Software vendors - when money matters more

[SagaLore]

Have you ever dealt with a software vendor, where the sale mattered more than the customer satisfaction?

I have a $20,000 product that I decided was too complex and not right for our network, within 30 days of buying it. The product is great, but I don't have time to manage something with so much complexity and potentially will create many problems with our machines because of a misconfiguration.

After 5 weeks of talking to several different reps, I finally got denied a refund. So I'm stuck with this product. I'll just have to make do.

To the vendor, $20k is actually small potatoes compared to some of their clients. So don't you think they would have been gracious enough to refund it?

edit:
We finally struck a deal, we have to keep the software, but there are some modules were aren't going to use because we had to shut them off to stop some of the problems we were having, they are willing to give us a credit for those, which means I might have enough leftover now to spend on training. I love working with that company. I feel like such a jerk though, being stuck between a boss that put me in this situation and a company that already gave us a good deal to begin with, and good service.

 

[Beau]

Didn't you demo the product through a test enivronment extensively before plunging $20k into it?

 

[cliftonite]

cant you resell it ?

 

[Ameesh]

you didnt evaluate it properly before spending 20k on some software? and you are blaming them for that?

 

[Zombie]

ofcousrse you should be denied refund. If you didn't realize that the product was not right for you during evaluation process than it your own fault.

If you didn't do evaluation before ordering a $20,000 product then you should be decipliened and denied raise/promotion.

 

[bernse]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
To the vendor, $20k is actually small potatoes compared to some of their clients. |

But it's still $20K. I am not suprised. Most places won't give you refunds on a $40 game, let alone a big ticket item like that.

 

[bernse]

BTW - How did you decide on it? Did sales reps promise you things it would do that it isn't?

 

[kranky]

I've been in your situation, and it's very difficult to get a refund. They don't look at the world the way you think. Customer satisfaction is important if they think you will buy more, but otherwise they don't really care. Once they know you are a lost cause, you don't really matter much. All you are doing is taking their time away from making sales calls.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Ameesh
you didnt evaluate it properly before spending 20k on some software? and you are blaming them for that?

My boss made me make a purchase before I had time to eval the central management software. I only had time to test the client. Yes I know I need an eval period, but because the time I had it setup and decided it wasn't right for us, would have fallen within the eval period anyway. Plus, the check hadn't even been sent out yet, so all they had was a signed agreement.

Had it been several months down the road and into the next fiscal quarter, I can understand the hassle.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: bernse
BTW - How did you decide on it? Did sales reps promise you things it would do that it isn't?

That is part of it. It does do what they described, but not to the extent I had explained it needed to do. Besides quote price, that was the #1 feature I made the decision on based on the competition's software I was also looking at.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Zombie
ofcousrse you should be denied refund. If you didn't realize that the product was not right for you during evaluation process than it your own fault.

If you didn't do evaluation before ordering a $20,000 product then you should be decipliened and denied raise/promotion.

Haha, I was told to make the purchase. The eval process was skipped because my Boss rushed the project.

 

[Zombie]

haha, ones we get the P.O there is no going back . We don't get Pizza Party without a P.O .


Well tell your boss to sit on that $20,000 product or shell out 15k more for a consultant to set that thing up for you guys.

 

[dirtboy]

Originally posted by: SagaLore


My boss made make a purchase before I had time to eval the central management software.

Why should they refund your money when your company blatently made a mistake? It's not their fault your boss purchased it without giving you sufficient time to evaluate it.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: dirtboy

Originally posted by: SagaLore


My boss made make a purchase before I had time to eval the central management software.

Why should they refund your money when your company blatently made a mistake? It's not their fault your boss purchased it without giving you sufficient time to evaluate it.

I understand the legalities of this, it is our fault. But, I'm worried about the ethics of this. The 20k was just the initial investment, every year there is a maintenance cost. The previous company I worked for went out of business because instead of refunding a dissatisfied customer, they shoved the legal agreement in their face and let them stew of it. Next thing we knew, we had no customers.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
I understand the legalities of this, it is our fault. But, I'm worried about the ethics of this. The 20k was just the initial investment, every year there is a maintenance cost. The previous company I worked for went out of business because instead of refunding a dissatisfied customer, they shoved the legal agreement in their face and let them stew of it. Next thing we knew, we had no customers.

You realize that works the other way around right? That if in business-to-business (or big-ticket retail) sales companies refunded to every dissatisfied customer, they would also go out of business right?

