Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Troubling Trend For Open Source Company
An anonymous reader writes "I'm one of the original founders of an open source company which offers a popular open source product (millions of downloads) targeted primarily to small businesses. We have been doing this for 10 years now and we fund the development of the open source product with the usual paid support services, custom development and addons, but over the last few years, we've noticed a troubling trend. Companies that have downloaded our product from one of the many free download sites have a question they want answered, so they call our support line. Once we politely explain the situation and that telephone support has a reasonable fee associated with it, more and more of them are becoming seriously irate, to the point of yelling, accusing us of fraud and/or scamming them. For some reason, they think a free product should have free telephone support as well, and if we don't offer free telephone support then it's not really a free product. These same people are then resorting to social media in an attempt to 'spread the word' with the same false accusations, which is starting to take its toll on our reviews, ratings, and in turn our bottom line. Does the Slashdot community have any suggestions on how we can reverse this trend? How do other open source companies handle similar situations?"
It might help if you told us who you were.
http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
If they don't like your product, offer them a full refund of the purchase price they paid to your company. Heck, offer them double their money back if they are not 100% satisfied.
Unless they paid some money to someone, it's not clear why they would think they are entitled to support. I've run lots of open source software that had paid support support, and have gladly paid for support when I needed it.
If they want free support and get irate when its explained to that that its how you may your money, they can take a flying leap.
No great loss if they go elsewhere for their handouts. I'm sure your paying customers will still be around.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Studies have been done; the people that pay the least always complain the most.
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
We are not an open source company, but we had a very similar problem. We ended up plain removing free/normal cost phone numbers, only the expensive support phone numbers remained. Problem solved itself.
Or you had a bad day at work...
Which open source company is this, and which product? It's pretty pointless speaking in hypotheticals, since you're presenting just one side of the story here. Reading the reviews would shed some more light on this story; and if your account is really all there is to it, there's no reason to conceal it, since observation would support your explanations.
Or email support, for that matter. A FAQ/WIki should be all they need.
If you think of the psychology of this, it looks like bait and switch.
To combat this, make it clear at the before the download how it all works.
Just split the company into two main parts.
Your flagship company only offers paid downloads, if you want the product, you've got to pay for support.
You then have another site/organization that offers everything for free and only has community support forums.
For example, if your product is called Corporate Wizard, you'd have your Corporate Wizard only host the Corporate Wizard software and you've got to pay money to download it (with source included of course).
However, you have a community maintained "fork" called, say, Company Mage. While the codebases are 100% identical, someone who downloaded Company Mage is downloading a community maintained product with only support forums. This way, it separates the free products/no support from the paid products with support.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
How obvious is it that support is not free? Maybe a few more notices would help. Perhaps some on the main site, by the download section, and by the support phone number.
This is a communication issue. You have limited resources, we know, but you need to target this issue exclusively for an extended period of time and communicate to the marketplace that the software is free to access but support is paid.
We use open source / free software almost exclusively and the one thing that we look for are paid for support contract options. We want to spend the money, but you would be surprised how many orgs simply don't want our money or communicate the support options clearly.
Get the advertising and messaging right and commit to it on a longer term basis. If you don't offer a properly framed counter, you allow the trolls to control the message.
And, in the end, all you can do is provide a clear message to the community. No matter how large the org, you cannot control the perception, you can however influence it. Get on the playing field and make the moves. Your real clients will appreciate it.
Setup a phone system where they have to key in their Support ID to be transferred to a support rep.
And full transcripts posted on a website somewhere .....
Maybe I'm misinterpreting your post, but if you won't give ANY information to people who call, that might be what's making them irate.
My suggestion would to be to have a pre-recorded voice which is played at the start of the call, informing the caller that this is a limited free service, and how to purchase a support subscription. The level of support given here should be roughly on par with what a capable googler could find. This would mean losing some time (= money) on freeloaders, but it might be beneficial if you can satisfy some people who might otherwise leave with a bad impression of the product and business. You might even rope a few into a subscription.
--
for a yearly subscription.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
OpenERP.
mov ah, 4ch
int 21h
Make the default download link to a 'paid' package and take them through a checkout process that allows them to remove the 'paid' element. That way, your 'customers' consciously have to opt-out of paid support in order to get their wares.
Works for budget airlines, hotels, some online electronic retailers, car hire companies and many others. To the genuine Open Source seekers it may be a minor pain but they'll forgive the extra step for free software more easily than customers who don't understand the concept of Open Source to begin with.
Yes! wWell, I do.
How about going negative on them as well? It's worked for decades in the USA, (think politics).
It has advantages with some notable examples.
Once those folks believe that you can "bite back", they will fall silent. After all, they know that what they are doing isn't good by any measure. Trust me.
I suspect it's a matter of expectation management and salesmanship.
I would suggest separating it out into two "products", a free OSS version and one that has support. Direct the free version to online forums but never accept telephone support calls for it.
Add a bit of different branding and packaging to clearly identify the supported version and provide them some kind of priority login.
In the free version provide a way to get professional support but give them many options to "solve the problem themselves if they don't have enough funds to pay for it."
Techno Mage.
That's asking for trouble.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
From where are they getting your phone number if they are downloading the software from a third-party website? If the phone number is in your product somewhere (maybe in an About page) then make sure you put some reference to your licensing info and free structure in the same place. Something like, "This product is free to download and try. We fund development of this software via paid support contracts. To contact our sales team, please reach us at _______. To contact our help desk, you can reach us at __________. Please be sure to have your customer ID number ready." When they contact the help desk, ask for their customer ID, if they don't have one, forward them to the sales team. If they get irate, refer them to your licensing notice included in the documentation.
Heck, offer them double their money back if they are not 100% satisfied.
what I had in mind was offering them an Extended Warranty since the current warranty is zero years, they could extend it for say 180 days with an option to extend it to a year.
It sounds like that would be the mentality of those folks.
...which plainly states that;
"This is a free product offered with no additional support other than the documentation contained within the files."
"Should you wish to procure additional support, options are available starting at" $X per hour or $Y per month/annum or however it is you charge.
[..] I understand and agree to these terms. (Ticking the box activates the download button)
Dan. -- So what if it's spelt wrong, nobody's perfect
One is "Product X"
The other is "Product X WITH SUPPORT" (Or full package, or whatever marketing term people would use in a similar situation)
In the download page, include them both options side by side, similar to how various software includes both the paid and unpaid versions side by side. Make it unmistakable that the free version does not include free support. Obviously, it's also a good business decision to have as many people buy the support beforehand, whether or not they ever use it.
If you want, you can force people to create an account before they can even access the free download. This is another opportunity to label the account type as "Unpaid, without support" (or the marketing term equivalent) versus "Paid, with support"
Than, when people call, the first thing you can ask them is their account #. Those that have an unpaid account can be immediately informed that their account is unpaid and that they will have to upgrade it to receive support.
If they download it from some random site, where do they get the idea that you offer support? Any other site that points to yours should probably say "paid support available from..." or "for those willing to pay for product support see...". I would hope anyone pointing to your company would be willing to change their wording in order to change peoples expectations prior to calling. The same should be true of your own web site or advertising. IMHO you need to change the expectations prior to them calling. Honest advertising in other words.
You find it a surprise that you build your profit model around users having problems and needing to contact you for the fix, and then being upset that you want to make a profit on giving out the fix? I don't. And I've seen too many companies who would gladly leave in some problems to help generate more "support revenue".
I'm not even convinced that you really want to take the high road here, but if you honestly do then I would suggest the following:
1) Make sure that your website has an extensive support section that lists all known problems and the resolution for all that are resolved.
2) Offer free support by email / web only on an as-available basis. And really do have staff spend some of their available free time responding to reported problems. Who knows, you might even learn some important things about problems in your products that you don't know and will not learn if you insist that customers pay you to tell you about your problems.
3) If you do 1 and 2 then go ahead and offer priority response phone support for a fee for those who feel the need for it.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
It might help if you told us who you were.
It would probably help more to know how they got hold of the support line. Everywhere the number is given there should be some clear text indicating that there is a support fee required to use it. If you just advertise the line as "call us for support" and then hit them for a fee when they call it might annoy some users who are unaware of the usual Open Source model and intellectually challenged enough to not see reason when you explain.
If you are making it clear in all the locations where the number is given then introduce a premium rate number and have that as the public one with a normal rate line whose number is private available to paying customers. If your users don't read the explanation around the support number then they won't see the explanation that they are calling a premium rate number either but at least this way the default is that they pay.
Let me get this straight...
Your usebase has expanded for years. Maybe decades. And you're now suprised that a good chunk of them are morons?
Did you really think you'd always have competent computer users calling you? Why would you think that... Have you LOOKED at the internet lately? Or the world?
It's only going to get worse too. Computing is no longer the realm of the intelligent and at least partially respectful. The masses are here.
