Date: Fri, 17 Dec 93 16:37:36 HST
Subject: Letter to Cameca
From: "Tom Hulsebosch"
Status: O

John, We had a small meeting of SX-50 users at AGU. We all
enjoyed bad-mouthing Cameca, and we agreed to send a letter
To Claud Conty to let him know that we hope to see improvements.
I've included a draft.
Do you think the letter should be distributed to everyone on
your mail list for endorsment before being sent to Claud?
I think this might be a good idea.

Here's a draft of the first official letter to Cameca from our
SX-50 users group. Please let either Mike Garcia or myself know
if there should be any changes. Also, should the letter be
distributed to all SX-50 users for approval, or just those
present at AGU?

Tom H.
____________________________________________________________


December 15, 1993


Mr. Claude Coney
Marketing Director
Cameca Instruments
103, Boulevard Saint-Denis
BP-6, 92403 Courbevoie
Cedex, France

Dear Clause,

The purpose of this letter is to notify Cameca of the
formation of a North American SX-50 Owners Group and to share
with you the results of our meeting in San Francisco on December
6. The primary mission of our group is to share information
(e.g., methods developed and solutions to common problems). We
hope to work with Cameca in the distribution of this information
for the greatest benefit to all current and future SX-50 owners.

We should emphasize initially that the SX-50 electron
microprobe is an excellent machine. However, like all
sophisticated instruments, it has occasional problems. Some of
us have experienced considerable downtime (many weeks) due to a
lack of prompt and knowledgeable response to our request for

help. This is extremely frustrating. This frustration hurts us
and Cameca. As you must be aware, Cameca does not enjoy a good
reputation for service. We know that this has been a major
factor in some recent lost sales (e.g., Univ. of Minnesota).
Thus, we would hope that Cameca will endeavor to improve its
service reputation. We note that Cameca has recently hired a new
service engineer, which will hopefully alleviate problems with
response time for west coast SX-50 owners.

We have a few suggestions for service improvements. Provide
owners with a schedule for routine maintenance similar to the one
given to new car buyers. This is especially important for those
of us that cannot afford a full-service contract. Some of our
group members have learned of a few of these needed procedures by
accident after costly repairs.

Another improvement is the installation of a demo SX-50 in
Stamford. This would have at least two service benefits: parts
could be tested before they are shipped (our group members have
received defective parts from Stamford) and parts from it could
be borrowed when they are not otherwise available in Stamford (an
all-too-common problem). We are sure there would be many other
benefits to Cameca of having a demo machine in Stamford.

Software. Many of us purchased a Cameca microprobe because
of
its advanced software. However, when we started using the
software, we experienced many problems. Initially, we were told
that those problems were unique to our individual labs. However,
we soon began to speak to each other and discovered that we all
had the same problems. Quantiview is potentially a powerful
software product but it is froth with bugs. We have documented
those bugs to your people. We have been told that new releases
of the software would address these problems. This has not been
the case. Although some minor bugs have been fixed, some major
ones remain and some new ones were created. There are several
different versions of the software in circulation, but there is
little or no communication from Cameca to the owners about these
new releases unless we complain. We would like a realistic
timetable for future releases of Quantiview and the planned
modifications. We are now using defective software and we expect
it to be promptly fixed.

We have heard rumors that Cameca is developing a new
microprobe with completely different software. Is this true and
if so, will the Sun-users be abandoned (like the DEC-users were)
when the new system becomes available? Some of our DEC owners
are buying independent software, which is apparently superior to
Cameca's. Does Cameca have the will to produce quality software?

We hope this letter will initiate a frank dialogue between
our
group and Cameca that has been missing in the past with
individual group members. We look forward to receiving your
response which should be sent to Mike Garcia (Univ. of Hawaii).
He will distribute it to the other group members.

Sincerely,


Mike Garcia, U. Hawaii
Tom Hulsebosch, U. Hawaii
Brian Patrick, UCSB
Roger Nielson, Oregon State
Mike Drake, U. Arizona
John Shervais, U. So. Carolina



cc: President, Cameca Instruments