Eval keys are costing sales
Jack Johnson
listening to me praise Delphi (and because he doesn't like the direction
VB.NET is headed), he downloaded the 80MB Delphi trial and got to the point
in the installation where it requires a key. He went to the website as
directed, only to be informed that the database is down (or words to that
effect). He checked back for over a week and still couldn't get the key to
use the trial. He sent email to an address he found on the site (don't know
which one) - no response.
His words to me: "There's no excuse for it. If I were running Borland, or
Inprise, or whatever, I'd go to the person responsible and say 'Fix it.' If
he didn't have it fixed in a day, I'd fire him and go to the next person and
say 'Fix it.'"
And: "The part where they got all my marketing information worked just fine,
but I can't use the product. If I had a choice of either having a developer
using my product so he could like it and buy it, or having his marketing
information, I'd make sure he could use my product. Wouldn't you? Doesn't
that just seem like the smart thing to do?"
Borland is its own worst enemy.
--
Jack Johnson
Cyberworlds Inc.
http://www.cyberworlds.com
608-362-0318
Chad L.
"Jack Johnson" <jjoh...@cyberworlds.com> wrote in message
news:3a39160b$1_2@dnews...
> I just got off the phone with a VB programmer buddy of mine. After years
of
> listening to me praise Delphi (and because he doesn't like the direction
> VB.NET is headed), he downloaded the 80MB Delphi trial and got to the
point
> in the installation where it requires a key. He went to the website as
> directed, only to be informed that the database is down (or words to that
> effect). He checked back for over a week and still couldn't get the key to
> use the trial. He sent email to an address he found on the site (don't
know
> which one) - no response.
Here is where Borland needs to contact you and get your buddies address and
mail out an eval CD with a license key. This little act could then turn
your firend's opinion back to a positive one toward Borland. I would hate
to see a potential customer lost because of this.
Chad
Jack Johnson
CBuilder.
What Borland really needs to worry about is getting their act together so
they don't look like bumbling amateurs and lose the business of all those
people who don't have friends to fix things up.
--
Jack Johnson
Cyberworlds Inc.
http://www.cyberworlds.com
608-362-0318
"Chad L." <thedrag...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3a391c7e$1_1@dnews...
Dmitry Streblechenko
their info for the marketing purposes". Give me a break, people have already
heard about Delphi and a wonderful company called Borland, let them play with
your product, instead of driving them mad for the sake of getting an address.
I don't want to be rude, but sometimes I very much doubt that marketing people
ever had math 101: how effective is your marketing? The usual number is 2 or 3 %
of people buy something after receiving an ad. Assuming Borland makes $200 on an
average sale, that means that a value of a single address is $4 - $6. Now do a
simple math, how many people will *not* buy Borland's product because they
either did not want to give away their personal info or got frustrated doing so?
--
Dmitry Streblechenko
http://www.dimastr.com/
OutlookSpy - Outlook, CDO
and MAPI Developer Tool
Scott Woods
since none of the answers applied. I clicked submit and was told to
complete all the questions. Of course they were blanked out when the
redirect sent me back.
Rene Tschaggelar
I think are appropriate. The others are filled with crap.
Recently at an US whatever : they insisted on the county.
We don't have any, but Alaska was my choice.
Rene
--
Ing.Buero R.Tschaggelar - http://www.ibrtses.com
Uwe Wolfgang Radu
do a
> simple math, how many people will *not* buy Borland's product because they
> either did not want to give away their personal info or got frustrated
doing so?
Most of the time when I want to download something and play with it, if the
site wants more than my email address (jd...@company.com :-) and insists on
the fields, I'm outta there. Tough for them.
--
Uwe W. Radu
(leave capital letters only in host name to email me)
Thomas Schulz
people
> ever had math 101: how effective is your marketing? The usual number is 2
or 3 %
I simply hate their key systems for e.g. JBuilder foundation (I can't see
why, it's only frustrating when you e.g. havn't received the email after 10
minutes)
But oh well... no big deal - but it I think it's a bad thing.
Thomas
Marius BURZ
> Borland is its own worst enemy.
YOU NAMED IT.
Are just a few small things to be done by this people,
but it seems that they really don't care...
I'm wondering who are the idiots behind this...
Maybe some M$ spies in the Borland or so?
This nothing else than sabotage.
Borland, wake up God damn it!
Id doesn't matter to have the best product in the world
if you DON'T sell it.
--
Marius BURZ
Spectra Administrator/Developer
Craft Internet Solutions
http://www.craft.de
MrBaseball34
damian marquez
> I've taken care of my friend - I have multiple (legal) copies of Delphi &
> CBuilder.
Agree 100%, Jack, but believe me, Borland is also making it easy for the
pirates with this
attitude. When they can't activate the demo, many people go to the pirates,
they're in every
corner lately. Whether they buy or not the product later is just a question
of how serious they
are.
I go for a Delphi 6 Educational Version that can't run the EXEs outside the
IDE or at least
a trial that doesn't require a key. Or at the VERY least setup mirrors for
the registration!!!!
Unacceptable way of losing customers, I agree.
Jack Johnson
this issue was brought up in a JBuilder newsgroup when several people
complained about not being able to get activation keys. Somebody from
Borland posted a "direct" email address they could use until the key
distribution page was working again - but it seems not to have occurred to
anybody in power that the whole system is fundamentally flawed when you have
to get the secret email address on a newsgroup in order to use the product.
I haven't seen any comment here from a Borland employee, but it's only been
a couple of days. Still, it would be nice for somebody to acknowledge seeing
the issue posted, and perhaps even commit to looking into the broken website
if nothing else.
--
Jack Johnson
Cyberworlds Inc.
http://www.cyberworlds.com
608-362-0318
"damian marquez" <dmarq...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3a3bd54b_1@dnews...
John Kaster (Borland)
> I'm starting to believe that Borland just doesn't see a problem here.
Or perhaps we're very aware of the problem, have said our piece on it,
and have nothing further to say until we resolve the issue.
Jack Johnson
in a JBuilder newsgroup to send email to an individual to get the key. And
whether or not Borland has said its piece, my friend was still unable to
download a functional trial, and I assume that is the case for anybody else
who downloads the trial. At least my friend was downloading via DSL - I can
only imagine how upset somebody would be who had downloaded at 56K only to
find they couldn't use the program.
I still don't understand why Borland doesn't just post a trial that doesn't
need a key at all until this issue can be resolved. Borland's priorities are
out of order, IMNSHO: First priority should be to quit irritating potential
customers and let them try the product; only after that is accomplished
should Borland worry about fixing the key-distribution system. Or better
still, drop the stupid key scheme completely.
OTOH, this could provide material for a great Monty Python-type sketch:
Customer: <Standing outside the heavily fortified Castle Inprise><knock,
knock> Unlock the door, I'd like to give you some money!
Borland: <calling from inside> Wait a bit, I'm making a key so you can
unlock the door!
C: You're inside, why don't YOU just unlock the door? Look, I have cash,
lots of it!
B: No, you don't! I haven't finished my key yet, so I won't unlock the door!
Now, bugger off, there's a good chap! But make sure you come back with some
money when I've finished the key!
--
Jack Johnson
Cyberworlds Inc.
http://www.cyberworlds.com
608-362-0318
"John Kaster (Borland)" <jka...@borland.com> wrote in message
news:3A3E4E75...@borland.com...