If you want the money to keep rolling in you're going to have to put up with more and more of them.
(captcha:despair ooo thats spooky. and sad.)
...
You have branched out beyond specialists who understand what you do and reached the loserbase.
There are some open source products that imply some sort of free and open source enterprise version/support but only later you find out the enterprise options are closed source and not included and sometimes will even be dependent on those options.
Make it very clear on your site and download list what you offer and what support costs. Also, make the full version and all options open source, you'll get a lot better feedback from others in your community. I hate it especially as I help with development in my free time when there are enterprise hooks that I have to think off which do absolutely nothing for me, I only publish gpl code, not lgpl.
Also, make sure your documentation is clear and the product works out of the box so they don't have to call you for simple things.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
You should make sure they see at least once a week a message saying something like "upgrade to receive tech support & access to private forum/mailing list". Maybe even every time they open the program. Make them always know and realize (be conscious of it) that even though they have the "free" product, they could get support if they pay for it. If one does not know or realize about it until they have problems, it will be normal for them to become angry.
They are installing the software, and free or not, you have a EULA for it. Maybe make it a little more clear at the installation stage that you do not provide free phone support or technical assistance and give them a link to a web page that would have your fee schedule. This hardly seems like it should be a trend to worry about.
You should make it clear no support if offered unless paid before they are able to download your software. This can only help your business as well. While there still will be the occasional dumbass, these should be rare occurrences. If customers still complain, point them to the in your face notice about support. If an idiot does complain and try to spread this "news", threaten them with libel as it is false information which would shut up most dumbasses (but even then, there will be even the rarer complete dumbass). At that point, you can either live with it or follow suit with libel.
Very few software companies can give away their software with all the features without selling the product or having a subscription/advertising income. You're software may in fact be better than all the commercial alternatives, but I doubt it. So by attracting cheap-scape "customers", you're missing out on the most important part of developing a real client/customer relationship, namely, a customer who pays you money.
The best part about writing software is that you can SELL virtually unlimited copies for the price of developing it once. Support and add-ons is the exact opposite-- you can only do so much and everything you do requires expensive humans to do the work. So.. if you can't start charging for it, time to cut bait and change your model.
I've experienced this myself: I think those people are just assholes who think they can bully the poster's company into giving free support. They know exactly what they got and exactly what they're entitled to. They just think that if they're a big enough douche, the vendor will cave to "be nice and get a good rep". And these entitled assholes then go and give bad reviews.
You can explain to them that this is free software and support costs extra, blah, yadda, dee, da. They know it. You can put it big banners across the download link and they'll STILL insist that they're owed something.
The sad truth: How much people value something is proportional to what it costs them to get it. That principle applies in many areas of life. Geeks who give free computer support to friends and family know that. (My recommendation: Print a bill with a reasonable hourly rate, say £50 per hour, add a hundred percent rebate, and hand them the bill. Makes people a lot more polite if they realise that the next virus infection will cost them £100 if they don't behave well).
The same goes quite obvious for "Open Source" or more general, for "no payment" software. It costs nothing, so they have no respect for the developer.
I work for a company that mainly deals in purchase orders. I even have to go through purchasing to use the company credit card.
aybe these people are desperate for support but have no way to pay for it?
You've clearly got a pool of satisfied customers who formed your initial pool of ratings, that are now being drowned out by the uneducated customers you're now facing. I would look at a few approaches:
- Encourage your satisfied customers to leave a review. This works best with a sincere request, not a common email signature. Hinting that they indicate that your "paid support" is fantastic may help provide clarity to people reading reviews.
- Create a free support channel, something like a forum. When properly managed and seeded it's common to see power users answering the questions of others. The goal here isn't to cannibalize your paid support, but to (hopefully) capture some non-paying people and have them happily use your product.
- Support your support staff. If they're dealing with an increase in very negative calls, they're probably more stressed. It's imperative that your support quality not drop, help them.
- Make sure you're keeping track of their complaints. They may not understand your business model, but there still a percentage of the people needing your product. There may be ways to improve instal/configuration/whatever to solve their problems before they call.
good luck, keep up the good fight.
The people who want to use free software rather than pay money for business solutions are the bottom feeders. They will never be happy until they take you for everything you're worth. They do not value your time or effort at all which is why they are looking for a free lunch.
The solution is not to feed the bottom feeders. Ask a reasonable price for the software and you will remove the bottom feeders and be spared their grief.
As an online seller I can offer these suggestions:
Always bet on stupidity, people often come to you in a hurry.
But hedge on cleverness, because people aren't really stupid although they always act so sometimes but only the truly stupid perservere.
First up explain what you offer and what you don't - that's the easy part once you have words for what you don't.
Then set up layers of explanations for those who haven't understood. Start with intelligent explanations and every onion ring should get progressively stupider. Never ever make a joke outside the first and most intelligent level of explanation.
At any point you may make an apology, "I'm sorry we wasted your time with this product that was not ready yet." At this point the truth is no longer an issue because all you want is for the bloke to leave with his underpants on (by the way, Americans never apologise to anyone so if you're American then ignore this section).
If they don't accept the apology then, well it's up to you, personally I speak softly and then change their perception of the world. It sounds like a euphemism but it isn't. Make them think about something else. Two brain cells can't hold three thoughts.
I said - don't look Ethel!..., but it was too late..., she'd already looked.
On the one hand, offering a free product and charging for support/customizations is perfectly reasonable and legit.
On the other hand, offering an enticing product that seems great until you try to use it, at which point you discover that it is impossible to get it working without pay-for support, is a bait-and-switch. THAT makes people mad.
I don't know if your customers are reacting to a disgusting sense of entitlement, or if they are reacting to having just been promised the world for free only to discover that they can't claim it without paying up.
Aside: it might not hurt to attach the phrase "to purchase support services, call:" to every place that your number appears.
It's easy: Our website (sequelpro.com) does not have a "support" area and the "contact us" page directs you to the issue tracker or our email address (with a short list of reasons why you might email us) or the IRC channel.
None of them (including email) will get you any serious support, unless we can reply in one simple line.
We never promise to give support, and we never do give it. We are an open source project and our only income is donations (which are quite significant). If somebody else wants to make money selling support, well they are welcome to do so. Our license certainly permits that. But we aren't going to get into that business.
I think support and development should not both be run by the same company. Perhaps the company doing support could provide finantial aide to the one that develops the software, and no doubt they could work really close together on a daily basis —perhaps even owned by the same umbrella company. But they need to be clearly separated and with a different website and a different name.
If they're using idiotic twatter, re-twat their twats, followed by a quick explanation of why their twat is so wrong. If they're using other social media, do something similar. Those, along with making the fact that support is NOT free extremely evident. include language in the license agreement that outlines that support is not free, and make sure they have to agree to same before they use the free product. Alternately, take some features out of the free product, and require that they be licensed. (or don't add some new ones.) I don't personally like this option.. but "ya gotz ta get paid!" You could also charge a small fee for downloading, so that it's no longer called "free" product. Again, not particularly likeable, but it'll shut the people who think "It's a free product so support should be free" up. (although the "We paid for this so support should be free" camp would start whinging.) Someone suggestion of suing for libel above might work if you have deep enough pockets, and the twatter who's dis'ing you doesn't. Whatever your company decides on, good luck!
During the install,
A polite screen that explains that while the software is free to use, and the manuals are also free to read, support for the software provided by a 3rd party requires a fee should you choose to use it.
I develop for both iPhone and Android. Android users are by far cheaper and bitchier than iPhone users. Somehow, their problem is my problem and my time is free. OTOH, iPhone people pay and seem to enjoy what they get. I have no answer for you, but I certainly understand the problem.
I noticed this as well. Doesn't it also seem odd to you that it was submitted anonymously? . Who submitted it? Was it submitted by Microsoft to tarnish the reputation of the free software movement? The lack of details make this story so suspicious that it could very well have been Microsoft or a shill.
Everybody who's anybody knows by now that Android isn't really free, but that doesn't mean the anger is over.
have you considered separating your company brand from your product, in a similar way to canonical and ubuntu ?
People feel more and more entitled lately. Ive done phone support for two company's in the last five years and the trend is always give me more. People become irate if you don't support a product they think you should. People become irate if there is an interruption in service. People become irate if they did something stupid to fuck up their product/service and you have to tell them what they did wrong. Hell I've even had people get mad at me because they lost service due to a bill payment issue as if it is my fault they didn't pay their bill. The reality is that people are feeling the pinch and don't want to pay more than they have to. In the words of the best customer service trainer I've trained under "its about positioning. Don't tell them what you can't do. Give them options."
Disagreeing with you does not make me a troll.
Ask anyone who has worked in a public library: if you give something away for free people will demand the moon and bitch like mad when you don't give it to them.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
a support forum should be free. phone support should be charged at a reasonable yearly or monthly fee
I know exactly how to fix this, but you'll have to pay me for support.
