SerpentVenom

Poor customer service has become the norm rather than the exception. Andy Budd's experience is not surprising in the age of off shoring call centers to save money. Software vendors in general are notorious for bad customer support. They get away with it because they know their customers don't have a lot of alternatives.

Let's face it, if you have a PC, what OS are you going to use? Microsoft Windows. Microsoft practically has a captive audience. What motivation do they have to provide good customer service?

That's the situation graphic designers face. The alternatives to Adobe products do not measure up to the capabilities of the CS2 suite of applications (except perhaps QuarkExpress for page layout). Designers have even fewer choices since Adobe acquired Macromedia and its suite of products that includes Dreamweaver and Flash. So Adobe is sitting in the cat-bird seat. They can do whatever they want. They can charge whatever they want. And nothing short of an anti-trust lawsuit will reign them in.

So Andy may get an apology and some kind of peace offering because he's an individual who can make some noise and be noticed. But the rest of us just have to grin and bear it. It's not as though we have a viable alternative.

Posted under Close to Home on Tuesday, December 5th, 2006 at 11:20

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