Why Do We Pay Higher Prices Higher for the Same Downloaded Software?

I have for some time been considering buying ACDSee, photo management software recommended to me by Tony Boccaccio, whose opinion I trust in the matter (he’s a professional photographer). I tried it last year and liked it, but at the time $99 was more than I was willing to spend on that particular set of functions. Most of what I need I can accomplish with other software I already own, though admittedly not as gracefully.

ACDSee now has a new version out, and, since I’m on their mailing list (they put out a nice newsletter with photo tips etc.), I received an email asking me to try it. Previous experience shows that they would keep sending special offers during the trial period, and today I was almost moved to take advantage of one of these, until I noticed:

Buy Now
North America & Other Areas
39.99 usd

Buy Now
Europe
39,99 euro

Given that the current exchange rate is 1.34 dollars to the euro, as a resident of Europe I’d be paying 34% more for this software. Why should that be? Shipping costs are not a factor – this is a download-only purchase. Localization (translating the interface and instructions) also not a factor – I speak English.

ACD Systems is not the only culprit; it’s standard practice for software companies to charge more for their products in Europe than in North America, sometimes hundreds of dollars/euros more. I’ve tried several times to get companies to tell me why, but have never had any answer at all.

By the tone of its newsletters, ACD Systems is a friendly company, so I went to their website to look for someone of whom I could ask this question. Finally tracked down an email address for Larry Langs, Executive Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Business Development.

I wrote Mr. Langs a polite email with my query, and got the following reply from his mail system:

“(llangs@acdsystems.com) 64.114.67.86 failed after I sent the message.
Remote host said: 500 Resend your message with the word notacdspam in the subject line or contact the recipient through alternate means. Your message appears to be unsolicited spam or your domain is blacklisted.”

So I tried again, this time putting “notacdspam” in the subject line as requested, and got exactly the same error message in reply.

So much for “contact us.” No hope of an answer to my question, and therefore no hope that I will purchase their software. As a last resort, I’ve tried replying to the latest newsletter they sent. If their newsletter team is on the ball, and their system works as it should, someone will actually read that reply and answer it, or at least forward it appropriately – as I used to do when I worked for Adaptec/Roxio.

However, I’m not holding my breath.

Dec 8, 2004

Wow, just shooting themselves in the feet all over. Having put up this page, I tried to inform them about it. Filled out a web-based form to send email to a Ms. Monisha Khanna, head of PR. Got the exact same error message as for Mr. Langs. Do they even know that their anti-spam system is turning away all email?

Happy Ending

Mar 15, 2005

Back in December, I wrote about my difficulties trying to get anyone at a software company to explain to me why their software should cost more in Europe than in the US. A few days after I published that article, because I am stubborn and irritable about such things, I wrote to ACD’s tech support about the saga. To my pleasant surprise, I got a reply within a few days, suggesting a workaround on their e-commerce site that might even have worked to get me the software at the US price. But I was busy, figured I had already spent enough time on this, and I wasn’t that desperate for the software at that moment.

The software in question was ACDSee, a digital photo management and editing tool. I tried several others, including the free Picasa software from Google. Abandoned that one in a hurry when I realized it offers no easy way to crop photos, which seems a very strange oversight – anyone but the most amateur photographer knows that you can often improve a picture by judicious cropping. ACDSee’s crop tool darkens the area outside the crop, so you can see better what you’re cropping to, and gives you an exact pixel measurement of the crop area as you adjust it: very useful when you’re cropping a picture to fit a particular spot on a web page.

Some six weeks after my original complaint, I had another pleasant surprise from ACD Systems: a nice email from the man in charge of their online store. He made the usual corporate noises about not being able to discuss the reasons for their pricing, but promised that my comments would be considered in future decisions. He was pleased that I had complimented ACDSee’s newsletter (to reiterate: probably the best company newsletters I’ve seen, including the ones I used to do myself), since he had originated that project. We had an email conversation about our respective experiences with newsletters and software pricing, which culminated in him giving me a copy of the software, free except that he wants my comments on it (I’m working on that).

So, a happy ending with ACDSystems, and I do strongly recommend ACDSee, the best tool I know of for digital photographers.

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Even marketers can get fooled by brand reputation. My daughter asked for an iPod for her birthday this summer. While normally somewhat cautious in buying electronics, I didn’t think twice about this – it’s Apple, right? They have a reputation for customer satisfaction and reliable hardware, right? Um, well… That reputation is no longer deserved, as far as I can tell.

I bought the iPod through Amazon (a good customer experience, but that’s another story) and had it sent to Ross at summer camp, knowing that it would be cheaper in the US, though she couldn’t use it til she got home. When she did, I installed the iTunes software on my Windows computer and connected the iPod. It worked well enough at first; we put over 800 songs on the 15 GB iPod – about 1/3 of its capacity. The connection to the computer was flaky from the start; I frequently had to reset the iPod before I could disconnect it. Then Windows just stopped seeing the iPod altogether. It still gets power through the FireWire cable and can be recharged, but the Windows operating system doesn’t find it.

