Do You Feel Fully Supported - Problem was not upgraded for 3 years, and changed email

[sarah-dee]

During the Christmas period my computer became infected with two Trojans, eventually the only course left to me was to format the hard drive. This decision was not taken lightly because, as those of you who have been there know, re-installation takes a great deal of time.
Everything when well until, “Microstudio” the last of all my programs.
The installation setup came back with “ERROR 7 contact mtu.”

Now I have seen this before, a couple of years back, and after exchanging e-mails between myself and DougC of mtu the problem was sorted.
So the first thing I did was e-mail customer support via the web site, no reply, I tried again, still nothing.
Then I found DougC’s e-mail address and tried him, still nothing.
I had now waited two weeks for support from mtu and received none. It was time for new tactics; using my wife’s e-mail address and posing as a potential customer I asked if installation problem support was available. Two days later “hey presto” a reply from, Guess who? Here’s the first line

“We do offer support, by community forums, FAQ, or email for any and all of your questions.”

Now at least I had contact, I replied asking why my e-mail had apparently been ignored, this is what came back in response

“We receive about 80,000 - 150,000 emails a day. Much of which is spam. to insure a request gets through we ask that you first use our community forums online and post your question under the appropriate product thread.

You will need to post there to receive your answer.”

OK so much for e-mail support, but isn’t strange how three e-mails requesting support are ignored, but one from a potential customer, is answered almost immediately. Anyway, I digress. I went to the forums, posted my request and guess what; still nothing

OK so much for forum support.

Now let’s look at “error 7; this I believe is mtu saying, “You have now installed this program on three computers, this is all you’re permitted to do”
WAKE UP GUYS it means I have now installed this program three times on the SAME computer!
If some of you are wondering why would you re-install so many times, let me give you some examples:- hard drive failure, main board failure, virus infection, and just general clutter built up over time. It is recommended by a lot of experts, to format and re-install windows every 12 months or so.

Right, one more important point; it is suggested that; we, (that is mtu customers and let’s not forget at this point we have PAID to use mtu programs); should adopt “an attitude of gratitude” when seeking help. Now if I do something wrong and somebody helps me. I am grateful, if I do nothing wrong and somebody hinders me WHY should I be grateful for that?

Having said all that, I have been a user of microstudio for several years and feel it is one of the better programs of its type, so you guys at mtu have got something right. But come on guys put a bit more effort into customer care, after all if it wasn’t for us where would you be?

Finally, human nature being what it is, it will probably be a cold day in hell before I get any support from mtu now, so if any of you out there in “forum land” have taken the time to read this, I thank you and If you agree with me or not; PLEASE let me and mtu Know.

[gduns - with the Lord]

I can't say much about your situation, because I don't know the details. But you say you have been using a $39.95 program for years, and are upset because you have installed it 3 times, and they don't personally answer you when you say jump.

I have several programs that have 1 installation, thay are better than $4000 a seat. They have a 30 day policy of free phone help. after that it is $5.00 a minute.

Heck take windows xp, just an operating system, $200.00, 1 installation, and no factory support.

They are trying to spend their resources making a better program. after helping hundreds on this board, I understand. People who don't know computers on here expect you to walk through every step of how to install, and how to make a disk, and everything just because they bought a $39.95 program. Get real.

[sarah-dee]

Allow me to correct you on some of your comments. I have been using microstudio since October 2000 at that time the program was then, I believe $50. I have paid for every upgrade to that program as and when they were released. Now this amount obviously comes nowhere near $4000, and quite frankly I could not afford to pay that for one program let alone several and I don’t know anyone else who could, so lucky you!

Now I don’t believe waiting FOUR weeks for support can possibly be interpreted as me saying “jump”.

As for Windows XP being “just an operating system” You obviously have no concept of how complicated that system is and by the way it can be installed an infinite number of times and is fully supported by Microsoft via their website.

It seems to me that you are an advocate of “disposable software” use it three times then buy a new one. I’m sure this would appeal to most software producers. But to consumers in the real world? Somehow I don’t think so.

The reason that you “can’t say much about my situation” is that you have missed the point completely. May I humbly suggest you read the thread again in order to grasp the principle involved here?

[DarkMagic]

I believe the real point here is comparing the service of one company vs. service from another company. Company 'A' is in this for the long haul and takes great pains to be forthright, honest and truthful about what it knows and what it doesn't know, and how long they think it will take to learn. Then there's company 'B', which takes the attitude of, "Hey, you paid the money, you got the software, it worked yesterday, leave us alone."

Tell me which attitude reflects a mature and businesslike approach to customers? Not very hard is it?

Why does MTU even bother advertising? For suckers? We deserve better treatment.

[sarah-dee]

I totally agree and if enough of us stand up and be counted, who knows we may get the better service we ALL deserve.

[MTUSUPPORT]

Sarah-Dee,
I am sorry that you feel this way. Your account was fixed the other day. You have not had any purchases from us since 2003, so you have outdated and older software, first off.

Your emails were incorrect also, which is why you were getting the Error 7 message.

WAKE UP GUYS it means I have now installed this program three times on the SAME computer!
If some of you are wondering why would you re-install so many times, let me give you some examples:- hard drive failure, main board failure, virus infection, and just general clutter built up over time. It is recommended by a lot of experts, to format and re-install windows every 12 months or so.

This has been fixed in later versions, so if you upgrade you wouldn't have this problem.

[admin]

Originally Posted by sarah dee

During the Christmas period my computer became infected with two Trojans, eventually the only course left to me was to format the hard drive. This decision was not taken lightly because, as those of you who have been there know, re-installation takes a great deal of time.

...OK so much for e-mail support, but isn’t strange how three e-mails requesting support are ignored, but one from a potential customer, is answered almost immediately.

...I totally agree and if enough of us stand up and be counted, who knows we may get the better service we ALL deserve.

"Error 7" is displayed when your MTU Store Account email and your Product Registration email are different in our database. This is caused by a customer changing emails, but it requires our time to repair. I believe we have now solved your problem.

I feel for you having to reinstall everything. I had to do this when I was installing a $700 upgrade to a product I used for 3 years, and it wiped out my C drive formatting. I lost everything on the hard drive. It happens.

We continually improve our Installation and registration programs to make them as simple as possible. It normally takes less than a minute to install and register. The registration problems that do happen are caused by abnormal situations with the installing computer or our web site. We constantly monitor to try and catch anything that we can to make installing easier.

I assure you that your 3 emails were never received at MTU. Due to the massive spam email load on our server (as stated before 20,000 - 150,000 a DAY), we require 3 spam arrestor programs. These can prevent our receiving your emails, just as AOL, YAHOO and other email providers identify any emails from MTU.COM as "spam", even when they are order acknowledgements from our web store just ordered from.

Originally Posted by DarkMagic

If MTU is broken for AMD motherboards/CPU's then dammit, be honest and tell us so we don't lose our valuable time on lame software.

My old computer was Intel 3 gig on an Intel board. This is ASUS board and FX-60, which screams on everything else.

Get real man! You finally posted that you upgraded to a totally new computer that MTU does NOT CLAIM our programs run on. Where is our fault here? You expect us to "be honest", but you don't say a word that you are using the hotest, latest processor that has never been tested. Don't expect us to read your mind with no facts to deal with. When we have sufficent facts, we can make a recommendation.

Since 1977, MTU normally does a superior job of FREE support. I invite you to read our Support Testimonials. MANY of our users praise us and state we provide the best support they have ever received, and many, including gduns, are experienced with Internet and other support means from other companies.

Now, let's all get on with happiness and enjoying life.