Mail back the disk???
24 messages in this thread
I got your ProWrite 3.2 upgrade offer asking me to mail back the disk.
I've upgraded 3 or 4 times in the past few years and mailing back the disk
has always annoyed me. It also delayed the upgrade while I looked for the
original disk, looked for a mailer, didn't find a mailer, bought a mailer,
looked around for a dollar or so worth or stamps, failed to find them, went
to the post office, etc, etc.
Guess what? I'm not going to do it any more. I will never mail back a disk
as a condition of upgrade again. Not to you, not to ASDG, not to anyone.
Right on!!! I hate sending my disks back too.
>>DonovaN
Rob –
Whats the problem here? A little inconvience? A company has to do what
a company has to do, inorder to protect themselves for sending out upgrade
disks to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who request them. They need to see an
original disk in order to be sure you are an original owner. It's now big
deal, you take your disk along with a mailing lable and your check for the
upgrade and you go to the postoffice and by a mailer and postage at the
same time. You then just pop it off in the mail box – Big deal.
I mean give these guys a break will ya! They deal with thousands of
customers and upgrade request, they have established a system and thats the
way it is. If you don't like it, then you don't get upgraded.
– Roy Pahnke – Casper, Wyomin'
We require the disk since it is the one serialized part of the package you
bought and has the actual product on it. Also, sending a disk is a real
good way of proving that you own the program. You could have bought it
from someone else and never changed the registration. If you don't want to
send it in for the upgrade, you may buy the new version at your local
dealer. This could get expensive.
Mark
New Horizons Software, Inc.
Mark –
I believe you sent your reply to the wrong person here. I'm the one who
understands your policy and was helping to defend the need to send the disk
in on an upgrade policy.
– Roy Pahnke – Casper, Wyomin'
Roy,
Sorry, I guess my message was just a followup to what you had to say.
Mark
New Horizons Software, Inc.
I'm the complainant. Yes, I understand _why_ you want the disk; I don't
agree that you should make your customers work so hard to give you their
money.
Of course I own the program. After all, _you_ sent me the upgrade notice.
Where did you get my name if not from the registration card?
How about: 1) put a little serial number on the upgrade notice , 2) ask for
that number when I phone you, 3) take my order and credit info over the
phone, 4) ship the update no later than 24 hours after I call, and 5) offer
premium delivery service as an extra cost option. You could even tack a
markup on the shipping fee for your trouble.
Notice I didn't even ask for an 800 number; I'll pay for the call.
If I tell you I lost the upgrade notice, then *maybe* you should ask for
the original disk back. And maybe not – even if I am a pirate, at least
you'd get the upgrade $$$ out of me.
Obviously, the point is disputable; but I'm through mailing disks. You can
have my money but not my time. Rob.
Rob,
You make a good point that I have never really understood. Why do upgrades
(or almost anything else for that matter) take 6 to 8 weeks? I am usually
willing to pay extra to get something shipped to me quicker. And mailing
my disk back just makes the process take longer.
Sounds to me like some people actually enjoy mailing their disks back.
They must get some kind of thrill out of it that I can't understand.
Although I do enjoy sliding that little silver cover on the disks back and
forth.
Actually, I just wish my upgrade notice would finally get here so I can
order PW 3.2. Where is my notice New Horizons?
>>DonovaN
Donovan,
Unless your address is wrong in our database, you should receive the order
form any day now.
Mark
New Horizons Software, Inc.
Donovan,
Don't wait too long for the upgrade notice. I called NH because I hadn't
gotten one and found out they had my old address. That's not their fault,
I didn't think to send moving notices to software companies.
They implied most upgrade notices had already gone out, so if you've moved
since the last upgrade or since you sent in your original registration, you
should just send in $25, your original disk, and a note requesting PW 3.2.
No upgrade notice is required. I just saved you the price of a toll
call… 🙂
*** jd
Thanks John,
I'll send my disk in without waiting for the upgrade notice. That's a good
idea.
>>DonovaN
Rob,
Would you also expect General Motors to send you the parts to repair a
'recall problem' simply because you were the latest registered owner they
knew about?. I suspect that you'd expect to at least have to show up at a
dealer with the car.
