You may by now have noticed that it isn't easy to find our telephone number. We apologise for that but there is a good reason and more about this will be revealed if you can spare the time to read below. Otherwise, if you really are ready to place an order and feel unable to do so until talking to someone or if you feel that you have a problem or have a question that cannot be solved by reading any of the more than 600 pages in this website then please email us with YOUR telephone number and we will call you. At OUR expense! Anywhere in the world (except the PRC and Zimbabwe). Please bear in mind though that we cannot and will not discuss actual refrigeration or air conditioning case studies, only matters relating to program purchasing, program licencing, setting up or networking and training.
You sent Mistral an email but didn't receive a reply?
Mistral answers every respectful and sensible email. Usually within minutes and certainly within the same working day. If you didn't receive a reply was this perhaps because your email Spam interceptor is set too aggressively? Mistral frequently and necessarily relies upon links (hyperlinked URLs) to provide carefully written and pre-prepared advice. Messages also sometimes include graphical images to help illustrate a point or a concept. If your Spam interceptor has been set so aggressively as to eliminate email messages containing either hyperlinks or image files then that is the most likely reason you are not receiving a reply. Reset your Spam interceptor or get your IT department, if you have one, to do so. If that fails we recommend you change your ISP (Internet Service Provider)!
Thank you for telephoning this morning. It was good to hear from you again after such a long time. Six years now is it? Or perhaps even seven or eight. It is also gratifying to know that you would think to call us here at Mistral at 4:15am, rather than calling anyone located slightly nearer to you - in Tierra del Fuego.
How is the weather in southern Chile at this time of the year? It is strange to think that here in the wintry northern hemisphere right now we know that you are still in the middle of summer! It is with regret however, that even after much debate, none of the staff here are able to diagnose the fault with the limited description and symptoms you provided. I recall this was:-
"My little compressor, in my refrigerator. He no work no more why not?".
Perhaps there is an interruption to the electrical power supply. For example. Does the little light still come on when you open the door?
In any event we recommend that you look at the back of your refrigerator and locate the compressor. This is normally a black coloured, cylindrically shaped object of around 12 to 15 centimetres in diameter. Underneath you must find and unfasten the either three or four machine screws that fasten the compressor to the chassis of the refrigerator. Identify and remove the security clip along with the connector on the end of the wiring loom that connects the device to the electrical supply within the refrigerator. Next, make sure you have the right equipment and that you know how to use it safely or you know someone else that does, then remove all refrigerant from the system. Look for the two copper pipes attached to the compressor. Carefully but very firmly crimp each of these pipes with a powerful pair of pliers so as to seal and prevent the passage of refrigerant gas or liquid from within them or to prevent air from entering them. Then, using either a proprietary small pipe cutter or a small metal saw, cut each of the pipes on the compressor side of each crimp. All crimped and cut pipe ends should then really be cleaned and silver soldered to ensure they are gas tight. Finally, lift the compressor out from the refrigerator.
Before calling us again we then recommend that with the aid of a colleague standing close by and behind you, remove your pants, bend over and ask your colleague to stuff the defective device, blunt end first, in the nearest location that he or she can find where the sun definitely does not shine!
Have a nice night!
Seriously,
Mistral Associates regrets they are no longer able to provide a 24 hour international telephone Help support service. As indeed most software developers have also found it is no longer viable. Apart from
the fact that providing such a service was adding around 10% to Mistral's costs, and thus around 9% to the prices charged to you, Mistral's valued customers. Mistral also found that very few telephone
calls concerned problems that could not be easily resolved from the programs' comprehensive and 'dynamically linked' Help pages or the colour, illustrated manuals Mistral provides.
Of the remaining calls, as with Pedro's, most had absolutely nothing at all to do with Mistral products!
Discussions of individual customer projects or applications of Mistral programs also cannot be entered into under any circumstances. Oviously for both logistical and liability reasons. It is clearly not Mistral's role; any more so than it would be appropriate for Microsoft Corporation to advise its software users on how to compose a letter!
"Does Mistral still provide help though?"
Of course we do. If you are reading this then you undoubtedly also have email facilities. So please send us an email message, describing as best you can the symptoms of your problem, including the *name of the program or programs where you think it is incurring and we will get back to you. Generally within 24 hours, 7 days of the week, 365 days of the year. If you include YOUR telephone number as well, along with a time (local to you) when you can best be reached then if we need more information in order to help you then we will telephone you (but not at 4:15am your time!).
* (Important! Mistral has produced over eight thousand programs and over one hundred thousand databases over 25 years when all issues, re-writes and variants have been taken into account! The more information you provide then the easier and faster we will be able to diagnose and fix the problem.)
Mission statement:
"Bringing the benefits of computerisation to our industry - without the historically associated problems."