This page lists many of the sources of information and assistance available to users of Estima software products, including Frequently Asked Questions lists, known bug lists, the RATS Internet Mailing List, RATS procedures and examples, other on-line resources, and our technical support department.
If you haven't already done so, please read our Technical Support Policy before contacting us for assistance. This page offers some suggestions on resolving problems, and describes the level of support we try to provide. Most of this information (in a slightly older form) is also available in the Getting Started booklet included with RATS.
We occasionally post patch files that allow licensed RATS users to download updates to more recent versions at no charge. See Software Updates for details.
If you are experiencing a problem with RATS, you may want to check the List of Known Bugs to see if it is something we know about and have fixed. Others may want to look over this list to see if any known problems might affect your work.
Also, see the list of RATS Manual Errata for corrections to the RATS documentation.
Our web-based RATS Software Forum and the RATS Internet Mailing List (RATS-L) are both useful venues for RATS users to exchange ideas, solve programming problems, discuss econometrics topics, and more. The support staff at Estima are active participants in both forums, frequently posting example code and procedures on the forums before they appear anywhere else. See the RATS Discussion Forums page for more information.
The Procedures and Examples Page lists many pre-written RATS procedures and example programs you can download for your own use.
We pride ourselves on providing fast, accurate responses to questions relating to the use of our software products. Here's how you can reach our technical support department:
|
Phone: | 847-864-1910 |
|
|
Fax: | 847-864-6221 |
|
|
E-mail: | estima@estima.com |
Phone support is generally available Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm, US Central Time.
As suggested above, please read our Technical Support Policy before contacting us. If you are going to contact tech support, please be sure to include (or be ready to provide):
If you are experiencing some sort of problem (as opposed to asking a "how to" question), please tell us what type of computer and which operating system you are using, along with a detailed explanation of the problem. Note: If you are getting any kind of error message, please tell us exactly what the error message said and where it occurred (i.e. don't just tell us "I got an error message").
If you are e-mailing us regarding a programming problem, it's usually easiest if you include your program and data file, and the relevant portion of the output, as attachments. Please check with us before sending very large attachments, and if possible, please use PK-Zip or a compatible utility to compress large files (or collections of many files) into a zip file before sending.