Reviews... some comments from the other side...
Hi,
congrats to this new site and the trimmed down forum. Wish everyone involved all the best. I think it is great to have a community beyond the forums of the various "vendors" where information can be exchanged.
This is just a quick post about the reviews... first of all, there should be more of them, for as many vendors as possible, I know it is a lot of work, but it should give a good overview of what's going on. It would also be great if the various vendor entries had some kind of introduction (apart from the link to the website), especially as not everyone knows who is who. You know, like "switches", "panels", "controls", "software". I mean, I do simply never heard of some of those entries.
Now my real motive/agenda is the new review today, as a vendor we receive the new entries via e-mail. We have been blessed with undeservedly positive comments in the past, so it was a bit of a shock. Not because of the entry itself though. While it is perfectly justifiable for reviews to be anonymous, in thise case, there is no dialogue as such, it is a bit like reading about yourself in the newspaper, you can just sit there.
Had I received this survey answer as an e-mail, here would be my comments:
"How satisfied are you with your service from Project Magenta?"
"Extremely dissatisfied."
What happened and when? Was an e-mail not answered? Was something said that was wrong? Did you try our forum?
"How would you rate Project Magenta's Return/Replacement policy?"
"Terrible."
Yes, it certainly is terrible, given the cost, but there is no real alternative. We have had a number of tricks pulled on us in the past and this is our only countermeasure. I know the demo method is not ideal, but if in doubt, do not buy. Judge comments by others and check our track record if unsure. Never buy anything in a hurry. I also have to purchase rather expensive software occasionally and I make pretty damn sure it is what I need.
Another comment:
"For such outstanding software, the web site is very poor. "
If I knew what is being referred to, I would do something about it. The website is certainly not incredibly beautiful, but I would like to change it from "very poor" to "marginally disgusting" - and I need to know what can be done to improve it.
"I would like online pricelists. Proper resonse time to e-mails on questions. Proper time limited demo (e.g. 30 days) to evaluate the product properly."
We switched to e-mailed pricelists for a variety of reasons, normally we send them out rather quickly. The demo has to be handled this way, day limitations without being invasive to your computer with registry entries and such is not an option. And the response time... I simply need to know what is meant here, normally we are quite fast with e-mail (it doesn;t leave much room to understand whether technical reasons are to blame for this).
To everyone, enjoy your holidays if you have them and all the best for 2006!
Ciao
Enrico