Extremely Dissastisfied with DRM and Customer Support

[Basilforth]

Originally Posted by rob

Nancy *usually* checks the support queue daily, but there are exceptions. Plus it seems lots of folks assume that weekends are standard workdays for everyone here. :-( The 2-3 day estimate is because we'd rather estimate high and get you a response early than have the reverse occur. You'll usually get a reply in 24-36 hours during the week, but sometimes it can take longer.

I am all set now. I got my reply from Nancy today. I just re-activated my HL. Thanks again for all you help!

[Frodie]

Sorry I haven't got back soon, just want to give an update. I have to say your customer service is outstanding. All my issues were resolver very quickly! We started our new Pathfinder game and this Hero Lab helped a lot more than I thought it would. Great job with the software and superb customer service!

[krathen]

You are, by all accounts, one of the worst sort of people to deal with probably in any aspect of life. You are not a special snowflake, your problems are not worth anything more then anyone else's, you do not need a piece of gaming computer software, you want it. It will not kill you if you do not have it, it will not make you starve or be uncomfortable in almost any imaginable ways. As for windows 7. it was just released, guess what, software, does not, come compatible by default for windows 7. It's a new thing, it's like expecting your old tires to fit on your new car. In addition, if you got one of the decent builds of Windows 7, you can run a Windows XP system under your Windows 7 system as an extension, and bypass all compatibility issues. Let's recap.
You aren't special.
You don't deserve special treatment.
You are licencing software, if you didn't like the licences don't buy it.
This of course is to anyone complaining that it /might/ take 3 days to get a licences restore. and the original poster.

[rob]

Ok, folks. Stick a fork in it and let it be done.

While I wholly appreciate the positive sentiments from everyone, there's no point in getting in anyone's face about it. This last post is entering into the realm of provocation and inflammatory, and that would be a breach of forum rules. So everyone take a deep breath and let's keep the discussion a bit less emotionally charged. :-)

[rob]

The following is an adapted version of a post I made recently on the Paizo forums. A couple folks were lambasting our customer service over there, with the usual smattering of uninformed folks piling on with conspiracy theories and a few others coming to our defense. I'm posting it here because I believe it's germane to this discussion.

Everyone's definition of what constitutes great customer service is different. It's all a function of an individual's expectations. In just the past few weeks, we've had multiple people posting that our customer service is the best they've ever experienced and others posting that it's horrible. We can't be *that* inconsistent, can we?

The reality is that providing 5-star customer service is simply not possible for a tiny company like us, unless we wanted to significantly increase our prices to finance that service. Our customers have emphatically said they'd prefer we keep the prices down and endure slower response times, so that's what we've done. It's all about finding a balance that works for each business.

To use a restaurant analogy, fast food joints aren't targeting the same clientele as posh restaurants. Nobody expects 5-star service at a fast food joint, and nobody expects assembly-line food in a posh restaurant. There is clearly a place for both to be successful businesses, plus an entire spectrum inbetween.

On the whole, we've garnered a large and loyal customer base over a span of 11 years (approaching 100,000 users). Our business model is almost completely dependent on word-of-mouth advertising, which means that the majority of our users are more than satisfied with our product quality and customer service. We'll never be able to make everyone happy, but we seem to be making the majority of folks happy, and that has translated to a successful business for us.

Using the restaurant analogy, we're not trying to be a fast food restaurant, nor are we trying to be a posh restaurant. We're really more like a Chili's or a Cheesecake Factory - good quality and reasonable service for a moderate price. A customer who expects red carpet treatment from a Chili's is going to be woefully disappointed. That's usually not going to happen because restaurant customers generally base their expectations on how much they are spending.

In an perfect world, the same should apply to software. Cheap software should lower expectations and more expensive software should raise the expectations. Sadly, that's not always the case, and there are those who expect red carpet treatment for a $30 product like Hero Lab. Those folks end up disappointed and are generally not shy about voicing their displeasure.

Is it fair? It really doesn't matter. It's part of the reality of selling to consumers. Dealing with folks who have unrealistic expectations is one of the most miserable parts of this job, since it's never going to be possible to make them happy. On the flipside, there are the rest of you guys who appreciate everything we're developing, and that's arguably the best part of the job.

So it's a double-edged sword. I just wish I didn't have to fall on it quite so often. :-)

[jbearwillis]

I just want to say that i have owned Herolab for awhile and it's great and that when I had a problem you guys answer me back very quickly - and my problem was solved, I just don't understand why people get upset about how quickly you guys answer back. I have had main stream companies that are far slower then you guys to answer my questions, and they are the big boys in this field. When they do answer they aren't much help with my problems -so to let you know -

you guys are doing a great job - and don't sweat the bad.

[Gambo]

Would it be possible to look into the option of de-registering HL when the program is uninstalled? The auth server would allow the copy of HL to be re-registered on a new install. This is available on other licensed software and lessens woes due to changing computer hardware.

[rob]

Originally Posted by Gambo

Would it be possible to look into the option of de-registering HL when the program is uninstalled? The auth server would allow the copy of HL to be re-registered on a new install. This is available on other licensed software and lessens woes due to changing computer hardware.

This would be possible, but it would be of very limited use. The vast majority of our users don't think about these things in advance. In fact, most need to re-activate their license as a result of things like disk crashes, virus infections, and system upgrades. In each of those situations, the opportunity to de-register is lost before the user realizes he needs to do it.

So your suggestion would only be useful for a small percentage of users. As such, we have to weigh the comparative benefits of adding this feature versus another feature that would be of high value to a large percentage of users. We'd love to add all the features on our todo list immediately, but that's not possible, so we have to choose which features get added and in what order. We generally strive to add features with the greatest value to the largest number of users first.