"Welcome to the paid technical support line for the WizardWidget project. This services support fees will support the development of this project."
Then go on to point the caller to the free support options: the project's community forums, mailing lists or irc channels. Then try to sell your paid support.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
Like television - and yet we still watch it.
I said - don't look Ethel!..., but it was too late..., she'd already looked.
or press "1" to be transferred to Sales
This. You have failed to communicate: your fault.
If you don't effectively communicate that support costs prior to an issue arising, then they're going to call.
If you put in a pay wall for support, you are going to get calls which go on your WATS line costs, still piss people off, but at least not have to spend more than it takes for them to bitch out the sales person when they press "1".
The other poster who guessed OpenERP as the product is either right, or you've made the same bait-and-switch decision they did about the support, where you advertise the number in the accompanying documentation / site / help screen / splash screen, and then use that as your upsell technique.
If you've done what Cygnus used to do, or what Crossover Office currently does, and intentionally not fix bgs in the free version of the product, then I probably don't like you very much on general principles, but even a bait-and-switch is pretty slimy, even if unintentional.
I've never been in this situation before. However, here are a few easily implemented reasonable options.
1. When people call play an automated message, asking to enter their support contract ID. And offer an option (pound key)to connect to sales if thry do not have one. This makes the assumption you already have a customer portal/database with unique numeric ID's.
2. Take the number off the site, only have it available in Customer Portal.
3. Advertise your "free version" as the Community version, set up a Message Board and Wiki with free information. Message board maintained by the "Community". Sell the support package as a pay-to-download or aimilar (I don't know your software, so I'm not sure how applicable it is).
Really all 3 combined would be ideal.
Namely, is the documentation or state of your software unnecessarily deficient, making it require more support than technically necessary?
Reviews can be expected to deliver a fair evaluation of the software out of the box, regardless of the price of the box. "You want carrying handles on that box? That will be extra." is not going to impress people.
"It's free, asshole!" is not a convincing argument if what you get for free also is unexpectedly useless given the way it is marketed.
So be doubly sure not to work with misleading marketing and hidden fallacies. As others pointed out, the zero cost point attracts wagonloads of unreasonable assholes, and you want to make sure that nobody can mistake them for anything else given the facts.
Yes, not fair. Nobody said this kind of business model was easy.
This is simply the result of more users becoming familiar with social media. They are used to instant, free advice from yelp, their friends on facebook, and so forth.
In other words, the quality of the users is going down. You have younger people being the "social media experts," with no clue about how your business/FOSS works, even if it is given plainly written in front of them. Their expectations have been all fouled up.
All you can really do is hire some "social media experts" (aka sock puppets) to try to counter the irate loudmouths tit-for-tat. It's a losing proposition. But that's the new cost of free software. You can no longer adjust the expectations.
My suggestion would to be to have a pre-recorded voice which is played at the start of the call, informing the caller that this is a limited free service, and how to purchase a support subscription.
We tried it - for another reason. When people are on hold, they zone out or do something else. That's why when you finally connect, you have to say, "Hello" a couple of times before they realize that there is actually a human there.
You provide something to someone for nothing and they think they're entitled to even more for nothing. Welcome to monkeys... who grab everything that isn't nailed down and run off to the hills with it... you ever seen what happens to stores during a riot? You set the expectations at the beginning. So here's a bit of useful information. The nature of an upset is that there are several parts to it. Almost always there is the experience of a promise or expectation being broken (even when the promise is unspoken or even assumed on the part of the person who's is upset.) Next there is a goal, intent or desire which has been denied or caused to fail. Last there is a breakdown in communication, misunderstandings on both sides and a body of assumptions that are invalid almost certainly by both parties.
The solution is surprisingly simple. In plain no nonsense terms right on your webpage, explain your business model. Have it be fun, make a cartoon that walks people through the conversation.
A) We are awesome good guys who made this product for you to use for free so we can build a business around supporting it.
B) Though we're awesome guys, here to save you time and share a world class goodie with you, we're in the end business people, and we have to get paid some way. Imagine we're in the car business and we've given you a free car, we aren't going to charge you for the car, we will be charging you for servicing the car.
C) You might think that unfair, I mean we gave you the cool free car, why not service it for free too, well we could, and then we'd go out of business in a week and you'd be stuck with the car and nobody to service it. Bad for you, bad for us.
D) If you don't want our free car with paid for service, please feel free to go across the street to the guys who will only be too thrilled to sell you a car, sell you service, sell you options, sell you insurance, sell you undercoating and left winded bacon stretchers and gawd knows what else. I think you'll find we're an incredibly good deal, we just aren't 100% free for everything under the sun, and really if you think past the "I don't wanna pay nuthin!" mentality you need dedicated engineers who will be there to support you, which means you need us to get paid so we'll be here for you.
So here's our promise. Our product is free, our service is fair in price and excellent in quality, and our value is second to none. If that's not enough, please by all mean don't use us. We only want customers who are clear about the value we provide and willing to share our passion with our product and their success.
When your sales people (you have sales people?) talk with prospective clients, have them show the cartoon. Make it a point that your value proposition is spectacular, and that you are good businessmen too, you don't gouge your customers and they keep coming back for service. Explain to them. Nobody has a problem with razors. That brand new Trak 47 Shaving System you saw on the Superbowl halftime costs only $6 and then you have to come back at $15 a pop for the replacement blades. Or that printer from Lexmark that only cost $45, but the complete set of factory standard ink cartridges cost $65, and man when you use the factory ink the prints are freaking gorgeous. Its all about value and fair trade. We give you the free part so you'll come back for the pay part. That's not only fair, it's a great deal and you'd be a fool to pass it up./p>
For Customers who are currently upset. Have an honest no nonsense conversation. Do you like the product? Do you think it should be supported? How do you think we should pay for that support? Do the math. You can pay for the product, or pay for the support, or wait a hundred years and hope somebody will make a program and record a thousand hours of free support for downloading. Of course during that 100 years you'll miss out on a trillion dollars of business. That ain't us. With us you pay for support. Or you can just stop using the product and we'll be happy to suggest an alternative. Thank you for doing business with -Fill in the Blank-.
The more you offer for free, the more people expect for free. Something to do with perceived value and all that. It's a documented psycho-social phenomenon. People are stupid.
Clearly, they are calling with the expectation of free support -- you need to change this expectation. What I would suggest is to do everything you can to ensure that customers are aware of the support fees and rates *before* they call.
Where are they getting your phone number? Your website? The software "about" screen? Documentation? Put the pricing info in all of those places.
cigarettes: give out free samples, charge after they get addicted
drug dealers: give out free samples, charge after they get addicted
jenny craig: give meal (not nutrition) advice, charge for food
musicians: give aways songs for "free" on the radio, charge for recordings
So how do these businesses deal with people that complain loudly about being charged in a way that might damage future business? Usually give out a few discounts or freebies to grease the squeeky wheel. Yes that's just like hush-money, or payola, or protection money or whatever you want to call it, but that's what you gotta do sometimes (if you are in business for real).
I've found that many of the people that need to ask this type of question are often intransigent hardasses (a common personality trait, esp on my wife's side of the family) instead of customer oriented business people. When they find they have a "customer" that is a hardass, they respond by being a hardass and they wonder why they start to get a bad rep. Sure it may seem like you are giving something away for free, but sometimes that's the cost of doing business...
What would I do? Get their email addresses, contact name, telephone, type of business and as much identification information as you think they can stomach for future reference, then offer them a one-time discount (or a bundle for future support, or training), or maybe even a freebie (if you think they'll be back for more), maybe shoot them some swag (coupons, promo material, whatever), but make sure they know that next time it will cost them full price. If I had a trainee, maybe I'd send the call over to them. Call it a marketing expense, or an investment in your future profitability, if it will help you sleep at night, but there's very little way around these type of "customers" in the internet/social media age.
If you haven't factored any sales/marketing into the cost structure of your business model that you could bill this type of customer expense to and/or you don't have tiered support model, (e.g., blogs/email, live/phone, training classes, personal hand-holding), you probably aren't doing it right. Usually businesses tier customers for a reason: some customers are cheapskates, but you make it up from the ones that don't care as much about the cost.
Long time ago my software house offered free software with paid support for small companies, or paid software and yearly license fees with free support for large companies.
And we'd get told that we deliberately put in bugs and there was no incentive to fix them because the support calls were how we made our money.
In reality we lost money on the free edition due to the calls, but thought it worth doing because we supported the idea of small businesses.
Make sure that the number states and shows how much it'll cost them to use. And simultaneously offer an online alternative with common and not so common questions and answers. Make it part of the error tracking systems if you have any. As long as people see that they can get it for free, but paying cash gets a real person, with intimate experience with the programs, it seems to be worth more in their eyes. Especially if those answering the phone are/ or sound like/ native speakers of their respective countries.
