Ok, Discover replied to my message today pretty much saying what "nomail"
had posted: that they were working with Microsoft to fix the problem...

"JohnA" <John[at]TheAtas.org-spamguard> wrote in message
news:eT0y%23Un3HHA.1824[at]TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
- quote -

Based on what we deduced on here in some other threads, there's nothing
Microsoft could do to correct this. As said above, it's a tweak on DC's end,
in response to how DC's server is handling a value in a field in a transaction
from the M+08 client. MS couldn't alter the value or remove the field or the
transaction, other things would break. DC is up to bat here.


Chris wrote:
- quote -

I sent it into Discover via the website Customer Service area but they never
replied. Another poster said they also alerted Discover who just returned a
canned answer on how to use Discover from within Money... I am very greatful
that the poster did get a reply and post it here.
-- John

"Retired Coal Miner" <...[at]...> wrote in message
news:_oSdnbMdG7BnvlzbnZ2dnUVZ_oOnnZ2d[at]comcast.com...
- quote -

I'm not sure why you assume Microsoft's developers own this problem.

The protocol requires the client to pass version information. If the guy who
designed the server makes the decision to reject a newer version and the
person who puts up the server doesn't maintain that code and/or update it in
a timely fashion to accept connections from newer clients--despite warnings
that they were coming--why is that the client developer's problem?

"Chris" <eicastic2[at]community.nospam> wrote in message
news:3E4F20E4-0638-4DC9-995C-B3394D4B3911[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

Yep, the poster did a good thing (although really, again, this should have
been MS hearing a customer complaint and fixing it, NOT Discover Card dealing
with the issue). In addition, a user shouldn't be fixing a problem on a
production product that should have been caught by QA. Writing buggy software
is one thing. Writing buggy software that you sell to millions of people is
quite another. It's well known within the community (and within Microsoft's
own halls) that their QA process is pretty poor. It really is flawed on many
levels. Proper QA isn't easy by any means. It truly is difficult. But as the
leader in consumer software, Microsoft should be taking the extra billions in
cash it has on hand and doing some serious R&D into better QA processes
(which they could then turn into massive revenue via management consulting in
the area).

I like MS's software. Hell, I make a living using their frameworks to create
products for others. But damn, I think venting about their management of the
most important aspect (from and end-user's perspective) of the software
product development cycle is certainly allowed. Taking an existing perfectly
working element of a consumer program and breaking it in a new release is
just about one of the absolute worst things you can do for customer loyalty
and satisfaction.

Look at it from a customer's viewpoint--if my main method of payment for
purchases is via Discover Card (not unlikely considering their size), and I'm
forced to upgrade to a new Money version because the one I PAID for is being
phased for online transactions starting 9/1, then all of a sudden my
financial software has completely crippled my ability to reconcile and manage
my personal finances. I've gone from fully functional and well-organized to
an essentially worthless piece of software because MS broke EXISTING
functionality. I can forgive (just barely) new stuff not working quite right,
but you always regression test the hell out of any new software that has such
a wide audience. That obviously wasn't done to a satisfactory level here.

So, I think it's OK to rant--maybe an MS Money developer will feel slighted
that their QA department is making them look bad and say something. You never
know.


"Retired Coal Miner" wrote:

- quote -

Compliments to you for sending this in to DC and bringing it to their
attention, (as opposed to just ranting about it on here saying hey mr.
microsoft your software stinks...).

Based on their reply it sounds like a quick resolution is in the works.

08/13/2007

Thank you for your recent e-mail. We appreciate you taking the time to
contact us with your question.

Thank you for forwarding this information, MS Money Plus has only been
out for a few days and we were not aware of the problem since older
versions still work.

We are speaking with Microsoft to try to find where the problem is, we
hope the problem will be fixed soon.

Thank you for using Discover Card.

Terry

Web Support