Product Support? Does It Usually Take A Week To Relase A Universal Patch?

[heynow]

I was going to purchase a trackng program today and had pretty much decided on Poker Office. I looked at the three major options, and had read some reviews and posts in other poker forums. I just happened to look at the support forums here before making the purchase and saw a thread about a current issue with importing PokerStars hand histories.

I was aware the format of PokerStars hand histories changed on 9/2/08, because it caused SNG Wizard to stop working. I notified the SNG Wizard developers of the problem with their progam and an update was released within a few hours.

My question is do such universal patches/fixes for PokerOffice always take a week or more to be ready? That is just unbelieveable to me.

This issue would affect ALL of the program users who play on PokerStars. That has to be a lot of users (i.e. customers). If I had bought this program, I would be REALLY mad that it did not function for a whole week. From reading in the support forums here, there are claims the other two major trackers fixed the same issue with their programs quickly.

I understand the desire to develop and work on the new beta program, but does that mean a whole group of existing customers are basically ignored for a whole week?

I am seriously rethinking my decision on which tracker to purchase and would like to know your experiences with PokerOffice support and situations like this.

Thanks.

[heynow]

I did some more reading about problems like the PokerOffice / Fult Tilt crashing issues and have now answered my own question. I guess I have to look at the other two tracking options.

I am not paying for an "annual' (i.e. 12 months) PokerOffice subscription only to get 10 months of a functioning product and nothing but frustration for the other 2 months. I am so glad I read these forums before buying.

[Hakuryu]

It's not that easy. You're speaking of problems, which arose over the last months. It's true. The developers really took a lot of time fixing issues and solving problems but they also spend a lot of time for working on Poker Office v5. Constantly, they worked on two different applications and whatever they did, customers would always complain.

Currently, the v5 is in the BETA phase and being tested by some users. The software is not finished yet but I can tell you that it is worth waiting for the final release (scheduled for the end of this month).

Kind regards,
Hakuryu

[heynow]

Thank for the response, Hakuryu.

As a prospective customer (although as of right now unlikely), what I cannot understand is this. If the customer base is paying an annual subscription for Poker Office (presumably a FUNCTIONING Poker Office), how can there be any other priority than making certain the current program functions when a poker site changes its software or hand histories. These are not single user hardware or installation issues, these are global issues that affect ALL Poker Office users playing on the particular site. Such global issues should be the exclusive focus of the "developers" until resolved for the PAYING customers. The competitors seem to get and release patches within a day. The beta test and development may be very important, but should always be secondary to the priority of a functioning product for current paying customers.

Poker Office 5 may be the greatest thing ever, but if the existing customers are mad or have left for other options, prospective customers (like me) are scared away by the horror stories, and no one trusts the reliability of very questionable customer support which is evident here, there is a big and fundamental problem.

Thanks, again, for your response.

heynow

[Hakuryu]

I totally understand your point. I have to say that I got a very similar opinion concerning the support. You're right when saying competitors fix problems much faster than PokerOffice. This is indeed a weakness. But there is a strength connected to that.

While PokerTracker and Hold'em Manager are hard to configure and install (you even need additional software for some poker sites) PokerOffice is the all-in-one package. If for example you're using Hold'em Manager for playing at the Ongame network, you'll need another 3rd-party application responsible for the correct output of hand histories. Now imagine the Ongame network changes their software and the 3rd-party application, which is totally for free, is not even interested in fixing the problem for whatever reason. NOW you're in trouble.

Having tested PokerTracker v3 I can say that the initial setup for some poker sites is pretty hard to do, too. I never got it to work the way I wanted it to. They have problems with Ongame, too (my favorite site).

You might not notice that but the other competitors are far from perfect. I'd say that PokerTracker is ideal for the mainstream sites like PokerStars or FullTilt. So they totally focus on these sites and improve their application to work with the most common poker sites. But PokerOffice offers a product, which is easy to install and easy to handle with any site you play at. It's just so comfortable, when switching between sites, having PO do the work. The time I might lose waiting for new patches I'll get back not having to care about settings for each single poker room.

Kind regards,
Hakuryu

[teecee90]

There is a good reason why poker training sites like Deuces Cracked recommend Holdem Manger and that none recommend Poker Office. Work it out for yourself.

[PokerPillage]

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