You've done a very poor job of portraying your company as the victim here. If anything, I see the other company as the victim, and your company as the agressor. They negotiated and closed a deal in good faith, your company decides to back out due to no fault of their own (either in representation or product), and your company demands a refund or you will extort and slander their good name right out of business....
Who do you work for?

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Vic

Originally posted by: SagaLore
I understand the legalities of this, it is our fault. But, I'm worried about the ethics of this. The 20k was just the initial investment, every year there is a maintenance cost. The previous company I worked for went out of business because instead of refunding a dissatisfied customer, they shoved the legal agreement in their face and let them stew of it. Next thing we knew, we had no customers.

You realize that works the other way around right? That if in business-to-business (or big-ticket retail) sales companies refunded to every dissatisfied customer, they would also go out of business right?

You've done a very poor job of portraying your company as the victim here. If anything, I see the other company as the victim, and your company as the agressor. They negotiated and closed a deal in good faith, your company decides to back out due to no fault of their own (either in representation or product), and your company demands a refund or you will extort and slander their good name right out of business....
Who do you work for?

I would never extort or slander their good name. Which is why I haven't given their name or what kind of product they are. And I work for Ambiguous Consortium, Inc.

I know we're A. at fault and B. rushed the project. I don't see any victims here. Okay, so I should just deal with this. I mean forget the fact it trashed my boss's computer until it was uninstalled, we had to reformat another machine, 4 other machines each had a problem totally different than any other... and all because the complexity of the system has overwhelmed me. It's all my fault. 7 machines tested, each with a problem, 300 more to go.

Although I am mad that after they made it look so easy in the Webex demo, and we bought it, after our first problem they say "you should take the training classes" which are in the opposite side of the U.S. as me, and cost as much as Cisco certification training... :| They forgot to mention the training necessity before the purchase.

 

[Vic]

Well if it's clearly buggy and/or causing machines to crash and need to be reformatted, that's a different story. Then we would talking about a product quality issue (which would also infer that misrepresentations were made as to product quality), and then yeah you might be due some type of refund or (at the very least) additional support to fix the problems.

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: Vic
Well if it's clearly buggy and/or causing machines to crash and need to be reformatted, that's a different story. Then we would talking about a product quality issue (which would also infer that misrepresentations were made as to product quality), and then yeah you might be due some type of refund or (at the very least) additional support to fix the problems.

he is tottally backpeddling cause people dont agree with him here.

I have a $20,000 product that I decided was too complex and not right for our network, within 30 days of buying it. The product is great, but I don't have time to manage something with so much complexity and potentially will create many problems with our machines because of a misconfiguration.

he wouldnt have intially claimed its great if it was soo buggy.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: Vic
Well if it's clearly buggy and/or causing machines to crash and need to be reformatted, that's a different story. Then we would talking about a product quality issue (which would also infer that misrepresentations were made as to product quality), and then yeah you might be due some type of refund or (at the very least) additional support to fix the problems.

he is tottally backpeddling cause people dont agree with him here.

I have a $20,000 product that I decided was too complex and not right for our network, within 30 days of buying it. The product is great, but I don't have time to manage something with so much complexity and potentially will create many problems with our machines because of a misconfiguration.

he wouldnt have intially claimed its great if it was soo buggy.

It's not buggy at all. The complexity of the product and my inability to configure it without serious training caused the problems. I won't blame them for the problems.

 

[Zombie]

well, at this point you have no other choice but to bite the bullet and go for the training or buy something else.

Maintainance is not required . You not understanding the complexity is clearly not their problem. We negotiate training when going in for something big like this. You should have done the same.

good luck.

 

[WobbleWobble]

Originally posted by: kranky
Once they know you are a lost cause, you don't really matter much. All you are doing is taking their time away from making sales calls.

Very well put.

 

[SagaLore]

We finally struck a deal, we have to keep the software, but there are some modules were aren't going to use because we had to shut them off to stop some of the problems we were having, they are willing to give us a credit for those, which means I might have enough leftover now to spend on training. I love working with that company. I feel like such a jerk though, being stuck between a boss that put me in this situation and a company that already gave us a good deal to begin with, and good service.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
Have you ever dealt with a software vendor, where the sale mattered more than the customer satisfaction?

Yes: Filewave.

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: Beau
Didn't you demo the product through a test enivronment extensively before plunging $20k into it?

I have the same question to ask.

 

[TofBnT]

I would make sure my boss understands that in this case, faster wasn't better and to let the IT pros do their job.