Technical support unresponsive

from Stardock Forums

Hello,


I was ready to advertise for ObjectDock among my fellow MVPs because it solves the problem of the Office Shortcut Bar replacement but I will refrain from doing this because the technical support is merely inexistant.


I have reported some non trivial bugs and until now I didn't even receive an acknowledgement of these messages.


What is your experience with the support at Stardock?


Thanks.


--
Patrick Philippot - Microsoft MVP
MainSoft Consulting Services
www.mainsoft.fr


 
wincustomize
3,763 views 20 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
As you said, unresponsive ...

I also mentionned some bugs with WindowBlinds (latest 5.01) or Iconpackager and which are not (i'm sure) "specifics bugs with my PC" and no kind of an answer to them.

It seems developpers do what they think to have to, without taking care or reporting.

Once upon a time, there was ONE point of discussion and reporting, it was on news.stardock.com and things were working pretty fine with answers as well from Stardock and experience from users ... But it was working to fine probably ... Now there's a lot of places to tell about buggies or so ...it's like a labyrinth and you need a big piece of luck to be readen ...

P.S: sans parler que si jamais on est pas anglais ou qu'on ne maitrise pas parfaitement la langue, bonjour la galère supplémentaire
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Bonjour,


Even the messages sent directly to the support are apparently ignored. They ask to be patient (48 hours delay expected) but almost one week is more than I can accept, especially when I report serious bugs.


Bonne journée.


--
Patrick Philippot - Microsoft MVP
MainSoft Consulting Services
www.mainsoft.fr
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

neophil78: The closest I can find to a bug report on WB 5.01 from you is this

'I thought it was a nice update ... unless some apps brings in trouble such as my printer control panel (: crashing with an error linked to comcat32.dll (i think)
Back to version 5.00[b].011 with which i don't get any trouble ... '

But thats not exactly useful and gives us nothing to work on.  Additionally you posted it in the WB5.01 release thread and not as a bug report.  This is especially true given 5.00.011 and 5.01 are near identical I believe.

mainsoft:  It may be support are having to speak to the development team directly about your issues in which case it may take longer.  Usually you should have received a ticket number for your bug which should allow you to track it.  Did this not happen?

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hi,

Usually you should have received a ticket number for your bug which should allow you to track it. Did this not happen?

I didn't receive any acknowledgement for any email I sent to Stardock since Monday or Tuesday. If this had happened, I wouldn't be complaining now. But I have the feeling that these messages went to a black hole.

Regards.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
neophil78: The closest I can find to a bug report on WB 5.01 from you is this
'I thought it was a nice update ... unless some apps brings in trouble such as my printer control panel (: crashing with an error linked to comcat32.dll (i think)
Back to version 5.00[b].011 with which i don't get any trouble ... '


Right, that's what i got
What else can i give you better than this, i don't get other significiant things apart that going back to 5.00[b].011 solve the problem ...
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
neophil78: We need to know what the printer control panel is and what the actual crash message was.  Ideally with a crash stack which can be obtained by running Stardock SmartException before the problem.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Stardock support has been excellent for me.

First, did you send email to support @ stardock.com?
If they got your mail you should have gotten an autoreply with a FAQ link and instructions on how to escalate. You should also be able to go to http: //stardock.helpserve.com/ and look up your case there [or create a new one].

Depending on how you presented your bug/problem, it may have gone to a developer and they are working on it. Or it may be in the queue. No communication is neccessary (although it would be nice).

The other thing is that your post you mention OD, not OD+. I would imagine that the free version doesn't get the attention that the paid version does. Upgrade, see if the bug is there, then resend the bug report.

I've dealt with SD support a few times over the years and have been very pleased. Direct interaction with the devs via email and chat. Maybe your ISP is blocking the autoreply. Try again.

The other thing to do is to post your bugs here or at irc.stardock.com. Maybe we can help.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
First, look here https://www.wincustomize.com/Forums.aspx?ForumID=1&AID=110729.

SD is experiencing what you might call growing pains at the moment and they are finding it difficult to get adequate coverage for all of the necessary duties for all of their apps all of the time. They are becoming unfortunate victims of their own success and it is causing some hardships for them and some annoyance for us. That said, as a whole SD is probably the best company I've ever dealt with in terms of the support they offer for their software. People seem to be under the assumption that dropping a sentence like, "I'm having trouble with WB", is sufficient to get a whole team of developers and QA folks moving to fix that horrible issue. What people don't seem to realize is that a forum is NOT an official support channel, if you get help consider yourself lucky, if you don't send an e-mail to support@stardock.com. If you don't get a response send an e-mail to find out what is going on, they don't throw your e-mails into a black hole as was suggested by the OP, but it can be frustrating when you need help and never hear whether your issue even made it into the support queue.

So, have some patience, go through the official support channels to get help and follow the suggestions Zubaz made and you will find yourself among the very happy longtime SD customers in no time!
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
neophil78: We need to know what the printer control panel is and what the actual crash message was. Ideally with a crash stack which can be obtained by running Stardock SmartException before the problem.


No message crash, just that the application is not answering in the tasks lists...
It's linked to an EPSON Stylus Color 860 printer with latest control panel for Win XP (Epson Color Printing System Version 5.20 - French version)
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Support is SLOW! I've been dealing with my problem, unable to install 90% of windowblinds skins I download, for MONTHS now. I do have a ticket #, but they neglected to delete the "priority: low" part in the e-mail. It's been a week since my last reply from them. Pretty bad, although they do seem to want to help...
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
jstehn
what kind of problem do you get trying to install?
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
unable to install 90% of windowblinds skins I download


Has your problem been posted at WC? I googled but didn't find anything. Start a new thread, maybe teh community can help. If you did post it . . . hook me up with a link; I'll take a look.
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
No message crash, just that the application is not answering in the tasks lists...
It's linked to an EPSON Stylus Color 860 printer with latest control panel for Win XP (Epson Color Printing System Version 5.20 - French version)


OK, that's my fault, that's my big fault
It's not an error with directly linked to the Printer's device (and it's still there with 5.00[b].011), it' an error coming with an app called "Pochette Express" (an app to impress CD covers)
The Windows error message says:




N.B for the admins: to see the message, EDIT it because it's in XML language i think, for reporting to Microsoft, so it doesn't appear in post...
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
?
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Can you save the error in a text file and upload that somewhere?
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
When I first came across Stardock the feedback was instant. As they became bigger and more "mainstream" the response became a bit slower. (Brad's recent post is somewhat related: https://www.wincustomize.com/Forums.aspx?ForumID=1&AID=110729) However I feel they have been adressing this and I feel the feedback is getting better. I can get responce by email, this forum or their IRC channel. It's pretty good.
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The only time I emailed them was a feature request for ObjectDock. (I asked if they could put in a drag-to-launch feature)

They emailed me back a couple days later and said it was an interesting idea and they'll look into it. I don't know if they were just humoring me, but I had no problems.

I think one of the interesting things about Stardock are the support AND the forums here. I think it's usually a good idea to post your problem here on the forums with all the relevant information and see if someone can help you. Usually people get back to you on the forums within a few hours, or sooner. And there are some very knowledgeable people here.
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Can you save the error in a text file and upload that somewhere?

nope, i tried to, but as it is (perhaps) a special format to be send to Microsoft i didn't succeed to save it as .txt
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
screenshot?
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
screenshot?


Or remote access?