Why Engineers Need Marketing Folks

Originally posted 2008-02-13 10:57:38

YazSoft has just announced version 5 of Speed Download, its download management product for Mac. They charge $25 for this product. The price may or may not seem reasonable to you, depending on your need for a download manager and your willingness to pay for software, but it’s certainly not outrageous. They offer a reduced price to upgrade from previous versions ($15 – $20, depending on which previous version you use), as well as a cross-grade \”switcher\” price for $15. Thus far, the engineers have done fine without anyone from marketing.

Closer inspection reveals some concerns. For example, they don’t list eligible products you can switch from–only that it be \”another commercial MAC download manager.\” Speed Download includes four products (quoted from their website):

1. A turbo-charged download manager with auto-resuming downloads
2. A fully featured secure FTP client
3. A file sharing utility with full encryption
4. Complete .Mac/iDisk/WEBDAV connectivity

Does that mean that any commercial Mac product that overlaps one of these four capabilities qualifies one for the \”switcher\” price? Or does it have to be specifically something billed as a \”download manager\”? Googling for \”mac download manager\” provides this page: http://www.pure-mac.com/dlm.html, which doesn’t include any \”fully featured secure FTP clients,\” so I assume Transmit doesn’t qualify. You might think it worth trying to cross-grade from Transmit until you read the adversarial notice on the YazSoft site: \”Switcher upgrades that we cannot verify will be automatically de-activated without notice and with no refund.\” Wow. Don’t guess wrong on this one.

Version upgrades similarly warn potential customers: \”Upgrades that we cannot verify will be automatically de-activated without notice and with no refund.\” That seems to indicate that if I swipe a credit card for a $15 version upgrade and YazSoft can’t verify my current license, for whatever reason, I’m out a couple days’ worth of lunch money, with no recourse. They’ve certainly set a tone for the relationship that doesn’t tilt in my favor or make me feel like a valued customer.

The upgrade warnings seem trivial, though, when compared to YazSoft’s different policies concerning regular customers and MacHeist II customers. Regular customers who purchased Speed Download 4.x between January 1, 2008, and February 12, 2008 can upgrade to Speed Download 5 for free. MacHeist II customers who purchased in the same timeframe must pay a $15 upgrade fee. Granted, MacHeist II customers got a load of software and an attractive price, so presumably YazSoft didn’t make $25 per user for the initial purchase. Neither MacHeist nor YazSoft presented any disclaimers, however, that MacHeist II customers wouldn’t receive the same benefits as a \”real\” customer.

What’s worse, YazSoft’s developers are pummeling disgruntled MacHeist customers with logic, explaining that MacHeist should have said \”free updates,\” not \”free upgrades,\” and they never authorized MacHeist to say anything different. You can read the conversation here. Some highlights:

• \”As for the complaints from MacHeist users, I believe the confusion comes from an incorrect and potentially misleading note on the MacHeist website with regards to Speed Download. They state that all ‘UPGRADES’ are free. That was never quoted by us. As always, all ‘UPDATES’ are free.\”
• \”As for your disagreement on update vs upgrades, I’m afraid there is nothing to be done here. Feel free to complain to Apple as well for charging everyone for 10.5 even though many bought 10.4 a few months ago. Same for almost 99% of software out there. People need to cover costs. Development isn’t free as much as we would like it to be.\”
• \”Promos are offered at a heavy discount as is which is why they are normally not accepted as discounted upgrades. We, on the other hand, are offering discounts to all MH users even though it was not our original policy. Giving it out for free is simply not possible and we have already notified Phillip Ryu to fix the erroneous posting on his site.
• \”We truly apologize to everyone for any inconvenience this may have caused but it was not our intention and it is clearly not in our hands but we are trying to be as accommodating as feasibly possible.\”

All the statements are logical. Development costs money. Shops that give their products away can’t remain open. Regardless, YazSoft has botched this. Whether or not they have regrets about participating in MacHeist II, they participated and got publicity and money through that relationship. Pushing blame for miscommunication to MacHeist seems feeble–they should have paid more attention to the MacHeist web site. They also shouldn’t treat MacHeist users, most of whom, I’d guess, are first-time customers, as less than real customers. I think this is the key gripe. They’ve soured the initial relationship. Marketing folks, as much as we technical people like to mock them, would have really helped here to spin the message so that MacHeist customers didn’t feel jobbed.

For now, I’m content with Speed Download 4. I worry, though, that I may have missed something on their web site. I’m searching for a disclaimer that says, \”Derogatory comments about our practices will cause products to be automatically de-activated without notice and with no refund.\”