and it doesn't scan correctly. Heck, the problem could even be with downloading the files.

After clarification we found out the problem was the user had not named the file properly when downloading one of the macros. Admittedly the developer (we didn't develop it) could have provided better instructions for how to download and use the macro.

I'm sure there are other potential problems I haven't listed here. What I do know is that I have downloaded both of the macros and installed them into CorelDRAW X6. I have run both macros and both have generated the QR code I desired. So for me, they both work just fine.

Next time you have an issue with something and you are going to ask for help, take a few extra minutes to describe the situation better than "It Doesn't Work". If that is all you have to say, you are wasting your time and that of the person from whom you are requesting help. Had the user simply taken 30 more seconds to describe the true problem, it could have been resolved quickly.