Topic: Lightcrafts - The Company (Read 13433 times)

Graham Berks · « **on:** May 31, 2007, 05:54:59 am »

When Lightzone first came out, I liked the look of it - so i decided to pay up and become a charter member.

When i got my licence I didnt see anything about charter membership ( ie. free lifetime upgrades ).

So I emailed support - they informed me I was 2 weeks late but that they would extend the offer to me ! Great I thought !

So when I tried to get my free licence to go from version 2 to 3 I was a bit surprised to receive a terse email from support saying I would need to pay the normal upgrade charge !

After numerous unanswered emails asking why this was the case, I finally got an email back.
Stating that the original offer was from a specific person ( this turns out to be the ex-ceo ) who had offered this to me and not the company !

Odd, I thought that the CEO's acted on behalf of the company !

After further emails from them it is obvious that they do not believe they have any obligation to commitments made by their ex-ceo !

Make of this what you will. But personally a company with this type of integrity is not one I will be giving any future business too !

It's a shame - I did like their product !

BernardLanguillier · « **Reply #1 on:** May 31, 2007, 06:33:01 am »

Really sad to hear that.

It is funny, Adobe is behaving in a similar way with me right now here in Tokyo...

It would seem that software companies have a hard time figuring out that they should treat their customers well instead of trying to milk them again and again.

I hope that you'll find a solution in your dispute with Lighcraft.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Bernard

roskav · « **Reply #2 on:** May 31, 2007, 06:53:19 am »

Hmm seems a shame allright .. the product looks good .. I like they way that you don't have to create a proprietry database...

R

digitaldog · « **Reply #3 on:** May 31, 2007, 09:51:52 am »

I was under the same impression about Lightzone and have emails from a former CEO/guy in charge who said the upgrades were for life. I emailed the company last week because my old serial number wouldn't work and their tech support told me I needed up pay a fee. Here's the copy/paste back from the top guy there now:

Quote

On 5/25/07 7:03 PM, "Fabio Riccardi" wrote:

the "lifetime of upgrades" offer lasted about three months ended on March 31 2006.

So who’s lifetime was this based on?

The customers that bought before March 31 2006 do have free upgrades for a lifetime...

Although this was clearly stated on our web site a few people didn't quite get that and there is some confusion going on right now...

I’d like to see that, where on the web site is this explained?

unfortunately we changed the website several times since then and we didn't preserve the old stuff, maybe you can check on the wayback machine...

Andrew

I was told that the web site would be updated. Stay on top of this.

Graham Berks · « **Reply #4 on:** May 31, 2007, 10:00:34 am »

To me it's irrelevant what they say on their website.

I know I missed their cutoff ( only after their CEO's response ), and if they had responded to my original email stating so I would have been annoyed at myself but understood.

But when you get an email stating that they have extended it to include you with no conditions by their CEO then I expect the company to honor it !

I'd be interested to know if their actions are actually illegal in the US.

Ie. I have an email from the CEO stating that I would be included in their lifetime free upgrades and now they are trying to back out from it !

This to me seems to breaking a written contract.

digitaldog · « **Reply #5 on:** May 31, 2007, 10:10:32 am »

Quote

To me it's irrelevant what they say on their website.

The problem is, the don't have ANYTHING I can find about this policy, making it even more troubling.

I don't disagree with anything you've said. I think it is kind of a sham but want to give them time to clean this mess up.

Yes. My understanding dating back to my original contact with them for a review I did was that the upgrades would be for life. I haven't asked for a 3.0 serial, which I know they'd give me because I'm not sure I want to deal with the product if this is how they are going to handle things. But I want to give them a bit of time before I begin my scorched earth strategy on them.

Robert Roaldi · « **Reply #6 on:** May 31, 2007, 12:35:48 pm »

I bought V2.3 a couple of months ago, and at that time my understanding was that minor revisions (V2.4, 2.5 etc) would be free but that major ones (V3, V4, etc) would cost money. I seem to remember reading this on their site at the time of purchase but I didn't print it out and I have no idea if the site still says this or not.

I did upgrade to V2.4 for free, as I expected, and was not surprised to see that V3.0 would cost me an upgrade fee ($50-$60 or so, I think) but I haven't upgraded yet as I am in the middle of working a group of photos and don't want to change anything right now.

My experience does not address your "Charter Member" issue, of course. I know nothing about it, except that I saw it mentioned on the old version of their web site but didn't read it myself since it did not apply to my case.