Word such as "free" and "public" often come with certain connotations of entitlement. Those words may exist in your marketing material (website?). You have probably seen other companies with open source products change their terms like "community edition" and use other language to avoid stating that there is no upfront cost to acquire the software providing it is only supported by only the user.
Good luck.
No, there is no communicating with whining ingraits with no money. driving them away is the goal; automated voip solutions to do that are cheap, plop them into trash voicemail to wither and die.
not free software. As you clearly point out, it isn't really free, is it? Software always has a cost, either in terms of dollars up front or on the backend. You do it yourself or pay someone to do it.
Well, here we have yet another case of insular thinking from a capitalist who can only see her own side of the situation. It's like this, 1%-er: people download some free software that promises to solve their problems. The software is confusing and poorly laid out. They do what comes naturally: ask the company to stand behind their product. The company replies with a crafty, "pay us, we will only help you for $$$, this is the only language we understand, otherwise get lost and back to your hovel, peasant." The customer is then rightfully angry that such a bait-and-switch has been pulled. Do you get it now, Corporate Master?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
This.
Have a paid for version and a "community" version that only has public forums associated with it. Make it blatantly clear that paid for includes support (for X time period), but a community supported free version is available. If they want phone support they have to upgrade to the paid version. "Sorry, our community edition doesn't include phone support."
This can be done with the exact same codebase for both, but it also gives you the opportunity to fork (in marketing speak: differentiate the product). E.g. New features go to the paid version first and get released in to the community later. Or, do it the other way and make your free users beta test. I recommend having at least a different splash screen and the registration info available from within the program on the paid version.
Bottom line is you can't allow your free customers to have any expectation of live support. When they go to download your product they are explicitly deciding between paid and free and know what they are losing by going free.
"If you are going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill
If you have a third party selling your free software for a price, it might explain a great many of those phone calls ...
I noticed this as well. Doesn't it also seem odd to you that it was submitted anonymously? Who submitted it? Was it submitted by the FSF to tarnish the reputation of proprietary software? The lack of details make this comment so suspicious that it could very well have been RMS or a shill!
Perhaps part of the problem is that you're looking at it as support and not sales. You're trying to sell a service to every person that calls. Do not have your support staff answering phone calls that should be going to sales staff.
Additionally, I feel a well trained staff and clear talking points can really help in customer support/sales. The key is to have a small speech quickly and clearly outlining who you are, why you're asking for money, and how much value they get from that subscription. Take a look at how your employees are approaching these calls and start to outline specific phrases and ways of dealing with these potential customers that right now are becoming a burden instead of a source of additional income.
It seems like there are multiple questions asked:
How do I make my customers understand the support model? or
How do I deal with non-customers who are slandering me?
The answer to each is simple. Add an EULA that forces binding arbitration, and sue them if they slander you. They'll read the EULA, right? And that'll explain the support model. And if they slander you, it's much easier to prove a contract violation than slander.
Though I did like the idea of a 900 number for support, with paid users getting a toll-free number.
Learn to love Alaska
We're only getting one side of the story here. We have no idea what this product is, or how they are advertising their product. If customers are so upset that they're turning to social media to warn people away, maybe they are justified in doing so. I've seen many "Free" and "Open source" products that would not fall into what those of us here on slashdot would consider free or open source.
Is your software easy to use, easy to install, works great all year and then when it comes to the end of the year and it's time to do the books or do taxes does it become nearly impossible to use forcing most users to seek your support only to find out now that their entire financial history for the year is basically locked behind a wall of bugs, obfuscated config files and other nonsense? Now they have to pay for support they've never needed before and your fees could be in the tens of thousands of dollars? Perhaps the users we're talking about are the businesses comptroller that figured your software was free, it was no big deal and now he needs to go to management and tell them he needs $10k to do the taxes for the year? I could see how he could be rather upset by your services.
I'm just taking a wild guess but you're leaving us without any real details. I'm going to side with the customer on this one. If they are THAT pissed off, then you didn't make things clear to them from the beginning. The may be naive suckers, but if they are suckers... what's that make your company in the business of doing? Every company has to deal with idiots... but if there are enough idiots using your products, and you're making them mad enough that they are joining together against you and affecting your bottom line, you may very well deserve the fate you've been dealt.
You're not a software company. Stop saying you are. You're a support company for open source software that your people happen to write. FYI, I tend to stay away from projects like that because they have a perverse incentive to make the product harder to use to increase support calls (RH with the kernel patch sources, Ubuntu with unity, etc.).
I worked for a battery backup supply company and heard the owner responding on the phone to a customer after a 12 hour blackout hit. "You paid for 6 hours of backup and it lasted 10, and you want a f%$king refund?!! Are you crazy?!!!" Moral: You get what you pay for.
As it's just the bad economy. You've got a lot of desperate people with nothing better to do and nothing to lose. So they yell. A lot. When the economy was better they'd just pay for the support and move on. They had better things to do (running their business).
Now, if you're wondering how to calm them down and get them to pay, you can't. They don't have the money. Their barely on the edge. If they're thinking of it they're weighting if they'll have enough sales between now and next week to make payroll....
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
This is a classic issue of where your customer base has broadened to the point where your users are not coming from a point of high education/information about your product and free software models of business.
As difficult as it seems, you need to be patient and spend some time educating this new segment of your customer base. If people are downloading the software from a website or source you control, make sure to have a big, bright, and happy notification that explains how your product is supported. I'm suspecting that your software is available from many sites you CAN'T control, so it might behoove you to have a big, bright, happy notice as part of a splash screen during install or startup. In your case it would be completely inadequate to expect people to read any "click to agree" dialogs, and you might simply need to put what amounts to a banner ad for your phone support in any help menu or dialog.
As much as we hate the ubiquitous advertising in our products, you have not simply an interest, but practically a duty to inform your users the specific details of how you perform support. Make sure that anywhere your support number is mentioned, you also mention your fee-for-service or contract support model so you can weed out all but the most stubborn non-readers.
If you have a media person, or a team member who generally responds to postings on message boards, make sure that they are sending a consistent, measured response that avoids emotional flags and simply states your company's position and your business model.
I find this curious. Open source business models have been around for awhile. There will always be idiots out there (or people who demand everything for free, because, you know, everything should be free) but open source business models -- the bits are free but official support costs, or in some cases compiled binaries for a particular platform costs -- have been around for more than a decade. You'd think word had gotten around by now.
So my question would be, not that these people exist -- clearly they do -- or their numbers may be increasing -- I'll grant that as well -- but is the percentage significant vs your total installed base? Perhaps all that's necessary is a bit of damage control -- strategic marketing -- reiterating your position that the product is free, but official support costs, along with an easy and obvious way to sign up for support.
That said, there is almost always unofficial support (forums and the like) for open source products. Sometimes, one or two support persons from the company in question participate, occasionally shedding light on the tougher problems, or identifying real bugs that are in the works or fixed in later versions. The idea being, you might find some measure of unofficial support on the net, but if your business depends on the product to some significant degree, a service contract should be justifiable to whomever signs the checks.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Tell them to fix it themselves and submit patches.
Tell them they can have their money back.
Tell them that you could have fixed it for $100 but now you'll have to add the Moron Surcharge and now it's $10k.
Tell them to fuck off.
Just make sure you setup good support forums, faqs, etc. Then make it so that anyone gets one support call for free. Register the user when they make the first call. Make sure you explain this is their one freebie and that any additional calls, emails, etc. will be charged at your reasonable rate. It's a loss leader of course but in the long run - you'll end up selling more support to appreciative customers.
Turn it into a mobile app- put it in an app store. Nothing to lose a few $'s to gain. Nuff said.
"I'm one of the founders of an open source company which offers a popular open source product (millions of downloads) targeted primarily to small businesses. ... Companies that have downloaded our product from one of the many free download sites have a question they want answered, so they call our support line.
It would easier to suggest an answer if I didn't have to summon up a Ouija Board to understand the question.
"Millions of downloads" suggests distribution through sources like Download.com. It suggests your product appeals to a much, much, larger group of users than you realize --- and it suggests that access to free or low cost technical support is too limited.
First impressions matter.
It wouldn't hurt to be a little less unbending about the bill when a new user runs into problems early on and calls for help.
it may be that after being hit with hidden fees for so long it has been conditioned that if they just yell and scream that they probably will get it because they unknowingly paid for it somehow
...where all the mouchers expect everything for free.
Yeah. Go ahead and mod me down even though you know I'm right.
Who knew that people might actually expect to be compensated for their work? Weird.
