Flogging a bad vendor and request for help

I’m putting Sage in the corner for a timeout to think about their lousy customer service.

A client of mine managed to loose the installation media for their contact management software, Act! by Sage, version 6. We’re getting them set up with new computers and of course we’ll need to reinstall Act! on the new system.

Thankfully, the software stores the serial number in a readable fashion, so all we need is the install media. This should be easy, right?

After waiting on hold to speak with someone in customer service, I find out the bad news. They won’t provide replacement media for software they no longer support. And apparently, despite being the 2004 version of the software, they’ve already sunsetted support on it.

Now look, software manufacturers, I understand that you can’t help Joe Customer troubleshoot your 8 year old software on his new Vista machine. There comes a point where old software doesn’t get TECHNICAL support.

But to not offer replacement media for customers with lost, damaged, or missing media, even when they’ve got their working copy and serial number?

That’s unacceptable. So Sage goes on notice.

I’ll be looking for recommendations on better contact management options. In the meantime though, my client is still up a creek.

Anybody here have a installation disc of Act 2004 6.0 they can create a disc-image or CD copy of?

Check your PM’s.

Are there many software companies that are known for being able to provide replacement media for 4 year old software? Seems to be the norm, rather than the exception.

Knowing businesses and their tendency to never buy upgrades whenever possible, I wonder how much the average software company would have to raise their initial price to make the business case for providing replacement media at anything less than an nearly unacceptable price.