A-Shell
In a hurry? Link directly to the MicroSabio Support Center to find answers and ask questions. Continue reading, below, for support information and options.
The tech support resources described here, plus “a reasonable amount” of personalized service, are available to all A-Shell customers who maintain their annual software maintenance payments. If you have serious problems or need in-depth work, refer to the options below under Technical Services.
Have an A-
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Check out the Error Messages section of the Operations documentation. It has a fairly extensive listing with descriptions of common A-
Shell error messages. -
Use the MicroSabio Support Center to search for answers to your questions/problems, and to pose questions when necessary.
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If you’ve tried these resources and still can’t resolve your problem, email your question or problem to MicroSabio at the address on our Contact Page.
Technical Services
MicroSabio provides technical support and service in several contexts. See the rates on the price list and descriptions below. Note that these services are not related to and do not substitute for A-Shell annual software maintenance—i.e., they are paid in addition to your annual maintenance.
Events: If you contact MicroSabio for contract programming work, or because of a technical emergency or a serious problem that needs to be addressed, we are usually able to attend to such matters for you. We will estimate the time required for the job and ask that you send us a payment for that many hours times our published or quoted billing rate. If the time estimates turns out to be low, we expect you will make up the difference. If the estimate is high, we will refund the difference at the end of the project.
Projects: MicroSabio is able and willing to undertake various types of technically-oriented projects. They may or may not involve A-Shell. MicroSabio has a broad range of skills and technical expertise that can be creatively applied to helping solve your technical problems or improve your operations.
Preliminary discussions about the scope and intent of the project are no-charge events. Unless elaborate or unusual pre-project work is required, no charges accumulate for talking and planning.
A project becomes real when (a) MicroSabio provides a time and cost estimate, and (b) the client pays 1/3 of the expected project cost. At that point, work begins. A second 1/3 is expected when the programs or project “go live”, which is approximately when MicroSabio will be finished. The third 1/3 bill be billed at the end of the project on Net 30 terms, and serves as the client’s guarantee that the project or program meets with his/her approval.
During the course of the project, the original time and cost estimate will be revised as circumstances warrant. The changes might be up or down. We try to over-estimate on costs, so there are no unpleasant surprises.
Annual Support is intended for organizations that wish to (a) have MicroSabio provide advice, consulting, programming or other technical services during the course of the year, and (b) guarantee MicroSabio’s availability. Most firms have a local computer dealer, or their own in-house staff, or some external person with technical skills who keeps the computers running and solves problems. Although MicroSabio is not primarily in that business, we do provide such services for folks who feel that we are their best option. Thanks to the internet and remote control software, most necessary tasks can be accomplished remotely.
Annual support is handled and billed as a retainer. We bill you for the coming year, and you have that charge “on account” against work to be performed during the course of the year. As service is provided, your balance is reduced according to the hourly rates published on our price list or quoted to you in advance. If the retainer is “used up” before the year is over, you will be billed to “refill” it. If you do not use your service for the year, your balance will be rolled over to the next year. There is a minimum “use it or lose it” annual charge of one third of the base retainer fee.