[Dolphin USA]

Ok, here I am once again.

I would like to say that this is intended for Dolphin CAD/CAM users in North America ONLY!!! Any Dolphin users in other parts of the world, please contact your local distributor with any questions pertaining to this.

Up to this point, Dolphin support "policies" in the US and Canada has had a cloudy grey area. We opened up North America Dolphin around 2 years ago. We have had tremendous success since then and look forward to grow over the years. Up to this point, we have also pretty much serviced and supported everyone free of no charge. I would love to continue to do so if it was possible.

We will now be offering very affordable "support packages" that range from very simple support, upwards. In a perfect world, we would continue to do all this for free. However we are now at the point that we are selling several packages a week and have sold over a thousand seats of the software. To try and support and service everyone for free has become very difficult. It would eventually become un-doable.

These support packages are "optional" and always will be.

In regards to support on here, nothing will change and we will continue to monitor and support the site at all times.

Many of our users on here are extremely helpful and we would like to thank you all for that as well.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Thank you.

[Astroguy]

Does that mean the people who already purchased the software before this change are left out in the cold if we do not pay extra now for upgrades and support???

[Dolphin USA]

Thanks for the reply. No intensions are to leave anyone out in the cold. At first it was not so difficult to support everyone for free but as our customer database grew, it makes things a little bit hard when supporting free. We still are offering it at an extremely affordable price, it's just they're needs to be inflow to cover tech's too. There are also 3 different levels of support so even the hobbyist has an affordable package.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Rot Iron Racer]

Can you share the details on the three different levels of support?

Pricing?

Time for response to be expected?

Does the pricing cover a "time frame", or is it more like "6 support calls allowed for your XX amount of support dollars"?

Thanks

Kevin

[Dolphin USA]

There are 3 different levels. Anyone is entitled to any level although we have dedicated level 1 to the hobby users making it affordable.

Time of response- As soon as we get the question or file, it will be looked at and replied to immediately. Some files may be more difficult than others. Simple questions or files will be replied to within the hour. Extremely difficult questions may take up to 24 hours.

Level 1- $150.00 (6 months support) (all updates of current software)
Level 2- $250.00 (9 months support) (all updates of current software)
Level 3- $450.00 (1 year support) (all updates of current software) (unlimited posts)

Level 3 automatically enables a guaranteed 30% off next upgrade release.

Let me know if this is helpful.

[woffler]

now hold on just a minute here ,you can not sell something and say the support is free and the post processors are free and then say to all users that purchased the product under the original agreement will now have to pay because your expenses have increased because you sold to much product and now can not supporrt it .I would think that all users under the old agrrement would still be intilted to the old agreement this is how class action laws suits are created .

[Dolphin USA]

Woffler,

99% of the companies in this world start out without being heard of. We are still relatively unknown in the North American market compared to some others. Over the last 2 years, we have grown a tremendous amount. In order for ANY company to continue to suceed and produce new products and maintain a high success rate of support, there needs to be balance. From reading on the different online forums, here and others, I have confidence in saying all of our customers are happy. With each and every quote or invoice that we send out, never have we said or quoted "Free Support for Life". That is unrealistic. These support packages are also "optional". Never will a customer be forced to buying any support packages. More than likely, the post you need and many others need come bundled with the software anyways. It's only if you need a full post customized for you. Or if you need to send files directly to us for help with.

For the price that we offer our software for, along with support package pricing, I think we treat the end user pretty fairly.

[woffler]

listen you can double talk this all you want ,but i will hold your feet to the fire on this and i am sure that many outhers who bought this from you feel the same way.and you advertized this on your web sight until you changed it .I have had dealings with you in the past and from that you should know i wont back down .Yes i agree you sold it at a good price and that the support has been lacking but you guys need to keep to your word .So are you going to or not .and the first progam i ran i had to have a custom post processor. now i understand start up co,s .i remember starting mine and i made some offers to i had to stand behind some of those even though it cost me money .this is about the integrity of your company and your way of doing buisness so do what you may and we as customers will do what we can.

[Dolphin USA]

Woffler,

We have a support policy in place. Again, we have never once quoted or offered free support for life. That has never once been mentioned from any one that sells or supports the product at Dolphin. Did we say we would get you set up with a post at the time? Probably yes... Did we get the post over to you? I would say yes. If I am wrong, I will be more than happy to get that post over to you. We will ALWAYS stick behind our word but once again, we have never told any current user we could support them free for life. Perhaps you mis understood a few things? We will support these forums for free at all times. Maybe that was a misunderstanding. I am not sure.

