Alsoft responds (re-edited)….

Alsoft was not happy with the original posting of their response letter here, because I inserted my comments into their text, I guess concerned that some of you may not be able to tell where they stopped and I started. In trying to be fair to them I have decided to re-edited this post to put their letter together with no comments inserted at all. And in response to nitroxer comment added below, I removed what he called “Snarky language” comments on my part, as he is right, bad move on my part. Never post while still annoyed. So….

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If you read Macworld Thoughts , you will see that I had some problems with Alsoft at Macworld. In a nutshell, Tim’s machine was having problems, and we needed to borrow a CD of DiskWarrior to see if we could determine the problem. As I said, we both own the software, I wanted to BORROW not keep a CD, but my experience at the Alsoft booth was anything but pleasant, and I found their manner and willingness to help severely lacking in my view.

Not only did I post my issues, but I sent them an email copy, and added that I thought they truly needed help with customer service. They have responded, copied below. Frankly, I am stunned that rather than simply defuse my annoyance by apologizing for any misunderstanding we had and moving past our differences, the same person with whom I interacted on the floor continues to argue that I was wrong and they were right! Seriously, is arguning with a customer truly good customer service? Even if the customer is totally wrong in your view, is arguing the right response?

I have worked in customer service, and was the VP of a customer service organization in my past lives, and if I had argued with a customer, even if I thought or was sure they were totaly off the map, I might have lost my job. So I guess I have a different expectation of service? I was trained that “The customer is always right” even when they are wrong, and do whatever is necessary to make it right. So perhaps my expectation is too high?

I will add my rebuttal points after their letter now, but here is what Alsoft had to say to my complaint:
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Hello Owen–

I was specifically asked to respond to your email since I was the technician with which you interacted during Macworld.

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Unfortunately, what you wrote in your blog post, and what actually happened in the interaction between you an I, are two very different scenarios and you leave out a lot of important information.

When you came over to the Alsoft booth, I was in the midst of helping an employee from Equinux whose computer (the computer being used as the company’s sales terminal) had crashed.

Attached is a photograph of the scene as it was playing out:

In fact, I had her laptop in pieces and was removing the damaged drive and installing a new hard drive for her, right on the show floor!

If that’s not customer service, I don’t know what is!

Would anybody else take the time to disassemble and reassemble a computer on the show floor (somewhat like a sushi chef)? This was actually the second laptop that I had in pieces in the duration of Macworld. The other was owned by a gentleman who had let his PowerBook G4 sit on a shelf for over one year because nobody knew what to do to fix the computer. We knew what to do, fixed the drive and directory, diagnosed the bad RAM chip, and sent him on his (extraordinarily happy) way.

(As an aside, I’d like to give credit to the folks from G-Tech who were kind enough to let me disassemble one of their demo FireWire drives so that I would have a chassis to use in my attempts to recover the data from the Equinux computer’s hard drive).

***

When you walked into the booth Friday morning, you explained your situation to me – that somebody in the Press Room had a computer that was having a problem, and you thought DiskWarrior could fix the situation.

My initial response to you was to either bring the machine to the Alsoft booth so that I could work on the repair while I was fixing this other computer (from Equinux), or you would need to wait until I was done with the laptop in pieces and then I would come over to the Press Room with a
copy of DiskWarrior. As I was the only Alsoft technician on the show floor, I was the only individual qualified to assist you in this situation.

So yes it is true we told you that we would not just give you a copy of the DiskWarrior software to take with you to the Press Room. However, we gave you two very viable options you could utilize for assistance.

You then informed me that bringing the damaged computer to us was not an option as the computer was “uploading” and couldn’t be moved. Ok, this makes sense. I then explained to you that if the computer was being used at the moment, then you couldn’t utilize DiskWarrior until the “uploading” process had stopped.

Since the other computer was being used, and thus DiskWarrior couldn’t be used until the computer was free from “uploading”, I suggested that you contact me when the computer became available and I’d come assist.