Well, if New Horizons wants to sell upgrades through Amiga dealers Id go
along with that. 🙂 But that isn't what you meant, is it?
Rob.
Rob,
We just do the best we can given the legal and resource limitations. We've
done it this way for years and it has worked well.
Mark
New Horizons Software, Inc.
I think I may have a solution to this 'return the disk' problem.
Why doesn't New Horizons just do what IBM does with their software? A page
in the manual is labeled as the program license. If you're ordering an
upgrade, you return that page of the manual. That way, the user gets use
of the disk while it is being updated, and New Horizons gets the sole
identification of proof of license.
Just don't do the stupid thing IBM does to register their Platinum
accounting software. You have to call them, and give them a bunch of
marketing information to get a number to enter in your software. If you
don't, the software self-destructs in 15 days. That's got to be the most
stupid registration I've ever encountered. Needless to say, I've bought
the last piece of IBM software or hardware for my company.
Paul
A while back in this thread, someone suggested that sending disks back is a
pain in the neck; however, if it weren't for the sheer hassle of opening
all those packages and re-stuffing new mailers and coordinating all those
addresses, we've prefer that route. We do have serial numbers on Syndesis
products, and often request them when people call for technical support,
and certainly require them for upgrades. However, in the past week, we've
had at least one – maybe two – people try to get upgrades on products they
didn't own. One guy sent in the Sony serial number on the back of the
disk. Another sent in the number of a copy of InterChange registered to
someone else in his town, yet he told us on the phone he just bought it at
the store. It's these guile-free yahoos who drive developers to the arcane
upgrade policies.
Thats a good idea Paul, and I think there are other ways to prove proof of
ownership other than sending back your original disk. Using serial numbers
or a page out of the manual are a couple of good ones. Usually most pirates
don't try to get an upgrade from the company, but the registered user is
automatically assumed to be a pirate when he trys to get an upgrade.
Doesn't make sense.
John – K7KB (via Whap!)
Roy:
I have to agree with Rob (and I'm a developer!). I can't see the sense in
forcing people to send in their program disks for upgrades. We have the
serial number on the registration card and the manual. If you send in the
registration card, you get updates. Seems simply enough to me. Why the
expense in obtaining a disk mailer, the added postage and the possibility
that your original program disk could be off to never-neverland somewhere
in the Postal system? And what do they do with all those used disks anyway?
🙂
Gary
– Mirror Image Prod. (416) 495-7469, via WHAP!
When I need to mail a disk back, I just stick it in a regular envelope,
tape it closed, write "Hand Stamp" on it, and stick a couple of stamps on
it. I figure if they only need it for proof of legal ownership who cares if
the disk get damaged a bit in the mail. Mike
Gary –
I see some of your points, but still defend the company for requiring
one to return an original as proof of purchase in order to optain an
upgrade. I think you will have to admitt that a company like New Horizons
has many more copies of a program out there than you company does. In
other words it is eaiser for you to manage the return of reg. cards than it
is for them. Also, I have heard the as few as 10% of the reg. cards are
ever return (Ask Clint of Virtual Realities what his return is). Yet when
a new upgrade to a MAJOR product is announced then everyone seems to come
out of the woodwork (sorttospeak) with a request to the company for the
cheapest route to optaining that upgrade.
I don't see the mailing of a disk as that much of an inconvience. (I
guess that's what this boils down to) I just see it as a nature action
required to optain ones copy of an upgrade.
– Roy Pahnke – Casper, Wyomin'
Roy:
Hmm.. we have so far gotten about 50% return on registration cards. Weird.
Gary
– Mirror Image Prod. (416) 495-7469, via WHAP!
In 1978 a colleague and I proposed using the U.S. postal system for the
secure disposal of nuclear waste, since things go in there and are never
seen on the planet again. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for a
reply………
Mike :^)
Mike:
Probably got lost in the mail… 🙂
gary
– Mirror Image Prod. (416) 495-7469, via WHAP!
Mike,
You no doubt sent the proposal by U.S. Mail.