[woffler]

All right rodney i had to fight with you and your support to get anything done and you know this full well.Half the time or more you never even responded i had to call e mail england to get you to respond .and your support guy never ever got back to me at all on my last problems i had some one from anouther company figure it .As i remember there were lots of posts form outhers about your lack of support and getting back to them.And from what i can see its still the status quo and now you want to charge for bad support and service that frankly was never very good any way .and i remeber you telling me you would give me a free up grade for all the problems i was having or a second licencse to make up for it well guess what that never happened either.I have not misunderstood one thing and i am here having to have this same sort of talk with you again .You seem to have a great memory for rembering things to your benifit .the things i am refering to are fact not fiction and yet you continue to try to create trouble for your self i understand that you dont want to keep paying for techs and want us to it is costing you money.So in the end i gave up on your support and have not asked for any assistance at all i figured if i ran into anouther problem i would dump your software and go with someone more reliable even if it costs more at least they would respond and fix the problems .It has nbeen a aventure dealing with you and chad as niether of you can do what you say .I offer you this opputunity to change this ?

[Dolphin USA]

Woffler,

I will say this again. We have a support policy in place that is very fair. It just all seems kind of odd to me that you are complaining on a public forum but yet I have not received any support emails from you in months. From last I known, you were all taken care of. If something was delayed, why not let us know? You say we never responded but yet I see nothing from you that has not been answered. In regards to lots of posts from others about the lack of support, perhaps you are looking somewhere that I am not because there are no negative queries in CNC Zone that are not handled. Yes some may have taken a little longer than others. That again points back to trying to support everyone for free. It becomes difficult. Most of our customers understand this. Almost all agree with me on this that I have spoke personally to as well. Your opinion is different. If you can find a good quality product that offers free support, maybe that will be the best route for you. I help everyone of our customers 100% and will always be completey dedicated to our end users. I also do have some pride and do not like to be thought upon as something that is un true.

If you feel the need to switch softwares, that is completely optional for you.

Thanks again, and if I can be any assistance, let me know.

[woffler]

ok this tells me your attitude .I intend to send this matter over to my attourneys office in the morning .He specilizes in contract law we will see if your claims will hold up under the law .so i do hope you have your ducks in a row.

[Dolphin USA]

Woffler,

Again, you are free to your opinion. If you feel that is in the best interest to do, then stick with what you feel. I am sorry that we can not change all this for one customer. Again, we have never said, nor sent out anything saying "free support for life".

Thanks again!

[woffler]

I invite all dolphin cad cam customers who view this thread .who purchased the software under the old support agreement to contact me at [email protected] and discuss the new support policies instuted by dolphin .

[Dolphin USA]

Woffler,

In my honest opinion, you are taking this way out of hand. It seems to me that you are trying to argue a point that doesnt need to be argued. If you are truely in need of support, then why not email one of us? Has anyone here turned you down for support and told you that you would need to buy a support package. Like I said, we back our customers 100% and if you were in dyer need of support and didnt own a support package, chances are we would probably help because satisfaction is our biggest concern.

Just out of the blue you started criticizing Dolphin without even asking any of us. This was the first I heard anything from you in regards to needing help.

By the way, what is the support questions that you need answered?

[woffler]

I was looking at your web sight to see what was new when i ran across this and then found anouther bight about it in a blogg and what was going to happen to the old customers.So i am not the only one out there .There is also a post in this thread from someone else about it .i have considered upgrading from anouther country to avoid you guys.This is not out of the blue you guys did it knowing full well your customers were going to get mad but thought you could weather the storm.Well i hope i am the first of many that gets behind this and is willing to something about it .This kind of dirty tricks goes on to often in the soft ware ind .And we the customer are tired of getting the short end of the stick the prices you are charging for support are all most as much as the software .

[Dolphin USA]

Just to clearify.... Dolphin in the UK charges $1500.00 for Level 3 and about double what we charge for support. They DO NOT negotiate pricing either. UK prices are UK prices. US prices are US prices. They won't cut slack like we do. We have been cutting slack more than what we really should. It's the customer service side of us that we like to provide. Customers come first to us. And in regards to getting the short end of the stick... I think our pricing for software and support are extremely competitive to most others in the industry. And for the record... this thread was started about 2 months ago if I am not mistaken. Not one person came directly to us and had problems. One other post on here but I have helped him.

Again, I think we are being very fair!!

[woffler]

who said i was talking about the uk there are outher deals besides you and the uk there are outher dealers around the world with some great prices and offers of support.and free updates

[Dolphin USA]

Ok, I thought you were talking about Dolphin. I didn't know you were talking about a different software vendor.

The way Dolphin CAD/CAM around the world works...

You must buy from your dealer within your country.

For example, we are not allowed to sell to anyone outside of the US or Canada.

I.E
If someone contacts Dolphin Australia, they automatically get directed to us.
If someone contacts us from the UK, they automatically get directed to the UK office.

Not sure on other software vendors. Sorry!

[woffler]

The problem is not the software it is you specifically DO YOU UNDERSTAND it is your company.I think dolphin makes a fine product as to who they chose to licencse it to .that is the problem ie we should never have had to do this and yet it continues .