Poll: have you ever felt slighted by a developer?

[tigisfat]

No drama, no arguing. I just want to gather statistics in a honest way for an honest answer. I'm sure we can discuss, but this thread (I'd bet) is being heavily watched for it's sensitive subject matter and will be likely be shut down at the first sign of an altercation.

The deeper question is, how do consumers/developers feel about the payware industry?

 

[Rezabrya]

Yes I have felt ripped off before, mostly by developers that refuse to give you a refund even if their product isn't what they said. There are a few developers out there whom I am absolutely disgusted with the amount of support they give their buyers. A few devs will just say, "Oh it is a problem on your end and we will not offer support." which is absolutely ridiculous.

 

[IanP]

No poll visible, unfortunately, so I'll reply in text.

"Yes".

It's rather more complicated than that, so what are you looking for in terms of options? My grounds for complaint in the past, for the record have been:

- Product did not meet expectations
- False advertising (my particular pet hate)
- Customer support seriously lacking
- Very buggy release version that required (sometimes numerous) patches to actually be usable at all.

 

[tigisfat]

I'm just looking to see how people view developers these days, as fellow hobbiests still or if there is a trend appearing and people are growing more cautious. It's not to start trash, it's more a 'state of the hobby' kind of thing.

I couldn't possibly cover all bases, so feel free to elaborate in text. I chose two positive and two negative, to show each side and varying levels thereof.

Please, let's not attack anyone for their opinion here. Sooner or later someone's going to say something controversial, and that's the nature of this thread. Let's leave each other alone.

 

[spotlope]

As a developer, threads like this make me want to stop visiting SOH altogether. Was that the intent? Honestly, it's hard to see to what other end a discussion of this sort can lead.

 

[6297J]

Have I ever felt conned do you mean?
Yes, absolutley.
Only twice though.
With all the payware I've bought since then I'd say that was a pretty good result.
I'm much, much more careful with what I buy now and I never impulse buy!



___________________________________
Eskimo: "If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?" Priest: "No, not if you did not know." Eskimo: "Then why did you tell me?"

 

[2Low]

I've only been simming a year so I can only give an opinion recent developer practices. Now in just over a year I've gone from zero payware to 19 planes and 10 or 12 other add-ons so I do have a basis for opinion.

Almost all transactions were without problem and the products were up to expectations. The few times there was any issue they were dealt with fairly quickly and transparently. I couldn't be happier as a customer.

Before I buy a product I research it and the company I'm buying from. If I'm buying a $15 add-on I don't expect it to be as nice as a $50 add-on. I show loyalty in that after I've bought a product from a company and been satisfied I buy from them again because I know what to expect from them in quality and customer service.

I read the boards so I know it's not always this way but so far my dealings with developers and publishers have been great. I can only hope to get the same service from other industries.

Interesting topic, hope it stays general and doesn't derail on ya.:salute:

 

[Lewis-A2A]

As a developer, threads like this make me want to stop visiting SOH altogether. Was that the intent? Honestly, it's hard to see to what other end a discussion of this sort can lead.

+1

absolutly silly

 

[Henry]

No drama, no arguing. I just want to gather statistics in a honest way for an honest answer. I'm sure we can discuss, but this thread (I'd bet) is being heavily watched for it's sensitive subject matter and will be likely be shut down at the first sign of an altercation.

The deeper question is, how do consumers/developers feel about the payware industry?

You Betcha!
That would show in the final profits
seems to me someones got his knickers in a twist
H

 

[letsgetrowdy]

A few times, yes.
There is one site which has many aircraft in develpoment, which were mostly sceduled for release two years ago. And have never been discussed since.

 

[harleyman]

The point is ????????

 

[Wing_Z]

Forum polls tend to be utterly pointless, especially ones where the answer is "Yes" and bollocks to you ones who fibbed.
There should be another poll now:
As a Developer, have you ever felt frustrated by the idiocy of your consumers?
The answer will be as described above.