If the information that you charge for phone support is on your website, people will skip it in their hurry to get a number. Instead, during the installation, ask them which version they want to try. Don't call it "free" and "paid" versions (hint: they will click free), call it "with phone support" and "without phone support". If they choose the one with the phone support, send them to a sales website that then informs them that the phone support will cost them - but they are free to use the version without phone support (as well as information on purchasing support).
Basically, change the perception of the consumer - don't make them choose between "free" or "paid" versions, since they will pick the free one without understand ALL the consequences (the only consequence to them is saving money). Make them think in terms of supported and unsupported versions. Who knows, you might even drive up sales by this?
First, remove the support number from your website and anywhere else that it can be found by either browsing the website or via a Google (Bing / Yahoo / etc) search.
Second, setup a support@yourcompany.com email address and make that the only prominent email address on your website. On that account, setup an auto-responder that say something to the effect of...
"Thank you for contacting us for support. As an Open Source Software (OSS) company, we rely on our support revenue to fund our company. The funds allow us to continue improving the software for you, and everyone else who uses it.
We have plenty of free support options. Those are available to you here, here and here... (forums, etc)
If those options do not provide the resolution that you need, feel free to contact us at (support registration webpage). A member of our staff will get in contact with you shortly."
You take control of the dialogue. They contact you, you provide them with options and you control the call back. Of course you want to be responsive and not let support requests sit in the queue for hours or days(!). Make sure to lay out exactly what the costs are on the registration webpage. That way they are pre-screened and expecting it when your team contacts them. Make sure to include payment terms.
The first layer for your support phone number could be robot on Twilio or something. It asks for a 4 or 5 digit pin before continuing. When you pay for the software, you either get a fixed pin for support or have to log in (at place for customers only) and request a pin for a week of support or whatever.
Just an idea, sounds like a tough problem. Good luck!
Tell them to stop watching Batman movies and take their meds. Then hang up. They are obviously too affected by them.
Sent from my ENIAC
You should support for free. Why not? This isn't your software, this belongs to everyone.
Too many developers out there looking to make cash off of the public. Doesn't anyone do this for the right reasons anymore? Capitalism at its finest.
But treat them off the phone. Once you've given your explanation don't give them anymore of your time but that you have paying customers to take care of. If they continue to harass, block their phone with the "We're sorry buy you will need to use our email services for further contacts. "
Then post all the emails and giggle at them the way slashdot does anyone emailing them, that will show them.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
What an annoying trend. I'm sorry to hear this, I also believe it.
I think the unfortunate solution is to remarket your product somewhat. I suggest you coin a new name to replace "open source". I love the term, but I've certainly met a fair share of business geeks that think they know what it means, but have it totally wrong...
A winner in the Jumping To Conclusions event.
It's like this, 1%-er:
So, the submitter is a multi-millionaire / billionaire; got it. You're quite perceptive.
people download some free software that promises to solve their problems.
And the software promises to solve problems, not simply "here's what it does, you can use it for free."
The software is confusing and poorly laid out.
You know this how? I can only imagine from trying to futz with your own creations maybe?
They do what comes naturally: ask the company to stand behind their product.
Ah, entitlement, a lovely attribute; "stand behind what you gave me for free - I want ___."
The company replies with a crafty, "pay us, we will only help you for $$$, this is the only language we understand, otherwise get lost and back to your hovel, peasant."
It's getting hard to deal with all the stupidity in your one post in an itemized manner.
The customer is then rightfully angry that such a bait-and-switch has been pulled. Do you get it now, Corporate Master?
Bait-and-switch huh? Like if I called the creators of Apache, or Ubuntu, or the Linux kernel and demanded help, and they directed me to a paid support channel, it'd be bait-and-switch?
I suppose I see the attraction of arguing with the straw men in your head: you can always win, even if you look like an idiot for doing it.
This guy's on to us.
Give none subscribers free email only support. Put one support person on the free email part time if you have too. When they complain, via email, that the support is taking to long, give them your sales pitch for premium support. You should also have some kind of community forum which your support people monitor and occasionally post answers too. You can refer them to the community support forum if they do not want to pay. A support wiki might also be useful.
We are based in Argentina, and, while most of our products are proprietary, they are FS/OSS-friendly ( as in, they run on GNU/Linux, offer open APIs and interfaces, are standards-compliant, etc.). Recently, we released one of our products under the GPL, and we are getting the same kind of calls.
It's not something that worries me. Here's how we deal with it: All of our employees are Free Software advocates (That's by design, we mostly hunt for employees in LUGs, both physical and online). They understand the issue, and they know how to explain it. Our usual metaphors include food-based explanations (we create free recipes that you can download for free, and cook/modify/share as you please, but if you want us to go to your house and cook for you, you have to pay, or if you want a printed book with our recipes, that has a price too. We also use other metaphors, such as Music (the music is free to download, if you want the band to play at your party, or you want to go to a concert, you pay for it).
Most people understand, some people don't. Those that don't are your average crappy customers, that would do the same kind of stuff even if the software weren't free. The people that call our system a scam are the same kind of customers that buy our non-free solutions and demand exceptional things, such as this woman who recently filed a complaint because she wanted us to go to her business and install free temporary replacement hardware while we processed a repair on a 4 year old system whose warranty had expired. Or the people that buy our DVR/NVR solution, connect a crappy 420TVL CCTV camera to it, configure the system in 320x240, and call complaining they can't see a license plate at 100 meters distance, and demand we send them a technician for free. Or schools that purchase our e-learning solution and demand that we go to their institution, for free, as many times as necessary, to teach their professors how to use it. Also, people react the same way with plugins and software updates. We offer free upgrades for life on many of our systems, and people call and demand specific, custom features, in a short timeframe, and then get irate when we explain that free upgrades for life doesn't mean unlimited custom development for free.
Some customers are great, and some customers are demanding, self-entitled, annoying, loud bitches who want to scam free work out of you while pretending that themselves are being scammed by you. That's how it works, regardless of the license of the product.
Our solution: We've split our product into two independent products. One of them is GPL and comes with NO SUPPORT WHATSOEVER, and explain that very clearly on our webpage. The other one is proprietary, and has several support contracts available. By making them clearly different products (while the codebase is exactly the same), we've cut down on complains. That, and good people with a clear understanding of Free Software manning the phones. And a lot of patience.
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
Here's how the asshole you are replying to reasons:
If I paid for the software, it's logical that'll have to pay for support.
If the software was free, I am not paying for the support either.
Guess what? Most proprietary software comes with no support whatsoever, or a just a very basic and unhelpful helpdesk, if you want actual support you'll have to get a support contract, and pay through the nose. But of course, that's not bait and switch because the company doing it charged you for the product. That's flawless logic right there.
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
Are the people calling you potential buyers of support? [Assuming they are not freeloaders by nature, individuals who might not want your business support, etc]
If they are potential buyers this is an EXCELLENT marketing opportunity. They are calling you for something they need. Converting that into a transaction is a clear path that many callers themselves may expect subconsciously. It's all about positioning and expectation management!
The key thing is to setup expectations, right from before they call, to the number they call, what they hear when they call, about the different levels of support, paid & free, how they can reach the right tier of support for their category, how they can upgrade their support tier, and how they can resolve their problem.
For instance, if you have a support forum + support FAQ, redirect all free callers to that --- AFTER telling them that free support is community supported, with customers just like them providing support.
If they want a specific type of support or customization, or installation support, then direct them to the relevant FREE instruction manual, and tell them that premium support for these is available for enterprise/business customers.
For callers make sure your IVR script takes into account both free and paid users [if you use the same 1800 number, you could also give toll-free numbers for premium support users, and toll numbers for free users].
Your script could be
1. Premium support users: Please enter your support id to be taken straight to our support team
2. If you do not have a support id:
Press 1 for free installation support options [list out website address, forum address, FAQ address, etc.].
Press 2 to buy premium installation support [[ Note the 'to buy' clearly setting their expectation ]]
Press 3 for free post-installation support options [list out website address, forum address, FAQ address, etc.].
Press 4 to buy premium annual support
Press 5 to reach sales
Wherever you list your number make sure it's listed as 'Premium Support Number' or 'Business Support' or something which will influence the caller to understand that this is not free support. For instance you may now have 'Toll-free support number' - which is misleading!
I guarantee if you do this right, you will have more satisfied users and potential customers!
If you want some consulting around this to help you implement this fully, drop me a note - I've been doing marketing/prodmgmt for an open-source based software vendor for a few years. [[ prasanna at wignite dot com ]]
All bow to his Noodliness!! His Noodle Appendage has touched me!
There are many posters here questioning if you have done all you can do to reasonably make it clear to your users the terms of the product, and it is very important that you do so. That said, you will have a percentage of customers that will ignore even the most obvious notices and make demands to fit their needs regardless. Some of these customers are under the gun and/or made choices without really understanding the terms. Others are effing bottom feeders that want to bully you into getting free stuff. The best you can do to mitigate cheap ass bullies like this is to not ignore it but address it, and if you have any happy and willing customers, to post their happy thoughts in whatever forums or channels you use. The bullies tend to eventually show their true nature as assholes that some or hopefully many will ignore.
