Kudos and Razzberries

Last Wednesday, I posted that my older HP desktop was being very uncooperative and the infamous BSoD or, worse yet, clicking off without advance notice (how inconsiderate). The post also included photos of the new HP desktop and printer ordered via quick ship  which is an HP term for “no customizations” such as more RAM, a larger HD, etc. Many quick ship choices cost $ less than those under Outlet.

The 2 “biggies” I crave are loads of memory so I will NOT add more and a large enough HD to keep me going for years. My old HP desktop had 2GB RAM and a 320 HD both of which worked well for the past many years. Anything above that would be heaven – the new PC has 6GB RAM and a 720GB hard drive – EUREKA !

HP offered free shipping (5-7 business day delivery) from TN. The F&P is is in VA and it came via Fed-EX in 3 days – ordered Tues; up and running by Sat. No problems clearing off unneeded programs – thankfully only a couple – and installing my own.
 

KUDOS to HP FOR fast service

Here’s a side-by-side of old and new PCs. The bamboo motif is really sharp (makes me want to redo the rest of the room…NOT).
Parts of the old PC will “live on” in the new one. We’re cannibalizing the DVD writer since the new PC has only get a single DVD unit. Remember when you used to get multiple drives?
Overdue Kudos also go to Canon – maker of cameras, printers and more. Several months ago, the display screen on Grenville’s Canon PowerShot A75showed electronic streak in playback mode. Since this is only a 4-megapixel (as in much older) digital camera, we considered listing  “as is” on ebay and then buy a new low-end model.  While web-surfing, I found a link stating that Canon had a recall on PowerShot units for a defective CCD sensor with a link to Canon USA support. The support site gave an 800 number, which I called to explain the problem. A support rep told me that Canon would email a prepaid UPS mailing label and on receipt just remove the memory card, batteries, camera strap, package securely and return to Canon. Within 2 weeks, the now-repaired camera was sent back – NO CHARGE.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when MY Canon PowerShot A85 developed a similar problem. This time, I knew what to do and again called Canon support. Same procedure ensued and camera was returned -- FIXED. No fuss and now we had two digital cameras fixed and working again.

KUDOS to CANON FOR GREAT service

Finally, TRUCKLOADS of RAZZBERRIES go to Adobe Systems for not being gracious enough to offer existing customers a substantially lower cost solution when older versions of their top software –  Photoshop CS (Creative Suite) won’t work with current systems.
The CS version I own worked on the old PC with its 32-bit OS (operating system) but the new PC is a 64-bit OS. And, Adobe’s solution when I called support?  A 25% discount on software costing a couple hundred dollars. It’s just not good enough.
IF Microsoft can make some of their products downward compatible WHY couldn’t Adobe follow suit or at  least offer a compromise that (1) doesn’t cost several hundreds of $$ even with a discount, and (2) recognize that a satisfied customer IS a happy customer who WILL talk about the company’s response.  This is how brand loyalty starts and is maintained – HELLO, anyone home at Adobe?
Clearly, HP and Canon know about customer loyalty and do their best to foster it; sadly Adobe is (in my opinion) clueless and most likely doesn’t even care. And neither do I care about Adobe. Today I ordered photo editing software – PaintShop Photo™ ProX3 – that not only is much less costly than Adobe, but works on 32 and 64-bit OS.

 

MANY RAZZBERIES to ADOBE FOR NOTHING