topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Thursday March 28, 2024, 9:08 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Author Topic: The new addendum to the ACDSee Review..  (Read 10934 times)

mouser

  • First Author
  • Administrator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 40,896
    • View Profile
    • Mouser's Software Zone on DonationCoder.com
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
The new addendum to the ACDSee Review..
« on: July 27, 2005, 02:50 AM »
Readers of the original review might want to check out the new addendum:
https://www.donation...icsViewer/index.html

NOTE: 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.

vegas

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 357
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: The new addendum to the ACDSee Review..
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2005, 03:34 PM »
I like it, a nice little asterisk next to the roundup/reviewed software piece, pointing out interactions like this should most definitely be made an extended part of the review.

Darwin

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 6,984
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: The new addendum to the ACDSee Review..
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2005, 03:34 PM »
Yeah, I second vegas' view that interactions like these (or lack of interaction it seems!) should be highlighted on the review pages. There is nothing more frustrating than paying for a software license and then never being able to get a response from the app author/company to questions/feature requests/bug reports. It's not just frustrating, it can be infuriating!

Anyway, most definitely a highly appreciated and useful part of the review.
« Last Edit: October 08, 2005, 05:07 PM by Darwin »

Carol Haynes

  • Waffles for England (patent pending)
  • Global Moderator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 8,066
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: The new addendum to the ACDSee Review..
« Reply #3 on: August 28, 2005, 02:51 AM »
I agree too - and if it is any interest to people I found pretty much the same problem with their technical support.

I use a Canaon Digital Rebel/300D and the RAW files appear with very odd colour casts. It might be a colour management problem on my system but it doesn't happen in other software (Such as RAW essentials). Having tried to get support from them to sort out the problem it became very clear that they weren't interested in helping - their ultimate solution was wait for the next patch to be issued! Now that there have been a couple of updates the problem is still unresolved.

Don't get me wrong I still use ACDSee, but not for RAW processing! If you want to use ACDSee for RAW processing make sure you do a thorough evaluation before you part with cash, and don't expect problems to be fixed in any timely fashion.

As someone who has bought most of the ACDSee product line in every version from 3 to 7 (inlcuding FotoSlate etc. - note the PowerPack doesn't include the latest version - if you want that it is a $19.95 upgrade) I still think the program is probably the best available, but their support and response to customers is very hit and miss at best.

Nighted

  • Charter Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 572
  • Meat Popsicle
    • View Profile
    • Nighted@deviantART
    • Donate to Member
Re: The new addendum to the ACDSee Review..
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2005, 11:46 PM »
mouser, I agree 100%. If a company doesn't show any interest in supporting their customers you should add that to your review.

That's one of the reasons I joined these forums. Keep up the great workl
I`m a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class, especially since I rule.