Readers of the original review might want to check out the new addendum:
https://www.donation...icsViewer/index.htmlNOTE: After many aborted attempts to discuss the possibility of a discount with ACDSee, we have come to the conclusion that their customer service and public relations department is disfunctional. Our emails to ACDSee were repeatedly ignored, even despite the best attempts by one responsible person in their beta testing department to get someone to handle the issue.
This has caused us to have serious reservations about recommending that you purchase any software from ACDSee.
We dislike having to say bad things about companies, especially those whose products are as impressive as ACDSee. But having a good product is not enough - you must also demonstrate some competence at handling customer service issues. While we will not withdraw our award for best Graphic Management Tool, at this point we think your money would be better spent on a company that has a little higher regard for customer interaction.
It's a difficult decision to write something like that and I think it probably could use some explanation and discussion. I look forward to your comments/suggestions about whether this is an appropriate comment for us to make.
But let me explain a little bit more about what motivated it, with some excerpts from mail i eventually sent to ACDSee:
We pride ourselves in building good relationships with companies; the
whole point of our site is to identify both the best programs and the
best companies, and help serious software users identify the best
programs in each class. Our interaction with the public relations
department of ACDSee was a real disappointment.
...
Whenever we do a giant review and identify the best program in a
class, we contact the company regarding the possibility of a discount
for our members, or the possibility of donating a few copies of the
program for us to give away as prizes. Many (most) companies seem to
react very positively to the idea. A few companies decline. Let me
make clear that we take no offense at all when a company decides that
that isn't something they want to do - it has no bearing on our
review.
We're a fairly small site and we put a high value on personal
interaction with companies. Occasionally we end up in a situation
where we end up spending considerable time trying back and forth with
a company just trying to get in touch with (or get emails returned
from) someone in the company who can make a decision on the issue -
and this is what tends to be most frustrating, just because it takes
so much of our time and energy, and because it leaves us feeling like
we are dealing with a chaotic organization. Of course we understand
that sometimes things fall through the cracks and may not be
representative of larger issues but if that's the sum total of our
experience, we feel like it's something we need to convey to our readers.
I'd love to hear from our members about their opinions on such things. And by all means if you have positive or negative experience in dealing with ACDSee that would be welcome.