First one started November 14, 2012. There have been a rash since.
Been in business for 10+ years. Great Big Paypal and credit card icons above the fold on the main page. It is obvious even to the illiterate that nothing is free, yet I am now getting these new accounts filled in with foul words expressing displeasure that the site is not free.
I have been wondering WTF too.
From one anonymous coward to another, thanks for posting.
Free software is not freeware. Free software when used in the context of GNU/Linux is about the liberties and rights of users. Users are free to get support from any company they wish or seek no-cost support on the forums. Since you are the primary developers or at least heavily involved your company is well enabled to provide some of the best support available. That however comes at a price. Development costs money and you will have to charge them for the support your company offers. At this point you may want to sell them a support contract rather than charge a one time fee. That way they are not feeling black mailed with outrageous fees. Paying $20 a month over a multi-year period is nothing. Paying $500 all at once though may be a big cost for a small company.
You need to eradicate the ambiguity. You could do like Codeweavers/RedHat do and use a completely different brand name for the supported version (Crossover/Enterprise) vs the free version (Wine/Fedora).
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
I notice that you had to point out that your fee is reasonable.. as though we might assume that your fee is not reasonable, otherwise.
This feels like being told that something is a "value" package.
If you have to tell me, it is probably not.
Anyway, this was not related to your primary question. Sorry.
That didn't strike me as in the spirit of Open Source.
Why?
Are you one of the guy's "customers" who thinks everything should be free, and who downloaded a "free" app and now thinks everything associated the the app ought to be free? The big problem is that when you give people something of value for free, they start to presume that you are a doormat who should be walked upon. In the real world, things like tech support and websites cost money and that money has to come from somewhere... The supporters of open source software have long flooded places like Slashdot with talk that companies can exist in the open source environment by giving their code away and charging money for things like support, but it seems that if anybody tries to charge for anything then that person becomes "evil"
What happened to all the talk of "free as in freedom"?
Since when does the "spirit of open source" mean ANYTHING should be "free as in beer"?
Sadly, the combined effects of the illusion of a "free" internet (where users actually trade their privacy for services like facebook and google) and "free" software seem to have watered and fertilized the weedier portion of society whose members think they are entitled to the fruits of the labors of others. When you get something for free, a civilized person is happy and grateful; a leech gets angry and ornery that other people did not work even harder to give him more for free and did not work even harder to make it better
It sound like you need someone at marketing. Or product management.
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
The problem is that you've let them get the idea that this is a "free" (no-cost) product. In one of your comments you mention that the people calling up often aren't the people that installed it, so I asume that they don't think it's no-cost because they downloaded and installed it themselves. They have an idea in their heads that this product is "no-cost", and that is probably because you're branding/marketing it that way. And that's how they can go around and tarnish your reputation after the fact, saying "it's not really no-cost - it's a scam".
So, if your product provides value to your customer, why are you positioning it as a no-cost solution? I think you need to work on your branding. By all means continue to make it open source, and continue to provide your users with all sorts of software freedoms, but stop sending the message that those things mean "free".
It sounds like your produce should be viewed as commercial software (that is also proud to be open source), so say that. Have the splash screen (or about page, or whatever) say something along the lines of: This software package is a commercial product. Annual support and maintenance plans are available for purchase at {our website}. No support agreement has been purchased for this installation. Source code is provided to customers under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.Read more of this story at Slashdot.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Does the Slashdot community have any suggestions on how we can reverse this trend?
You can't. People are dumb and getting dumber. There are no legal ways to reverse this at the moment.
I always ask customers who want free services to work for free for a day. They act shocked and disgusted I would ask them to work for free. It doesn't take too long for them to make the connection.
You don't work for free, and neither do I.
I always ask customers who want free services to work for free for a day. They act shocked and disgusted I would ask them to work for free. It doesn't take too long for them to make the connection. You don't work for free, and neither do I.
Lower expectations from the get go. Make it clear before downloading that support, if wanted or needed, will not be free. This should lower the subsequent bad reviews.
Make two versions of your product, absolutely identical, but the default one is called "trial edition" or "free edition". Make it very clear that the "trial edition" doesn't include support but has all the features of the "pro edition", which does. Paying for support allows the users to download the "pro edition", or enter a key code that "upgrades" their version.
As long as the product itself is clearly differentiated, even morons should understand the concept of a free download with paid support.
If the program does terminal interaction, make it output a short notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode:
<program> Copyright (C) <year> <name of author>
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate parts of the General Public License.
...when you're writing a game...tweak the difficulty of "Easy" to something [your mother] can cope with. -- onion2k
If the calls reach the point where they're screaming at your support, tell them to hang up. They aren't your customers, there isn't any reason to place the extra stress on the employees.
Depending on your customer base you may also be able to add account numbers to your pre-agent phone system.
There are some people you just can't please, or reason with. Often, the cheaper the product, the more annoying cheap folks will pop up. You might have to stop blaming yourself or coming up with ways to resolve the issue 100%.
Yeah, some customers will get angry and go bashing you, but there are things you can do about that.
-Pre-screen your customers. No one gets a direct download without filling out a form.
-Don't fee bad telling the customers that Support is NOT free. Furthermore, do not even offer 'freebies', You don't have a support option on your account, you don't get jack. Simple as that.
Personal story...was selling this piece of hardware of $200 back in '08...one of the customers (dir of IT at some larger Co) actually asked me if the standard 1/year warranty included sending technician(s) onsite to repair his $200 unit if it fails (RMA wasn't good enough). You sometimes wonder which planet these idiots live on...but it's waste of time. You focus on your business and actual paying customers who understand business.
I have also had instances where customers where 'concerned' to hear that our software had free upgrades for life. Customers (real ones) feel comfortable paying for support and maintenance for their upgrades.
Nobody values what is given away for free. So when they find out you actually intend to charge for assistance, the tirade against your "crap" ensues.
This is human nature. You're not going to change it or avoid it.
Most people are demanding you emphasize your 'small print' conditions.
The business is paying you nothing for a reason: That's the price they can get away with. The fact they're demanding your free time be used to fix their problems is just another indication of their selfishness.
It's also why many successful products have a "Not for business use" condition on their free versions.
MS provides little to no support for its OS.
On the other hand, I got free tech support for some MS freebie, I think it was IE when it was competing head to head with Netscape.
Don't you have a disclaimer up front that downloaders of open source software accept all risks themselves? If not, why not? If so, can't you just refer them back to that?
"We reject kings, presidents and voting. We believe in rough consensus and running code." Dave Clark, IETF
I'm sure they knew support wasn't free but they thought they would try the upset customer routine and blame it on you. Tell them to go pound sand and hang up.
get a court order to back them off
A lot of companies offer a product to buy or for free download as a community supported version. This makes it clear to idiots that you won't get support iof you opt for the free version.
You are running a business. If someone deliberately acts to harm your business in an unjust manner you have a right, and arguably a duty, to take legal action to seek remedy for the damage they do to your business.
Being a Free Software/Open Source business does not mean you are less entitled to protect your reputation or that you should neglect this vital aspect of your business. Loss of good will through such attacks on your reputation can completely destroy a business.
Purchase, install, configure and harden a PBX!
Admit it, you love construction dust and a few open beers in the computer room at 3 am on sunday!
Just think how much stronger you will feel, after you filter out the bullshit.
Live and grow! it's what it's all about!
Post up on the same social media sites the identities of these companies who just want free stuff.
TBH, I've not noticed this myself, so I'm wondering if it's something to do with the country you're in. I'm assuming it's the USA, because clueless assumptions seem to be de rigueur there.
Another moron with a reading comprehension that is so horrible you even copied the part that reads "I noticed this as well" which was in reference to the fact there were no names in the story. Since it was submitted anonymously it set off my bullshit detectors, too many red flags. With a horrible attempt at a troll post I can only gather you were the moron that submitted this story.
> Companies that have downloaded our product from one of the many free download sites have a question they want answered, so they call our support line. Once we politely explain the situation and that telephone support has a reasonable fee associated with it, more and more of them are becoming seriously irate, to the point of yelling, accusing us of fraud and/or scamming them.
Before possibly passing the call to support people, just install a recorded greeting that says that 1) support is only available for paying customers and 2) non-paying users callers should head for www.acme.com to learn why support can't be provided for free.
That should take care of most of those irrate calls.
Stop offering support.
- A Frog in a pond utters an azure cry. -
Same problem happens with closed source software. Some people don't understand the difference between license, support and consulting.
Geeze folks. The poster notes that these are downloads from the free download sites, not their own website. They have no control over what is said next to the "Download for free!!!" link when FreeDownloads.com or SoftwareFrenzy.ru hosts the software. People are probably finding their phone number via a google search.
