This is why I HATE Autodesk....

[Paul Griswold]

I posted this to my Facebook page the other day (there's now an update that I'll include):

Dear Autodesk,

I'm sure at the executive level everyone sits around wondering why your losing sales and why it seems like customers are always complaining. Well, here's an example of things your company does that makes us hate you.

My subscription for Softimage ran out in January. I was alerted to this by email and given a link to renew it automatically on the Autodesk website. The only problem was, the Autodesk website gave me an error every time I tried to renew my subscription. 

After a several weeks of being unable to renew I was contacted by my local reseller. Now the interesting thing here is - I've never talked to this reseller, I've never done business with this reseller, and I have no interest in doing business with this reseller. In my opinion, the idea of a software company having resellers is about as modern as wagon wheel factories. But when Autodesk bought Softimage from Avid, they also forced upon us the Autodesk reseller network.

Be that as it may, the reseller informed me that because I'd let my subscription lapse I would be forced to pay a $100 late fee. Yes, that's right. The Autodesk website renewal system was broken and because of that I must pay a $100 late fee. Way to go Autodesk! That's customer service! At this point I started to file complaints with Autodesk and thankfully I know some really good people who work there.

After another week or so, it turns out the AD website should never have offered to let me renew online and I always should have been forced to do business with a reseller I don't want. Autodesk kindly decided they'd wave the $100 fine and give me the honor of paying the reseller.

The reseller contacted me to let me know of the situation and sent a new PDF quote. To which I responded "How do I pay for this with my corporate card?". Their reply? "Print out the PDF, fill out your credit card information, sign it and then FAX it back to us."

FAX? Did I time-travel back to 1995? Does anyone use faxes to renew software licenses these days? Autodesk does!

Then they let me in on one more bit of good news. For the privilege of using these modern new "credit cards" I would have to pay a 3% service fee.

I always thought it was illegal to charge someone a fee to use a credit card. But hey, that's good old Autodesk for you.

So, if I don't want to pay the 3% fee I suppose I'll now need to drive to my local bank, get a certified check and mail it to the reseller in order to renew my software license.

Autodesk.... if you want to retain customers, how about starting to set up systems that work in the 21st century? You're handing out fines to people if they don't renew quickly enough? What are you, a credit card company?

It's really too bad Softimage is owned by Autodesk. It's a great piece of 3D software. 

-Paul

UPDATE:  I heard from the reseller this morning.  They REQUIRE a printed, signed copy of my renewal to be on file.  The only way to avoid paying a 3% credit card fee is if I send them a corporate check by MAIL along with my signed renewal contract.  

Seriously.... How old-fashioned and out-of-date can a company be?  Fax machines?  Mailing checks for a LICENSE KEY?  I'm not getting boxed software.  I'm not getting anything at all other than renewing an existing license.  There's no reason on earth I should have to be jumping through this many hoops to SEND MONEY to Autodesk!   

Autodesk - this is why people absolutely hate you.

-PG

[Ed Manning]

To be fair to AD -- while they shouldn't force us into business with ridiculous relics like the reseller network, and they should certainly be putting more pressure on the resellers to do business in a more customer-friendly way, the reseller's incompetence isn't their fault.

I'm sure that many things are spelled out in contracts that are still binding but long out-of-date in their terms.  Heck, there might be a contractual obligation somewhere that they get hard copies only via snailmail or fax.  Stupid as fuck, and should be changed, but maybe expensive to do?

I've noticed that they are now selling licenses for some products online. I assume that this is because old exclusive territory agreements with resellers are starting to expire.  With any luck they'll all be gone in a couple more years and there will be one less parasitic middleman to pay.

Never once got any real value out of having a reseller (going on 15 years now).  Not a bad guy, but doesn't seem to have any way of actually doing anything for me.  Under the current system he has no incentive to figure one out.

[Eric Thivierge]

+1 to that Paul.

The concept of the reseller is ridiculous at this current state of technology. I'm sure we'll see the usual yammerings of the AD folks saying this is how it has always been, resllers provide support (HAH!), they can provide you with other software sales... blah blah blah. It's an antiquated system that needs to go.

I'm sure the reseller gets to skim a bit off of the cost that you pay to make money too which is the worst thing. Resellers do diddly squat, yet get to make money off of it. Anyone want to go into business? :P

Also any company still working off fax machines these days to receive these signed documents are oblivious to the fact that there is no reason for it to need to be faxed. Scanners people, their the latest and greatest technology!

The 3% fee is also just a way for the company to make some more money. I understand handling credit cards does cost some money but for a company that has to deal with yearly sales that probably extend passed $100k 3% is a ridiculous amount to charge.

You're not alone Paul. Btw, I don't think Fabric has resellers. 

--------------------------------------------
Eric Thivierge
http://www.ethivierge.com

[Andy Moorer]

They asked for a $100 late fee?? o_O?

Sorry I'm just boggling...

[Paul Griswold]

Hehe - thanks Eric!  And guess what beta I'm in the process of setting up once again.  Has anyone seen their latest demo with Arnold running?

I need to email Paul & Helge ;-)

Paul

[Paul Griswold]

Yeah $100 late fee (though thanks to Manny & friends at AD they've dropped that).  And now I'm locked out of the Customer Portal until I send my check and signed contract back to the reseller.

Honestly, as much as people bitch at Adobe, the new Creative Cloud system is very slick and works great.  You pay monthly and get access to everything with pretty much an update to something every month.  Autodesk just feels like such a huge dinosaur when these things happen.

-Paul

[Rob Chapman]

and do you really think they will implement things any better once this is all on the cloud??   

It hasnt been a stellar track record so far in regards to customer satisfaction in my opinion :D   

XTFX here in London are ok (no need to Fax and are accommodating and helpful with licenses but most importantly not arrogant) but yeah Ive never once asked a support question to them.  Not whilst Stephen Blair was gainfully employed at Softimage - they just did not get the opportunity to answer..!

raises friday beer to Stephen and this list for all of the support the last....  1.5 decades!

Rob

[Tim Thorburn]

On 2/8/2013 11:50 AM, Eric Thivierge wrote:
Also any company still working off fax machines these days to receive
these signed documents are oblivious to the fact that there is no reason
for it to need to be faxed. Scanners people, their the latest and
greatest technology!

That companies still use fax machines is incredible to me. In no way to
defend Autodesk here, but I've had to send faxes into Apple to
setup/make changes to an iOS developer account. I actually had to dig
out an ancient laptop still running Windows 2000 that had a fax/modem
built into it in order to send this magical "fax".

Would be awesome if someone pointed out to these technology companies
the fact that scanners, PDF's, and these tablet things that let people
"write" their signature on exist. But hey, the ranting of companies
demanding "subscriptions" for their software is another topic, and it's
Friday. Less anger.

[Eric Thivierge]

Ugh, quoted with bad grammar. Sigh...  *they're

--------------------------------------------
Eric Thivierge
http://www.ethivierge.com

On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 12:35 PM, Tim Thorburn <immo...@arashidigital.com> wrote:

On 2/8/2013 11:50 AM, Eric Thivierge wrote:

Scanners people, their ...

[olivier jeannel]

Quote "raises friday beer to Stephen and this list for all of the support the last....  1.5 decades

Rob"

We are the Softimage support !

O

[Sandy Sutherland]

Hear hear - I will drink to that - Stephen Blair and this list!

S.

                                                              
Sandy Sutherland | Technical Supervisor

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From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] on behalf of olivier jeannel [olivier...@noos.fr]
Sent: 08 February 2013 19:45
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: This is why I HATE Autodesk....