Re: homevoice customer service

[Stuart Grimshaw <stuart@xxxxxxx>]

Eamon,

As a software developer myself, I can see both sides of the argument here,
and I perfectly understand what they are saying, but I have to agree with
you, expecting you to fork out for the upgrade so soon is bang out of
order. In my exoerience if companies do charge for upgrades, you usually
get the 1st one or the 1st 12 months worth for free (depending on how often
they are released).

It's very common in business to business sales (woah, I used a buzz phrase,
please don't tell anyone) to pay for upgrades, usually as part of a
maintainance contract, and also look at how many people fork out when
Microsoft upgrade their word processor, or how many people buy the update
disks for Championship Manager.

It's very easy for software houses who write software such as email clients
(Eudora etc) and other common applications to give their upgrades away for
free, because they can expect a large number of new customers to bring in
the money. Homevoice won't sell in anywhere near the volumes of other
products, but they still have to pay their staff, the programmers wont be
on any less then the guys at other medium size companies shifting higher
volumes of software, so you can see their logic in making customers pay for
upgrades.

Having said that though, in your case, they are wrong. They would be better
saying that your 1st upgrade is free, others you have to pay for.
Especially considering the timescale involved.

At 14:45 27/08/00 +0100, you wrote:

>I have recently purchased homevoice, voice control software to run my
>homevision controller. However, while I am happy with the product, I am
not
>too impressed with their "customer support". Have a look at
some recent
>emails that have been flowing back and forth and let me know what you
>think. (start from the bottom up as usual)
>
>Regards,
>
>Eamon


----------------------------------------------
Stuart Grimshaw
Schoolsnet Ltd                         Special
t: 07976 625221                        Projects
e: sg@xxxxxxx                   Developer
f: 0870 7060260
www.schoolsnet.com
----------------------------------------------
"It has been claimed that a very large number of monkeys, armed with a
very
large number of typewriters, would eventually reproduce the great works of
mankind. It would appear that the internet is well on its way to proving
that wrong." - Anonymous


-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
BTW: Did you buy that new car yet?
If not, check this site out.
They're called CarsDirect.com and it's a pretty sweet way to buy a car.
http://click.egroups.com/1/6847/9/_/2065/_/967393542/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->