Autodesk users take notice of Solidworks bad customer relations

Disallowing bug fixes for non-subscription customers is reprehensible, no matter what kind of spin is put on it.

In a post entitled “Autodesk Subscription – it could be worse“, Steve Johnson of the AutoCAD blog Blog Nauseum recently took note of the flap of disgruntled SolidWorks users. By any account, SolidWorks is making a graceless transition to integration with the corporate juggernaut Dassault.

Between the stink over the cloud survey and actively denying bug fixes to (non-subscription) CUSTOMERS, SW is working on a customer relations disaster.

Just because I haven”t done it yet, I want to go through Mr. Welch”s response on Devon”s blog and point out a few things.

SolidWorks has looked at this issue several times and determined that based upon the amount of effort, Quality Assurance infrastructure, and the extreme high cost of implementation, it would ultimately result in higher fees to customers with the potential to introduce instability in the software and require more service pack releases. This is the opposite of what we are trying to accomplish.

Even though this answer sounds evasive, I actually agree. Don”t separate what is delivered in service packs. Buying a version of the software should entitle you to all of the service packs for that version. Charging for bug fixes is going to land SW in trouble.

Based on that, there will be no significant change to the existing SolidWorks Subscription Maintenance policy except to continue to focus on higher quality services and software at the same low price point. He went on to say that this is not the decision of one person, but is discussed among many at SolidWorks.

Ok, so the blame is spread out. No one person to hang. But the real message here is that he has forgotten about what users took him to task for a couple of years ago. Users wanted to separate tech support from bug fixes. Users don”t think either of these is worth much, but SW is making you pay for both if you want anything at all. Users contend that bug fixes should be free and there should be some means of signing up for just tech support.

He stated that the letter posted on the SolidSmack blog was a first draft internal document that should not have been posted

Uh, huh? First draft? It was a letter that went out to all resellers!?!!? Isn”t that what they said last time? Do they always send out rough drafts to hundreds of resellers?

He went on to say that he personally and all SolidWorks pre and post sales personnel and executives speak with customers daily, and through those conversations, onsite meetings as well as numerous surveys…

Then they have very little reason for being so clueless and treating customers so badly.

Rich explained that SolidWorks Service Packs can be accessed and downloaded by customers on Subscription Maintenance and by customers whose SolidWorks software is still covered by the SolidWorks Warranty (90 days from the date of purchase)

Do the bugs expire after 90 days?