"Sony Creative Software Support Solutions". What are your views on THIS

P

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Composer, Producer, Sound Designer
www.universal-sound-design.com

support has to be paid for somewhere..... by someone..... salaries don't grow on trees.


no, personally, I'm not totally happy about such a concept....

on a practical level..... it makes sense, and is by no means unique.....


LOTS of companies do something along those lines, Apple included....


get used to it..... the free support free lunch is going the way of the dinosaur....


and personally, I think you can thank the software piracy endemic for it...

sort of like this....


if everyone paid for everything , it would perhaps be less necessary to adopt this kind of policy, as there'd be greater cash flow and larger profit margins , and some clever bugger in accounting wouldn't have been forced to come up with this way to save the company a half million dollars a year.



get used to it, it's going to happen ALL over.....


as an aside,

Note that in most cases, a warranty doesn't actually give you the right to free tech support, contrary to what many people might think.....

and if you read the terms and conditions, and EULA on most software packages.... you'll find that in fact the "warranty" has so many potential get out clauses, that it's probably not worth the paper it's printed on.

in the Uk at least, one's rights as a consumer under the existing legislation, actually outweigh those inferred by many a "manufacturers warranty"

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if you don't know who i am, i aint gonna tell you.

Quote Max!:

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...and personally, I think you can thank the software piracy endemic for it...
...get used to it, it's going to happen ALL over.....

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Well I've posted this point before, and it isn't my original idea, but the old model of selling a software application has a limited life expectancy. Software engineering and development have come so far, available number crunch is ever-increasing and the value of code is always falling due to competition, open-source alternatives *and* piracy, and that means that if a software company wants to make money, they need to find other models. On one hand this could be through support, maintenance and training contracts, on the other it can mean through building up a huge arsenal of patents and other IP to try and take money off your competition...

Novell bought SuSE, a major linux distribution. They package, document, test, quality assure it and sell it with support contracts. It's almost entirely freely available software.

Many people pay for branded bottled water.

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TAKEN.BALL.GONE.HOME

Quote Max!:

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support has to be paid for somewhere..... by someone..... salaries don't grow on trees.


no, personally, I'm not totally happy about such a concept....

on a practical level..... it makes sense, and is by no means unique.....


LOTS of companies do something along those lines, Apple included....


get used to it..... the free support free lunch is going the way of the dinosaur....


and personally, I think you can thank the software piracy endemic for it...

sort of like this....


if everyone paid for everything , it would perhaps be less necessary to adopt this kind of policy, as there'd be greater cash flow and larger profit margins , and some clever bugger in accounting wouldn't have been forced to come up with this way to save the company a half million dollars a year.



get used to it, it's going to happen ALL over.....


as an aside,

Note that in most cases, a warranty doesn't actually give you the right to free tech support, contrary to what many people might think.....

and if you read the terms and conditions, and EULA on most software packages.... you'll find that in fact the "warranty" has so many potential get out clauses, that it's probably not worth the paper it's printed on.

in the Uk at least, one's rights as a consumer under the existing legislation, actually outweigh those inferred by many a "manufacturers warranty"

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I do see it fair to a certain extent and can understand why they do it, but my concern would be getting support for a problem with "their" software and having to pay for their err. I don't think I've once contacted CS for any other reason.

Kind regards,
Peter

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Composer, Producer, Sound Designer
www.universal-sound-design.com

It's not looking good. I'm glad I'm not reliant on Sony software for getting the Job done. If you pay for a hardware product, you are entitled to a certain period of free support if you have problems. The same should apply to software. It's one of the main reasons why I actually pay for the software I use.

It's also a good reason why I keep software-based tools to a minimum.

Reminds me of "Windows Genuine Advantage" To who's advantage actually ? certainly not yours ! I think its a similar situation in this case !

Tony.

Excellent. Like when people say "it would be easier if you did X". Invariably easier for them, not you..!

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TAKEN.BALL.GONE.HOME

That's cheap! Try getting pro-level Applecare!!

It's the way of the world. Software gets cheaper and cheaper (look at Logic 8 for instance) and also more complex. There's no way the cover price can begin to provide anything beyond the most basic level of support.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. Those who make extensive use of support lines pay accordingly, without being an avoidable burden on those who are prepared to read the manual.

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Dynamite with a laser beam...

Quote Steve Hill:

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Those who make extensive use of support lines pay accordingly, without being an avoidable burden on those who are prepared to read the manual.

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In reference to Logic, at least they provide a nice big manual. It's worth the admission price alone. Thankfully, I've never needed Apple support for Logic, it's always worked ok for me - any issues, I've RTFM.

Anyone remember the really nice ring-bound manuals they did for Logic v2? (sorry).

Sony support???? Having fought for 8 months to get a replacement for my faulty laptop, they required me to sign a silence clause before handing it over. I refused and had to fight for a few more months.