On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 5:32 PM, cdb <colin@btech-online.co.uk> wrote:
> =A0I need to be reassured or not that my grey cells are not operating in
> a non standard loop! At the moment my keyboard is in danger of needing
> replacement due to my head banging against it.

You are operating according to spec. ;-D

> Am I being unreasonable to think along the lines - if you've purchased
> a package that behaves as one then it would be reasonable to expect
> difficulties if I didn't want to use it in the manner that it has been
> designed for?

Without reviewing the marketing materials sent to them to notify them
of their options, I can't say that they should have been able to tell
the difference.  Even if your marketing is perfect, sometimes people
will buy one thing, thinking it is 'better', then find it's not quite
what they want.  If they are unscrupulous, they may attempt to place
the blame for their choice on someone else.

Regardless of the past, you now get to make a decision:

Are they worth keeping as a customer or not?

If your brand depends on word of mouth, industry conferences, etc,
then even if they are bad customers it may benefit you in the long run
to hold their hand.  If not, then now may be a good time to stonewall
them, show their invoice, and reference the manual on how to use the
new integrated software.  Indicate your refund and/or guarantee and
ask them if they'd like to employ it.

For many cases, though, the best choice is simply to perform the best
customer service you can.  I might try a variation on the following:

"I'm sorry the new software isn't meeting your needs.  It appears that
you would be better served by our other non-integrated product,
DoSomethingCool 3.2.  We are refunding you the difference and sending
you the correct product with return shipping so you can return
DoSomethingTwiceAsCool 1.4.

Please call us if you have further questions, and thank you for
choosing SomethingCoolStudios!"

Alternately, make your life simpler - a license for the integrated
product allows them to use either of the standalone products, or the
integrated product - their choice upon installation (and, of course,
only one could be used/installed).  This way they can choose what to
install, and you may make more profit because a lot of companies will
choose the integreated package but only ever want or use the single
package.  Not unlike those people that buy hummers to drive to work
daily, and never take them off road.  They want the security of
knowing that if they wanted or needed to, they could.

-- =

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