Box Brownie · « **Reply #7 on:** May 31, 2007, 01:56:33 pm »

[attachment=2578:attachment]For the record I did save the web page and this is the image of the info.

But for Grahams issues I do hope they can be resolved amicably.

JLK · « **Reply #8 on:** May 31, 2007, 02:12:57 pm »

Quote

When Lightzone first came out, I liked the look of it - so i decided to pay up and become a charter member.

When i got my licence I didnt see anything about charter membership ( ie. free lifetime upgrades ).

So I emailed support - they informed me I was 2 weeks late but that they would extend the offer to me ! Great I thought !

So when I tried to get my free licence to go from version 2 to 3 I was a bit surprised to receive a terse email from support saying I would need to pay the normal upgrade charge !

After numerous unanswered emails asking why this was the case, I finally got an email back.
Stating that the original offer was from a specific person ( this turns out to be the ex-ceo ) who had offered this to me and not the company !

Odd, I thought that the CEO's acted on behalf of the company !

After further emails from them it is obvious that they do not believe they have any obligation to commitments made by their ex-ceo !

Make of this what you will. But personally a company with this type of integrity is not one I will be giving any future business too !

It's a shame - I did like their product !
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=120385\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Graham,

You were late, and therefore not under the Charter member agreement. The (now-Ex) CEO makes some sort of deal for you (and who knows how many others...)

I'm wondering why he's now the "ex-CEO"...

It sounds like they're coming around to accomodating you, but you could easily make the argument that you don't qualify. I personally think they Light Crafts needs to shore up some of these aspects of their support---but it is such a small company, that I rather see them focus on the product. Which I think they've been doing, to a rather good end. These issues appear to be just slipping through the cracks, and if you give them time, I bet they'll make good on this stuff.

If it makes you feel any better---I still don't have my license yet, and I do qualify as a charter member...

Jim

Graham Berks · « **Reply #9 on:** May 31, 2007, 02:20:23 pm »

Personally I would say I was covered, the CEO extend the membership to cover me, I never asked him todo this !

I hope you are right, but after sending them about 10 emails I have received no response from them that would indicate so. Infact the exact opposite !

JLK · « **Reply #10 on:** May 31, 2007, 02:25:28 pm »

Quote

Personally I would say I was covered, the CEO extend the membership to cover me, I never asked him todo this !

I hope you are right, but after sending them about 10 emails I have received no response from them that would indicate so. Infact the exact opposite !
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=120465\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Again, give it some time. I would also suggest that you work your way up the chain---I'd suggest contacting Fabio Riccardi next. But give them a few days to mull it over.

Graham Berks · « **Reply #11 on:** May 31, 2007, 02:28:13 pm »

He's already been copied in on the emails

I'd actually kept this out of the forums until after 11 days it seemed pointless waiting for them todo the right thing.

JLK · « **Reply #12 on:** May 31, 2007, 04:25:16 pm »

Quote

He's already been copied in on the emails

I'd actually kept this out of the forums until after 11 days it seemed pointless waiting for them todo the right thing.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=120468\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Graham,

I don't know what the contents of your emails have been, but never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence. As I mentioned, I still haven't received my license code---but I attribute this to them being understaffed and without a decent infrastructure.

They're not big enough or good enough to be able to afford to piss off their customer base. Let's hope that doesn't happen...

Jim

Graham Berks · « **Reply #13 on:** May 31, 2007, 04:38:47 pm »

Good news.

I have just received an email from Lightcrafts saying they will honor my charter membership.

And will shortly be receiving a version 3 license code.

Box Brownie · « **Reply #14 on:** May 31, 2007, 05:23:05 pm »

I am pleased that they sorted it out for you and as Jim says they are still a smallish company and I would hope they get the admin/support side through its growing pains in the same competant manner the software itself is growing.

IMO LC and LZ are going places and the power they have already built into LZ means it is "punching above their weight" if you think who they are competing against and what 'they' are doing with more money and staff ~ remember even the likes of Adobe have had their brickbats for the type and level of support

JLK · « **Reply #15 on:** June 01, 2007, 09:33:35 am »

Quote

Good news.

I have just received an email from Lightcrafts saying they will honor my charter membership.

And will shortly be receiving a version 3 license code.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=120500\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Excellent news. And I received my license file as well yesterday.

My guess is that what we're experiencing is just basic growing pains.

Jim

Author Topic: Lightcrafts - The Company (Read 13433 times)