And another thing

Here's a comment (ok, moan if you will) that combines two recent posts. Firstly the one about suppliers using technology against the best interests of their customers. The second was about the disruption caused by the need to constantly download & install updates.

Because these two can combine in an unholy union: "download only software". It's an arrogant assumption by suppliers that a) customers have serious internet connection and b) they've nothing better to do than hang about waiting for a download because the supplier wants to save 3p by not supplying a DVD.

If you think this is unreasonable, here's a case in point. It's AutoCAD - yes, all £6000 of it. You pays your money and all you get is a download link. So that's what we did.

If you look carefully, you'll see that the "time remaining" for the download is 13650 DAYS. Yes, you read that right - more than 37 years. Now, one of the "advantages" touted by these cheapskates is that the customer gets the product in a shorter time. The Royal Mail may be slow, but I'd wager they'd better that!

The final insult is that the freshly downloaded software isn't up-to-date. Oh no! There a huge amount of update downloading to take place as soon as the user has the temerity to try to use their new purchase.

This is NOT good customer service...