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an example of great customer service

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2010.10.16

I have had a really pleasant example of customer service from a software firm.

Four years back, I bought the then-current version of their excellent "Photomatix" software for making high-dynamic-range images from ordinary photos. It's interesting software, I'm sure I'll be posting some sample images soon.

But since then I've moved from a Wintel PC to a Mac PC and can no longer run the old software I licensed. Also, a download of their current version for the Mac didn't accept my license key.

It's not every day that I use the software, but when I want to do that type of work there simply isn't any alternative. So I wrote to them and ask what I should do.

With an hour, they solved the problem for me. Here's what they said.

Hello Michael,

Many thanks for your purchase of a Photomatix Pro License.

At the time that you purchased, the license keys were not cross-platform so you will need a new license key. You are entitled to free upgrades up through version 3 (the last version of version 3 was 3.2.9).

However, we have just released version 4.0 which would be a US$29 upgrade for you. Version 4 is probably the version you have downloaded to your Mac, but if not, please do so from here:

If you would like to purchase the upgrade, please use the form here:

If you prefer to stay with version 3.2.9, you can download from:

http://www.hdrsoft.com/download/mac.html#old

Your license information for the older version is: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

What a response! They gave me a no-cost option that solves my problem, and offered me an affordable upgrade. And the response came in about two hours.

In an age of constant hassles, that's just good customer service. I thank and commend HDR Soft.

rand()m quote

The race is not always to the swift, nor the fight to the strong, but that's the way to bet.

—Damon Runyon