I asked you to let me know as soon as the damaged computer was available, and I would come over to the Press Room with a copy of the DiskWarrior software. This seems like a reasonable response. In no way, shape, or form, did we refuse to help. To reiterate, this was all seen by a member of upper management, who was observing the repair of
the Equinux machine.

But I find it more surprising that your upper management would not simply had me a copy of your software for our short term use. You guys really have a problem with this idea of “giving away” software don’t you?

However, for a reason I do not understand, this was not satisfactory.

On one hand, we had a company (Equinux) whose only ability to take in revenue was crashed…

On the other hand we had your computer that I was told was not capable of being repaired at that moment (because it was uploading) and that even if I dropped everything I was doing and came to the Press Room, I would have to wait to work on the computer (which is the exact situation you described with MicroMat).

I think, then, I made a reasonable offer, based on one premise – to be able to help all parties as efficiently as possible.

All in all, you insinuate a lot about our company that is patently untrue.

You mention in your letter that you are a customer of ours. I’m glad of this. I’m also thankful. However, whether or not you are a customer of ours, was irrelevant in the situation at Macworld. Why? Would you
believe that for all of the work I did on the Equinux computer…they don’t even own DiskWarrior!

I helped, because I have the knowledge and because I’m kind. We’re not the kind of company that requires payment for assistance.

All of us technicians are remarkably well-trained, never script-readers. Our Technical Support services are free of charge, without end, when a person owns our software. I believe we’re one of the few companies remaining that stand behind our product in such a manner.

This is why we’ve been around for nearly one-quarter century – not by money grubbing – but by being knowledgeable, and kind, and willing to help all takers, be it by phone and email throughout the year, or on the
Macworld show floor. Which is exactly what we offered to you on the Friday of Macworld.

As such, I hope that in the interest of journalistic fairness, you’ll post this response to your website.

Marc Moorash
Alsoft Technical Support
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I believe I understand where Marc is going here, that rather than just lend us a CD, he wanted to personally fix it first hand. It would have been nice had he just said that, because I never got that at all.

So, OK, I stand corrected, there was one woman (from Equinux) standing outside the booth along the edge of it working with Marc. But when I arrived, all I saw was Marc holding a hard drive placed in a baggy of ice cubes, something I had never seen before, and I did not see the computers taken apart, or even, at that time, the woman from Equinux. Obviously, Marc was engaged in fixing someone’s machine with a strange ice experiment.

So kudos to Marc for helping out the woman from Equinux. But what Marc leaves out here is that I did not ask for his direct help, and actually said I did not need his help, but only to borrow a copy of the CD so we could see if help was even warranted, or a simple directory rebuild would suffice.

And sorry Marc, you never offered to bring a copy of the software to the press room. But I would have said no anyway, because that was not a good solution either given the time constraints on all of us, and not knowing Tim’s current status. I only recall you offering that if we brought the computer to you, at some point, you would look at it when you had time, which was not an option for us, and I did thank you for that offer.

But something about “customer needs” here is missing. You would only help on your terms, in your way. I never asked you to drop everything; I did not even insinuate you should stop what your were doing at all. It was never requested.

I insinuate nothing more about Alsoft than what I witnessed first hand, as a customer (and as a member of the media.) It still bothers me that you seem not to care that a customer was upset, and would rather continue to argue the points than simply say, “Sorry, we had a misunderstanding, what can we do now?”

We see this very differently: Two paid customers needed to borrow a CD, and you flat out refused, and I still do not know why? So your statements are not true from my view. We could only get your help if we did it your way. Unfortunately, your way did not work for us.

But I am confused now. Why do you sell the software at all? Do you not trust users to use it on their own? That is what I read here. We cannot do it alone, we needed your help? Are you also saying that any person, customer or not, can simply call Alsoft at any time and get help with a disc problem? If that is true, why sell the software at all? I find the two issues at odds.

Alsoft is still welcome to register for free on this site and post additional comments below this message or the other, as are any other readers of this site should they wish to comment on either one of us. OK by me if you think I am wrong, I will accept the judgments if me too.