Explosive rant

[Possumgal]

Why bother with actually developing and supporting a product when you can just buy all your decent sized competitors? After you're done with that, integrate vertically so the externalities imprison your customer just as much as your monopoly position. Imagine what companies like EFI and Abode could create if they put as much effort into product development as they do for business strategy . . .

Of course, why bother? Buy the competition, put your products on a subscription model, watch the money roll in, sit back and smoke a cigar.

 

[maas]

Not sure i agree with venting on social media where the subject of the complaint is not present to defend themselves, we all suffer from frustration but jeez i feel for those providing service (or in this case not by the sounds of things) or supplies to the print industry trying to eek out a margin, just my 2 cents

 

[Guest]

Not sure i agree with venting on social media where the subject of the complaint is not present to defend themselves, we all suffer from frustration but jeez i feel for those providing service (or in this case not by the sounds of things) or supplies to the print industry trying to eek out a margin, just my 2 cents

I understand your position on this, but I actually think SLAMMER'S rant is PERFECTLY justified on this forum. I'm honestly surprised EFI doesn't participate in these forums. He is complaining about not being answered for technical support, do you think he'll be answered for complaining about how poor his technical support experience is? It is frustrating, when you pay big money for support, you do so in the anticipation that support will keep you up and running. But when they place you on permahold because they choose to understaff their support lines, they are costing you in down-time. After all, printers are just trying to eek out a margin too, and I'm betting printers have even smaller margins than EFI.

 

[Slammer]

Not sure i agree with venting on social media where the subject of the complaint is not present to defend themselves, we all suffer from frustration but jeez i feel for those providing service (or in this case not by the sounds of things) or supplies to the print industry trying to eek out a margin, just my 2 cents

I agree with you in point, I just wish that as Kringle says they and others would participate in discussions on social media.

 

[dabob]

Not sure i agree with venting on social media where the subject of the complaint is not present to defend themselves, we all suffer from frustration but jeez i feel for those providing service (or in this case not by the sounds of things) or supplies to the print industry trying to eek out a margin, just my 2 cents

I am aware of representatives from Adobe, Pit Stop, and Fusion (I might be mistaken . . .) but from my point of view vendors are welcome here if they choose to participate . . . and I think that it speaks loudly that EFI is not represented here . . . haven't see Quark around here either . . .

 

[Correct Color]

Every dealing I've ever had with EFI, I've always gotten a vibe from them something like "Hey, we're EFI, we invented digital imaging. Who the hell are you?"

And one time, their tech support gave me wrong answers, made me look like a fool to my client, and then flat out lied to the client about it.

So I'll just add that no, they've never been entirely my favorite folks to do business with either.



Mike Adams
Correct Color

 

[Gary_S]

Sorry to be reading you are having negative experience with EFI and EFI support. My name is Gary Smith, and I'm responsible for EFI Technical Support globally.

EFI invests quite a bit in our support teams, as well as our tools and processes. 100% of my focus and many others at EFI is dedicated to the support of our customers.

I know this thread is a self-described "rant". But if you are up for a discussion, I'd love to exchange ideas on areas you feel we can improve. I've provided my contact information to several of you directly, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Gary Smith
Sr. Director, Technical Support
EFI

 

[Guest]

Well I found the information I needed in the end, no thanks to EFI though.....: DO YOU HEAR ME EFI??

SLAMMER.... They heard you! AWESOME! Welcome the forum Gary from EFI.

 

[Gary_S]

Thanks Kringle, happy to be here.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

Thanks for coming to the forum, Gary. I think it may be a wise move for someone in your position to be on this forum in the same frequency as someone like Dov Isaacs (Adobe) is. Each time there is an Adobe-related thread, Dov is usually there with an insightful post. Here's to better communication with EFI!

 

[maas]

Vendors, printers, designers etc we are all on the same bus, our seating arrangement may be slightly different but we all are here to champion print, with large companies a manager cannot be omnipresent to react to every instance expectation is not met, so Garry i welcome your participation in the forum and leave you to address issues raised

 

[mguenther]

. . . haven't see Quark around here either . . .

Quark is definitely around…

Thanks
Matthias
(Quark)

 

[Slammer]

Wow! I am very pleasantly surprised, thanks for joining the fun Garry, my main beef is that although we do not need a lot of help from EFI when we do it is for most part on a knife edge time wise, there is simply not a lot of wiggle room to be on the phone for hours and hours, worst case is that there are two techs standing around in front of a smoking machine looking like dumbo under the withering glare of an irate customer. A few have mentioned Quark, they have a forum on facebook that is very active with a lot of members taking part in discussions and which is monitored by the guys from Quark, it´s not like they are giving away free support thus taking revenue away from sellable service contracts, sometimes a nudge in the right direction is all what is needed, apart from that I find the sense of community is very strong. Perhaps, just in my humble opinion, it would be to everybody´s advantage to take a look at possibilities like this.

 

[Gary_S]

Hey Slammer - Again, sorry for the problems. What EFI products are you using, and how may I help?

I joined this forum ages ago, and while I rarely posted anything, I did subscribe to the summary emails and would review them from time to time. (That's how I received your feedback.) It must have been too long, as I had to register again, in order to respond to your post. Agree with points others made, it's a good communication tool.

DeckM00 mentioned earlier in the thread we have Fiery Forums, which is a community focused on Fiery. We have 13k users and the feedback on the community is very positive. I'm starting a project to migrate Fiery Forums to a new platform, which will allow us to offer this community better communication tools. (More to come here)

Thinking about what you said earlier... "I seriously think the bean counters in charge fully expect that exasperated customers will get assistance from Youtube or forums that double as helpdesks".

I don't see tools like these as doubling or as a replacement to help desks. But I feel very strongly that offering customers different channels to engage support and receive the information, can lead to a far better support experience than limiting your communication to phone. The tools you mentioned above (and others you didn't) are really great tools for sharing information. EFI is investing here to better engage with our customers, not as a cost savings. There is always more we can do, but we are committed to continuous improvement.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

Looks like EFI finally pushed a graphical update to CWS in the last day or two. Upgraded today to CWS 6.0.x and was pleasantly surprised. It mostly looks like a reskin of what we used to have, but in my opinion is a step in the right direction.

 

[minch]

Clearly companies do see user forums as cheap technical support as they themselves set up these user forums and pay for them; consequently one is liable to receive amateur technical support for which the company bears no liability. This is cheaper than paying for professional support. If in doubt ask an accountant (bean counter).

 

[Slammer]

Although Gary joined the discussion just dropping in and saying "hi!" is not going to solve the basic problem the industry has with support. Now I am not daft and I have been around the block a few times and know that the buck stops somewhere. But is a good support in the long run so cost ineffective that the beancounter "enforcers" kill it where ever it happens?