That was when – too late – I did my homework. A browse through the Apple site revealed that:

• many, if not most, Windows iPod users have similar problems
• Apple support is unreachable online. There is no way to email them a query; all you can do online is send a request for a service number to send it back for warranty service.

After mentioning the iPod problems in an earlier newsletter, I heard from several people about similar problems, plus a problem I haven’t run up against yet: apparently the iPod’s rechargeable battery tends to go permanently flat just after the one-year warranty expires, and Apple will charge you $200 to replace it. See one customer’s response to this. However, on another site I learned that it’s not difficult to replace the battery yourself, for only about $40.

I borrowed a Mac, assuming that it would easily see the iPod and I could at least get it filled up with songs to keep Ross happy for a while. To my chagrin, the problem is exactly the same: the iPod can get power through its FireWire cord, but the Mac operating system can’t see it any more than Windows could. Also, to my surprise, it is easy to crash the iTunes software even on its native Mac platform. At least, it’s easy for me. I always manage to use software in ways that no one else does, so I’m very good at discovering bugs (programmers both love and hate me for this). But I really expected better from Apple, at least on their home turf.

Before I go to the hassle and expense of sending the iPod back to Apple (which I may have to do in the US, since I bought it in the US), I want to try a different cord and see if maybe the problem is there. Turns out that a friend of Ross’ also has an iPod, so we’ll try to borrow his cord. Interestingly, he also has a problem with his iPod: if he takes it jogging, it sometimes shuts off and can’t be turned on again until its battery has completely run down and then recharged.

Ross’, in the meantime, seems to have developed a mind of its own, turning itself on in the middle of the night with a series of loud beeps, and then starting to play.

So much for placing one’s faith in a brand. The Apple iPod: it’s cool, it’s trendy, it’s from Apple – buy it at your own risk.

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High tech companies have often used rock ‘n’ roll to show how cool their products are. When Windows 98 was launched, with great fanfare, Bill Gates personally chose the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up” as its advertising song, to emphasize Windows’ cool new Start button. He apparently forgot the rest of the lyrics, which include: “You make a grown man cry.”

At a computer show one year I heard Philips’ new jingle, the Beatles’ “Getting Better All the Time.” They were using a version re-recorded by other singers, but in so similar a style that I wondered why they didn’t just use the original. Then, as I listened, I realized why. After “I’ve got to admit it’s getting better, a little better all the time,” the new version elided the line: “it can’t get no worse” !

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I’m getting up to 100 emails a day. Most of these are viruses and spam, and are filtered straight into the trash because they are sent to an email address which the spammers have invented or a virus has randomly generated (all mail sent to straughan.com comes to me). Others I see, but they have become obvious and predictable and I delete them with hardly a glance at their contents.

One had a dangerous twist though. At the bottom of the (brief) email it included these lines:

++++ Attachment: No Virus found

++++ Norman AntiVirus – www.norman.com

This is very similar to the standard lines that many anti-virus programs automatically put into incoming email to let you know whether it’s clean or not. I had never heard of Norman anti-virus, and even thought it was a joke, since one of the popular anti-virus packages is from Norton. In any case, my anti-virus is AVG, so I knew this message was spurious. In fact, AVG had added these lines at the true end of the message:

Viruses found in the attached files.

The attached file ou.doc .exe is infected by I-Worm/Netsky.Q. The attachment was moved to the virus vault.”

So… even if a mysterious email with an attachment claims to be clean, don’t trust it. Make sure that it has truly been inspected and passed by your own anti-virus software. And again: NEVER OPEN AN ATTACHMENT THAT YOU’RE NOT EXPECTING TO RECEIVE, NO MATTER WHO IT COMES FROM OR WHAT IT CLAIMS TO BE.

I visited the Norman site, and find that they do indeed make anti-virus software. Since I had never heard of them before, I am tempted to wonder if they are spreading this virus themselves as a publicity stunt. Especially since I’ve just received a very similar email, but with the name of a different virus protection software company, again one I’d never heard of. Hmm.

Another thing to watch out for: spyware.

Then there are viruses whose random text hits below the belt:
“you are a bad writer”
“Let’us be short: you have no experience in writing letters!!!”

July 5, 2004

In light of Microsoft’s ongoing problems with hackers targeting its products, it seems wise to get as far away from Microsoft as possible, within the limits of the fact that many of us need to use Windows for our daily work. Last week’s reports of of a new hack which allows attackers to take control of your computer via Microsoft Internet Explorer finally jolted me into something I’ve been meaning to do for a while: change browsers. I took the advice of the Washington Posts’s tech columnist, and have switched to Mozilla Firefox. So far I find it very similar to IE in look, feel, and behavior, minus the dangers of hackers (for now).

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