Perhaps their own website could be clearer, as well. But the presented problem is people who acquired the software through random third parties (presumably legitimately, depending on the open source license).
First proof your are worth it. I offer you this program: (pun intended)
Note1: i include a registration process because this allows you to spot the recurring free-runners, aka "potential customers".
Note2: i include a registration process via telephone because its really annoying for customers otherwise.
Seriously though, its clear they do not see your value when they respond furiously when they hear you expect to get paid.
Today, people are used to free services. They expect you to get your money "elsewhere", because they are the product. Exploit that expectation, and make them the product. They might be really good at PR, if you offer them (limited) free solutions and they understand that better support is paid.
Hivemind harvest in progress..
My advice is to copy Redhat. Everyone knows Redhat costs money because of the support, and CentOS is based on the source code of Redhat's product and comes "As Is" without the support. My advice would be to copy this- rename either the supported version or the "free" version. Change the branding. Make it clear when the "free" version is downloaded it comes without phone support.
Obviously have a forum for the "free" version, so the community can provide its own support among themselves.
What I miss in your story and in the comments is the option "people calling who don't understand free software". I can imagine some users at companies 'thinking': We use this software in our business -> someone at our company has officially installed this -> we don't install software without a support contract -> there must be a support contract but I'm not going through the trouble of finding it.
The Virtual Bookcase: book reviews
What's the name of the open source company, what are the names of these free-loading companies and what social media do they post on?
AccountKiller
Get a 900 number.
It's as simple as that.
If you have actual paying customers that get free support, give them their own PIN to put in to bypass the funds. Added bonus, you can make that payment a subscription and shut off the pin after a year or whatever.
I often have to write up "Project Plans" for FDA-compliant projects -- even open source software that has no price tag still carries a cost. That's why there's often a section under "impacts" which includes indirect costs.
What's being faced is a curse of success. The software is apparently good enough to be used by people with limited technical chops; they just expect it to work, can't fix problems, and don't forget the folks in their late 20's and are now starting to get some seniority are the most molly-coddled, self-esteem-boosted group ever seen. Open Source: If it breaks you get both pieces.
Open Source doesn't mean rape the bottom line. Explain to them that they don't understand how Open Source really works and if they would take the time to educate themselves they wouldn't look like a Homo neanderthalensis, then hang up! I'm not saying that to get rid of your customer base, I'm saying it because when you start only dealing with knowledgable customers your software and your company gets a better name for itself.
Does your application have a splash image when it is started? If so, does that image have large text indicating support is not free?
Ok now I am calling bullshit on you.
People only do steps 1-4 if they've got a huge sense of entitlement. My customers have that, but most of them pay a couple $k per year for hosting services that are expected to be online 24/7/365. (And for the most part, they are.)
Your problem is self inflicted. Either you have something somewhere saying it's free, or all the of the supposed IT guys that install this software just disappear from the universe (otherwise, THEY would be calling you after the user whines to them about it) or your product doesn't do what you are implying it does.
"Free little convenient useful tool that does XYZ" doesn't cause people to run through phone trees like that. Sure, MY customers do, but like I said, they have an expectation that's legitimately different than you say they should have for your software. Only a small percentage of whiny (or east coast, wtf is it with you guys and the bitchwhores of both sexes, imagine being polite for once eh?) customers do the "call the sales guy" thing.
You have an IT staffer or consultant installing software, dumping your product on the end user/operator and taking off. The end user who paid the consultant/staffer to install quality software doesn't know or care about your OSS or support model. I don't think you can do much about this.
Either:
Accept that you will never please everyone and take the bad reviews
Give in and comp support to the obnoxious bastards that will make you work for free, because someone else didn't educate them or they don't care
The customer is not always right. You've tapped a big community here, but you want to remain anonymous. There's not much help to be given. If this community knows and likes your product, there might be some goodwill to be gained by to being anonymous...
Treat them as an opportunity this is a ready made sales channel and like all sales channels be prepared for the usual objections.
Free Advertising.
So, spend some serious marketing $$ going to all these forums and letting other businesses know what you exactly have to offer.
Counter their points politely and suggest that other business owners check you out themselves and make up their own mind.
This is only a bad thing if you turn it into one.
This just in: Companies are cheap and want something for nothing, damn the logic. Also, the sky is blue, water is wet, etc.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
Why not offer two "phone gateways" for your support? One for customers with existing support contract, and another for those without...
The non-support number should always go to the sales department. Once the person is taking to someone in sales, payment can be arranged.
Sales people have a hard enough time selling to people who have never heard of their product. Selling to someone who knows, uses, and needs your product is a dream jobs for a real salesperson.
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
or even better have a copy of your documents included/downloadable.
If you have good documents then 90% of your questions will be answered without needing to get somebody on the phone.
and in your next update make it clear that the PROGRAM is Free on an AS IS BASIS but phone support is charged for.
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
No, there is no communicating with whining ingraits with no money. driving them away is the goal; automated voip solutions to do that are cheap, plop them into trash voicemail to wither and die.
Yes, Cinders, some day you WILL be Head of Customer Services.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
then I'd wager any money that it's a game engine - a lot of charlatans in that industry.
I won't mention names but if a company doesn't allow you to even access the content you paid for, without sending additional begging letters, then it's a bit of a joke.
Check the license agreement an know your right, or lack thereof.
This company's CORE business model is "selling support". You are suggesting the equivalent of Jack Daniels handing out free bottles of liquor to loudly complaining homeless people.
If they do down this route, all the freebies will EXPECT this forever. You educate these bastards right now or they will shaft you until your broken. See SUN Microsystems. And as a counter-example - ORACLE. Who again survived ??
You bet all these bastards fall over themselves to pay for the next three FruitPhones 7 ( or wherever they currently are) for their kiddos.
"Tell them to fuck off."
Exactly the right approach. You cannot expect all of humanity to be your friends. At least 60% of humanity are actually nasty shitballs who would steal your last shirt, if they could do this unpunished.
Adjust their initial expectations. Explain very clearly on your website and download page that this product is free to download and free to try, but paid contracts are required for professional support. Do not refer to your product, anywhere on your site, as a being available for free, or "free software" - the term is confusing. Open Source is a better term.
Hey guys and gals, I'm going to ask a general question, and put forward a general premise. I won't answer any specific questions on our environment. Can you please give me specific solutions to our general questions, while all of you are in the dark on our specific requirements? Thanks!!!
Your target market is small businesses? Have you met small business owners? If they're trying to cut costs by installing free software, what makes you think they're going to pay for phone support or add-ons?? No seriously, go meet some small business owners, and talk to them about pain points. They're only ever focused on 1 of 2 things:
A. Holy crap, I need to grow my business. I'm still a small business and I'm uncomfortable with how much I make a year, considering the amount of stress I have.
B. Holy crap, things just got real. I need to find a way to decrease my costs, NOW, otherwise I have to start firing people and close up shop, I don't want to do that (especially if some of my employees are friends and family).
So, given these options they're focused on, when will they ever pay for anything? Only in scenario A, and chances are, if your software doesn't help them grow their business somehow (like Yext or SweetIQ), they're going to buy something because it's going to decrease their stress level (makes them more efficient), or in order to ensure they are compliant with federal and local law ("Oh, your software let's my employees request time off, let's me approve or decline it, automatically feeds paid and unpaid time off to payroll, keeps track of it for me so I don't have to, stores employee reviews and shares them with only the employee they're about, helps keep me compliant with federal and state law, stores all their information so I'm not resorting to a filing cabinet, etc, etc? Sign me up". Source: The guy writing HR software for a big Payroll provider in the US who's target market is small businesses). Does asking them to pay for phone support after they've installed your free product increase or decrease their stress level? (Hint: it goes up). Now if they're nice enough people, they'll go "Oh, well that's a surprise to me, but I'll roll with it" and either say "Thanks but no thanks" or "How much is this reasonable fee? I have to figure out if it's worthwhile."
In scenario B however, with the small business owners in "The Sky Is Falling" mode (keep in mind people are 100% level headed when they enter this mode always make the best decisions and are polite and nice to be around), if they install your free software (that they think is going to help them cut costs and help them save their company) and they call in to support only to hear "There's a reasonable fee for support" of course they're going to swear at you. And it's not because you're doing anything wrong (or are you?).
Personally, I think your business intelligence people need a better grip on who small business owners are before they try and make any money off of them. I also think that paid support is sort of a convoluted scheme that can feel like a bait and switch at the time.
