11. Companies rarely if ever spend enough time and money to properly QA their product. That is why more often than not their is a 'patch' shortly after release. They depend on the users to 'test' the software and report back the bugs - free labor.

12. Support agents rarely get trained properly or in time to support a product. The companies rely on you, the user, to work with them to provide 'on the job' training as they resolve your issues. That is why often times an agent acts 'stupid' about a product.

13. Companies don't really want to provide support. The regard it as an expense on their balance sheet. That is why they set up 'user forums'. Its call the 'Big Boy' warranty - "your a big boy now; fix it yourself."

14. Often times companies come out with a new version, mostly bug fixes, with a few interface changes, or a couple of 'new' features that should have been included in the first place. Why? To get the customers to pay for the bug fixes.

15. Many companies don't really care if their product works or not just as long as you buy it and they don't get bad publicity or reputation for releasing garbage. If this was not the case why the disclaimers in the license agreements that the product is sold as is; you use it at your own risk; and they are not responsible if any bad happens because you use the product.

16. Some companies rush product out the door when it is not ready for release just to get it out before a competitor does or to improve cash flow.

17. Many companies do not insist that their programmers document their code. So when the programmer leaves the company the staff that is left finds it very difficult if not impossible to fix actual bugs within the code. Instead the write a series of patches to 'fix' the bugs after they occur to make the results look right, since they can't actually fix the problem in the 'core' of the program. One of the reasons programmers do this is to try to make themselves irreplaceable. It doesn't work. Another reason is that companies do not give their programmers enough time to do it. Documentation takes time and time is money.

18. No program is perfect. All programs have bugs.

19. Tier 1 support agents many times work from scripts. They listen to what you say, type key words into a database, and read back to you the results. If you think they have no idea what you are talking about you are correct.

20. They reason for long waits for tech support, other than it costs the company money to hire an adequate number of people, is that if you reach an agent to discuss and fix a problem, most if not all the profit from your purchase is lost. They want you to get tired of waiting and hang up.

I started doing programming and tech support in 1974 and I personally have experienced all of the above as an employee of many major companies.