And then, with permission, one I have always wanted to post:
How do you feel about your big toenail?
- Comfortable
- Uncomfortable
- Don't care

 

[NoNewMessages]

... If I'm buying a $15 add-on I don't expect it to be as nice as a $50 add-on.

First, I voted no. All but one of the addons I have are freebies, so my capital outlay is minimal. But even for the purchasers of the addons that I have the responses are almost always positive.

Secondly, the quote above. It's easy to make price synonymous with quality. But that's not always the case. In my area of payware there are high priced products for the people to spend their money on. That price is more than what I would spend. I moved sales to my own site and priced the products at a level that I would pay. It's lower than some of the other vendors products!

In my genre there is only so much that can be accomplished. And there has been the accepted "norm" that consumers have had to live with. I don't believe that's been good enough and have attempted to give the customer more bang for their less bucks.

Will my time and effort be fruitful? Probably still too early to know. But I would hate to have potential customers discard the work that I generate solely because they equate price to quality. I'll put my work up against the competition's any day of the week.

BTW, this is not meant to be any type of advertisement. It's more a reflection of what a cheap bastage I happen to be and how I view some of the pricing in the payware market!

 

[bushpilot]

At times I've felt like I have been ripping off developers, like when I purchased Tailwind with 16 bucks and I felt it was worth a lot more.

 

[MudMarine]

I'm feeling like i just got ripped off by wasting my time reading this post!

 

[IanP]

And equally well, you could apply this thread to washing machines, cars, televisions, houses... don't get started on mass market computer games. Two magazines, same month, same game, one gave it a score of over 90%, the other 42%. The difference is that one magazine is aimed at people who like that sort of game, the other is aimed at a different audience.

I don't have a problem with the thread, or a poll, and no, it doesn't have to head south unless we, as people posting on it, send it there. I'm not sure it is the best way of getting the answer, though.

As I said before, it's always going to be a lot more complicated than just "have you ever had a problem". Sometimes I've had problems with a developer over one product out of a number I've got from them, but the rest have been absolutely fine. Sometimes I've had serious problems with one member of a team, but have had no problem at all with their colleagues. Just because I had a problem with someone once doesn't always automatically rule them out from me ever using them again. Right now, for me, there's only one single company that I will definitively never deal with ever again. There are a couple that I'm very wary of, but it bears repeating again - it's not a simple issue that a poll can get the full picture of in my opinion.

 

[empeck]

I'm not going to answer the poll, but why you're trying to tar everybody with the same brush? (I hope this is right idiom, English is not my native language ). There are some very honest people (I can't say anything bad about A2A, VRSimulations or Lionheart for example), there are some people I don't like (doesn't matter who).

I vote for closing this thread

 

[Ferry_vO]

I don't see how we could discuss 'feeling ripped off' without eventually pointing fingers...

This is going nowhere..

 

[Henry]

I'm feeling like i just got ripped off by wasting my time reading this post!

your refund is in the mail hows that for customer service

And equally well, you could apply this thread to washing machines, cars, televisions, houses... don't get started on mass market computer games. Two magazines, same month, same game, one gave it a score of over 90%, the other 42%. The difference is that one magazine is aimed at people who like that sort of game, the other is aimed at a different audience.

I don't have a problem with the thread, or a poll, and no, it doesn't have to head south unless we, as people posting on it, send it there. I'm not sure it is the best way of getting the answer, though.

As I said before, it's always going to be a lot more complicated than just "have you ever had a problem". Sometimes I've had problems with a developer over one product out of a number I've got from them, but the rest have been absolutely fine. Sometimes I've had serious problems with one member of a team, but have had no problem at all with their colleagues. Just because I had a problem with someone once doesn't always automatically rule them out from me ever using them again. Right now, for me, there's only one single company that I will definitively never deal with ever again. There are a couple that I'm very wary of, but it bears repeating again - it's not a simple issue that a poll can get the full picture of in my opinion.

so true!

I vote for closing this thread

i could start a poll its about as silly
im not going to close it yet,
just because there are some intelligent comments
maybe not what the starter of the thread intended
but comments there are
H