I agree with other sentiments of making it a 1-900-number for non contract clients if you're going to insist on using this business model. I personally think the "You sign a contract up front with a monthly fee to use the software, which is sitting on our server, and get free phone support with our Call Center (pay more for priority support/designated support specialist/etc)" is the way to go. It guarantees that no one is ever going to come looking for your product when they're trying to cut costs (and get heated when they realize you want their hard earned money). Does it mean you might lose customers when they're business starts to tank? Yes, but you weren't going to see any money from them anyways.
Maybe instead of letting them install anything, just run all the code on your own server? You could still provide it for free, and even allow them to download other Apps (for their desktop, smartphone, etc), but when they set up the account they would know up front that support and certain functionality is subscription based.
Charge 1 penny for your software.
There, the entire concept of "free" is no longer is question because it's not even on the table.
There are excellent products with a honest bug-fix policy behind them and your still need professional support from time to time. Supporters and developers need to eat and pay their house rent.
If you don't like a support contract, just go M$, where you can't get proper support even if you have lots of money available.
Instead of telling them that they need a support contract to get help speak presumptively like they already do have support. We would be happy to help you with that, we just need to verify your support contract and then we can get started. Oh.. you don't have your account #? No problem then, I am sure the person who installed the product does, if not we just need to talk to them and verify their info so we can look it up! Can that person come to the phone? No? You will talk to them and get back with me? Ok, that will be fine...
Now, that person can tell the user no, I didn't purchase any support, I just downloaded the free version... Now the user is either selling your support contract to the IT guy or just ordering them to buy it depending on their position rather than berating you.
Worst case you at least end up talking to the person who did the clicking past all your messages rather than the irate user who never really knew what they did or didn't pay for.
The unfortunate conflation of the two meanings of the word 'free' have confused people. A lot of 'free' software now isn't actually free for a variety of reasons. But the costs are not out-of-pocket expenses incurred at the time the software is downloaded. And much of this software comes with some sort of support. So people get confused.
I agree that the misuse of the word 'free' has not helped here. However, the OP would have done well to have promoted the software as open source w/o making or calling it 'free'. He could have given it a nominal cost, and then put on the license something like make the source code always accompany the binaries, but disallow redistribution. That way, none of the meanings of the term 'free' would apply. As other posters on this page indicated, call something 'free' and one automatically attracts freeloaders.
I know that the OSI makes its first condition redistribution rights, which IMO is a mistake. A better idea is to just require source code to always accompany binaries - in that way, anybody who legally obtains a software title also has the source code, which either he or someone he employs can then modify to custom-fit his needs. However, restricting re-distribution, which achieves the purpose of ensuring that the only people who get the software - both binary and source - are those who pay for it - is a good way of ensuring that the business is profitable. That way, the vendor has the option of either building the support price into the cost of the title, or making it an optional add-on cost for those who want it, and making that clear in the terms & conditions that are there during installation. (Not their fault if customers don't have the patience to read it)
Long story short - lose the term 'free'.
This is why the "free version" should always come with logos and other trademarks removed. I think Redhat has all their logos in a separate package which can be installed or, presumably, uninstalled.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
You're mission is in conflict with that perception of ' free' as in free beer product your company promotes. You need to firewall.
Align with your company with its core values. Firewall to protect your integrity. Run a ' Genius' hotline to refer solutions to outside consultants. Let them charge for service to fix things that people can't DIY.
Backcharge consultants an access fee to your Genius hotline outsource service. Who the consultants are, is your business.
It means you are hitting a wider market. Welcome to dealing with the general public.
Notices. Lots of notices. On the download, on the install, on the splash screen, while they are waiting on the phone, etc. Put a notice everywhere you can think of, plus a couple more.
Also, consider tracking callers and giving them the first answer free. Convince them that your support service is worth paying for.
... I'll try to remember next time.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Try getting support from HP without an active license. You can't even ask them for an upgrade price without an EXPIRED ID.
There should be two phone numbers on your website.
SALES! This is where people call to put money into your hands. You should want this pretty noticable, because people handing you money is good for business.
Support.
This is the one where people who hand you money get to complain about flaws in your product. Without the valid Customer ID, provided by SALES, this line should NEVER connect a caller to a human being. Ever. Never. If they lost their customer ID, they should call SALES.
Do this, and then listen to complaints.
Get yourself a 900 area code for the support line. Charge by the minute. Now you can listen to their rants while collecting fee automatically.
Burying them in an IVR so you don't have to deal with them has negative consequences:
(1) It ups your phone bill if it's a WATS line, generally ups it anyway for most commercial land-line plans, and ties up one of the channels you pay for on your trunk with angry person, rather than paying customers
(2) It doesn't solve the original negative social media issues
(3) It gets them to complain about not only your product (the loss-leader), but also about your support (your profit center)
It's pretty clear that you've never successfully used the business model the OP is trying to use in this case, since if you had, you would know the statistic that satisfied customers will tell 1 person for every 20 people an unsatisfied customer will tell.
You should probably go back and hit the marketing books before you consider trying to make a profit off this type of business model.
" I want America to be the good guy. I'm fed up with America being a bully."
You're not really. You want a place that never existed, even in 1946, where all was well, the good guys win, they wear white hats, and kill the bad guy.
Read a lot of posts going on about this disclaimer and that disclaimer and all of them assume the customer is rational and gives a shit. Most are assuming the customer was just misinformed. I assert that the "customers" are fucking irrational assholes.
I work at a Microsoft IT shop. We avoid consumer-level PC repair because they don't pay their bills and they're demanding. We only work on small and medium sized business networks and the PCs attached to them. We'll take a personal PC if it belongs to a business client, but that is not advertised.
Bottom line is that we make this fact clear on our website and yellow pages ad. People will STILL call up with random personal computer questions. This is just some random dude. Not only do they expect advice on their problem, but they expect advice on their problem for FREE. I had one cuss me out when I refused to help her. And I mean, I spent 3 minutes on the phone and suggested a couple of things she could try and advised her of 3 different local businesses that would be able to provide support. She asked, "can you see my screen?" I said, "no, I can't see your screen." and I was cussed out and hung up on.
And yes, they trash us on review pages when this happens. Happens at least daily.
So if you're giving out free software and provide a support phone number, I'm surprised you don't get a lot more asshole people calling you up.
Take the Redhat / Fedora example:
Have a paid-for-service brand name where you promote and market all the things that you want and need to charge for, and then have completely separate branding for the unsupported version. Don't even allow free downloads of the paid for product, except, maybe, via some kind of developers conduit for people who have proven to be worth more than whatever hassle is involved.
I've noticed this more and more when people use any service. It seems they feel entitled to everything because they use it. But they don't understand the difference in business model and how it is you make your money by giving people choice in software.
The best option is to create two separate support lines (mentioned in another posters comments). Make sure that people who pay for support have that number and they can call you with assistance. Your other number should be labeled with all sorts of warnings about how if you haven't paid for this product then you're calling into a pay for support line to get assistance or sign up for a contract. Once clearly labeled you can point any complaints to that information. There's nothing you can do about the people complaining though. Those are the type of people that won't thank you for all the software that's helped there business but more than happy to take the time to get pissed and type up complaints instead of you know... doing actual work.... because complaining is so much easier :-)
Where Jews have the most money, pay the least, doesn't tip in restaurants, and complain about the slightest deviation from their expectations possible.
Start the call with "This call may be monitored or recorded to provide better support"
The moment someone gets irate for a free product, you say:
"We can absolutely help you fix whatever problem you have. To get started, I need your verbal authorization that I can transcribe and publish the recording of this call on our web site to help future callers."
If they say 'sure', you go ahead and help them, and put the transcript on your webpage. You could even charge competitors for access to the logs, and they'd be happy to pay it for sales leads.
If they say 'no', then you immediately jump to a recording "This call has been terminated to protect your confidential customer information. If you wish to try again, please be ready to provide payment information for our private and confidential support service and call xxx-xxx-xxxx"
Have you considered the possibility that the complainers are being encouraged to do this by your competitors?
Stranger things have happened.
I suggest: Provide a 'priority support subscription' yes, pay for. Possibly not a phone number, but a 'priority subscriber only' forum for the paid subscription use only. And provide 'free' email or forum only support. So you address issues of 'priority customers' before the 'free'.
Some 'OSS vendors' over the years have done a 'pay for current release', others wait for the free release model. The free release can be one major release back. This works OK if you use a 6 month or 12 month type of release cycle for the major releases.
Just a few thoughts.
I worked for a company that sold systems and supported OSS software. Our customers too seemed to think since the software itself is free, our time and effort is also.
... "When you pry the source from my cold dead hands."
Require at least one CLI command to install said product, that should keep the most clueless noobs out.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Basic problem is a user IQ issue. Little things like, users who are too fucking stupid to RTFM (which phrase may even pre-date His Venerable Stallman-ness).
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Every week, every copy of your freeware app prints your list of support options for the 'Community' version, along with a coupon for 'discount' on the first support call.
There is nothing wrong with yr Internet. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission - NSA