Support and Product Development are in question

[boleyd]

Just a feeling I get reading the forums is that the old interaction with customer by the Auran/N3v staff has all but disappeared. Help Desk support, as seen from posts, is spotty. And, finally the forums are now perpetually slow. This latter situation may be due to the vendor downgrading their account to a lower level of performance to save money. Similar reasoning may be applied to the other two items as well.

Accountants ask "how much money are you making from support and forums?". Are they a cost center or a profit center? Thus, if a company is having revenue issues they will look at non-revenue areas to cut. Very similar to austerity plans throughout Europe. Unfortunately, this will eventually erode the customer base which is almost entirely related to addons from N3V. In a short term costs may go down and the bottom line will brighten. However, if austerity is left in place too long the erosion becomes permanent and a downward spiral begins. There is no way to tell where the vendor is in this scenario. Or, I am "all wet" and something else is afoot. Perhaps the staff is working on a major update and simply do not have the time to attend to support issues as they used to. Of course, this entire message maybe the rambling of a paranoid customer who sees things through a distorted lens. Time will tell.

 

[clam1952]

On the other hand, perhaps if people were not consistently knocking N3V on here and reading the forthcoming demise of N3V every time there is a sale or server problem (known issues on other sites with same host), N3V might feel more inclined to be responsive.

This seems to be the only forum I have come across, where End of Year Sales or Server performance issues or lack of response / idle chit chat from the developers means an imminent company collapse. :hehe:

I would imagine they are very busy and that the priority would be the overdue patches for TS12 and Steam plus they are obviously expanding in the ipad / tablet / gadget area as well. Requesting for beta testers doesn't really sound like a shrinking operation to me.

 

[shaneturner12]

You may well be right there. Creating patches especially takes it's time.

I agree regarding the server issues as well as the email issues, as the hosting provider (The Planet/SoftLayer) is responsible for issues like this.

Shane

 

[jjanmarine3]

I feel that whatever the reasons are for these issues, there should at least be better communication - which will keep all the guesswork and frustrations to a minimum.
Let us know what is going on if there are then no hidden agendas.

 

[nfitzsimmons]

Remember the process of creating patches is also considered to be a cost generator, too.

 

[shaneturner12]

I agree. That's possibly why N3V are not always able to deal with other issues at the same time.

Shane