Contacted National Semi for some simple tech support and got... - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: allanw
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2010, 08:27:57 am
content: I asked for some simple clarification on the datasheet for National Semiconductor'sADC11DV200. I also asked for schematics/layout of the evaluation board for reference. This is their response:QuoteIsn't it a bit strange that they'd refer me to Digikey? Shouldn't they be able to answer questions about their own products better than their distributor?For reference, I asked about the advantages/disadvantages of connecting the pin Rext like it says in the datasheet: "Programming resistor for analog bias current. Nominally a 3.3k? to AGND for 200MSPS, or tie to VA to use the internal frequency scaling current"There's no differences mentioned in the datasheet other than different power consumption.

author: Hypernova
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 11, 2010, 10:22:33 am
content: That's just bizarre, why would DK even be ale to answer such things.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2010, 12:57:41 pm
content: Their customer relationship management software indicated to them you aren't a customer they want to take serious. They handed you over to a distributor to get rid of you. Kind of like outsourcing the hotline.

author: PetrosA
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2010, 05:02:59 pm
content: I've found the same system with a few large companies as well. Siemens electrical gear division does this as does Iris, a very expensive commercial lighting division of Halo. Both times the distributors were very surprised to find out that tech service was their responsibility, and with Siemens, the distributor didn't even have a tech support number available for consultation. I guess each distributor is expected to hire an electrical engineer and educate them in the entire Siemens product line

author: chscholz
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2010, 05:51:53 pm
content: All serious companies have a bunch of applications engineers.It might be worth calling the switchboard and see if you can get connected to applications directly.Chris

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2010, 10:44:41 pm
content: I suspect the problem is they get lots of calls from muppets who can't be bothered to RTFDS or just don't have a clue what they're doing, so all calls get batted away. For a detailed query like this, chances are the disti will refer it back to the manufacturer, so it ends up taking longer, then you get all the sales hassle afterwards.I can see this making sense for phone queries, but for email, it's not rocket science to filter queries depending on expertise required - the last few times I've done this, I've had quick, detailed replies - from memory these were to Onsemi, Allegro, Fairchild and TI - I know I've also had sensible answers from Nat.Semi in the past, probably a couple of years ago now.

author: Joy at MCS
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 13, 2010, 04:31:47 pm
content: were these questions for something you already bought which was an Ni product or something you were considering?

author: joelby
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 14, 2010, 12:03:48 am
content: I haven't dealt with National, but I recently contacted LTC about an ADC chip and could not have been more impressed with them!

author: Zad
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 14, 2010, 04:43:36 am
content: The infuriating thing is how inconsistent these companies are. One time I emailed Analog about some design questions and got a direct and informative response from an engineer. Next time I tried to get hold of an engineer I was told by a droid to contact my local distributor.

author: Joy at MCS
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 14, 2010, 11:49:22 am
content: I think what probably happened is they thought since you wouldn't be able to buy from them direct they would just direct you to the distributor to answer all the questions .I still think it's shame that you didn't receive good customer service. It seems like to me that the larger a company gets the worse their customer service gets.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 17, 2010, 05:09:13 pm
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on December 11, 2010, 10:44:41 pmChances are the people you initially deal with have very poor training and could not identify valid from invalid questions. These days most companies have a nice front end of wallies that don't know what they are doing.As an example I had to return something to hella at work and got hold of 3 different people each of which wanted different information and were very unhelpful, one told me that to accept the claim they needed the vehicle model and manufacturer, I had to tell that person to go sling her hook because it was a military vehicle that I know little of myself and was not at liberty to tell them anything about (the little i do know is because I had to go down there and check out some problems on their air con so have simply seen it)

author: Time
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2010, 12:06:28 am
content: If I have a question about anything work or hobby related I just call or e-mail from my office and I get an engineer everytime. Never fails.I say, "I would like to speak to an engineer." though.One time with IXYS RF I got the engineer who writes the datasheets and he was able to give me 3 datasheets for products I was using that included up to date information in them relevant to my application. The datasheets were not yet available online either. That was pretty nifty. We became friends after the fact and now I am able to call him directly when I have questions. If you get ahold of engineers sometimes they are willing to give you their direct contact information for future use if you don't come off as a typically annoying customer who just needs to RTFM.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 18, 2010, 08:31:37 am
content: Engineers generally are friendly and helpful to people that appear to have a brain. I dealt with a guy at bosch about a fan we buy at work and a so called failure, it is a very complex fan or rather fan motor as it is a stepper motor and is full of safety features, He told me all about how it works (after I explained that I was knowledgeable of electronics) and how it could be made to fail despite being made to be indestructable and we had a polite giggle over the customers crazy setup with was obviously the cause of fault