Sorry no marketing department to give you the warm and fuzzy spin, just me.
Couple of suggestions. Declude has the ability to run upto 5 additional cmd line scanners of your choice, we provide AVG as a courtesy to our customers as in the past Declude did not have any internal virus scanner, you would have to go out and purchase that separately It would be good to run more than 1 virus scanner for several reasons, one of which is failure of an AV scanner, (admittedly in this instance failure was on our part) But rest assured false positives, no virus signatures, lag time are problems ALL AV vendors are faced with. There are some that are free that work extremely well ClamWin or ClamAV is an example of this. In addition we have ZEROHOUR as a option for Perpetual license customers as an additional virus scanners providing ZEROHOUR protection and additional spam definitions. For the amount of money that this is being offered for it is a wise investment. If you opted out of this because you didn't want to spend the extra few $ on security then you have different issues and it's not Declude. Lastly Patrick please contact supp...@declude.com having looked at your host record it does not look like you are receiving any AV updates - it could be that your firewall is blocking the AV updates, our support can work with you to fix that. Thanks David From: supp...@declude.com [mailto:supp...@declude.com] On Behalf Of Patrick Childers Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 9:13 AM To: declude.virus@declude.com Subject: RE: [Declude.Virus] Declude Virus inoperable for 13% of th year? How much are we willing to pay? It doesn't matter if it costs $5 or $5000 if the product doesn't work. Especially when you, the developer, doesn't notice the problem for a month and a half - especially when the problem has been reported by end users. Do you not run your own product? Maybe you don't realize this, but your whining customers put a level of "trust" in your company whether you want it or not. This "trust" is automatic when you are dealing with A/V products that protect mail systems and their networks. If you lose that trust, the cost won't matter. You won't have enough customers to stay in business anyway. Price you product at whatever you think you need to. The mail admins will either buy it or they won't. Maybe it's time for you to find another person to communicate with the list. You certainly aren't giving your end users that warm and fuzzy feeling. (IMO) Regards, ~Patrick _____ From: supp...@declude.com [mailto:supp...@declude.com] On Behalf Of David Barker Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 12:14 PM To: declude.virus@declude.com Subject: RE: [Declude.Virus] Declude Virus inoperable for 13% of th year? Darin, I accept your constructive criticism. With regard to the situation; 1. We recognize that this was a serious failure 2. The issue was highlighted and resolved in the quickest possible time 3. Procedural steps have been put in place to ensure that this does not happen again. 4. This was an unfortunate circumstance and I understand the frustration on the part of Declude customers 5. We make every effort to meet the needs of our customers My statement regarding increased prices has less to do with this current problem as it has to do with moving forward and preventing issues like this in the future. More $ means more resources which means more can be done which equates to less risk in all areas. Declude has given good service, value for money and a product that works for minimum $. I understand that the expectation is always more for less, however if customers expect more than what is currently being delivered then I have to ask the question, in clear, open and honest communication.. "Mr/s Customer" how much more are you willing to pay so that we can invest in more resources in order to develop a better product? David Barker VP Operations Declude Your Email security is our business 978.499.2933 office 978.988.1311 fax <mailto:dbar...@declude.com> dbar...@declude.com From: supp...@declude.com [mailto:supp...@declude.com] On Behalf Of Darin Cox Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 11:50 AM To: declude.virus@declude.com Subject: Re: [Declude.Virus] Declude Virus inoperable for 13% of th year? Wow, what a way to respond to a long-time, loyal paying customer! Instead of apologizing for the serious problem and relaying what steps are being taken to avoid it happening again (a simple reminder in the calendar system of your choice would suffice), it's being thrown back in the customer's face. Regarding the question of increasing prices for service agreements, that has no bearing on a current customer who has already paid the fees. Such customers should expect the service they paid for to be rendered. Failure to do so is a breach of agreement on Declude's part. While we are all human and problems can occur, this is a serious failure, and the tone of the response being putative instead of apologetic makes customers less forgiving, not more. To be frank, many customers are asking what they are paying for, when fix and feature requests take months to be released, or not at all. I understand the situation may be frustrating, but it's often best to step back for a moment, vent elsewhere if needed, then respond professionally to customers. Clear, open, and honest communication also helps. Please don't take this email as incendiary. It is meant to be constructive. Darin. ----- Original Message ----- From: David Barker <mailto:dbar...@declude.com> To: declude.virus@declude.com Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 11:07 AM Subject: RE: [Declude.Virus] Declude Virus inoperable for 13% of th year? Andy, a. Declude Virus does not have a built in system to report this error as with this specific example. What happened here is not the norm but an exception. It was not our choice to hard code the expiration date but a requirement from AVG. In this instance the specific persons who we had been working with at AVG are no longer with the company and the process of having this renewed took longer than usual. b. I am not sure if you are being facetious, but if it makes you feel better, sure you can schedule a reminder for me, please email me at least 3 month prior of the new expiration date 2010-12-31 c. Yes AVG was not working as it should have been since 2009-04-10 I agree with you - this is totally unacceptable, intolerable, painful and should not be brushed aside lightly. You are correct in your observations, we should increase our prices dramatically so we can hire more developers to ensure unfortunate incidents like this don't happen again. Considering the market and what other vendors charge how much more are you prepared to pay for your service agreement so that we can meet this type of requirement ? David Barker VP Operations Declude Your Email security is our business 978.499.2933 office 978.988.1311 fax <mailto:dbar...@declude.com> dbar...@declude.com From: supp...@declude.com [mailto:supp...@declude.com] On Behalf Of Andy Schmidt Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 9:08 AM To: declude.virus@declude.com Subject: [Declude.Virus] Declude Virus inoperable for 13% of th year? Importance: High Sensitivity: Personal Hi, Dave - so now that we have a working Declude Virus again, what can be done to prevent this from recurring. a) Apparently Declude Virus has no error tracking in place at all - otherwise it would have REPORTED to us (or your own Declude to your own mail server) that the AVG API was no longer performing scans? b) Do the customers need to set a follow-up reminder for December 2010, which is when your new renewed AVG license will expire? The old DecludeProc had THIS AVG License String: LicBeg, Ver=1.0, Name="Declude", Exp=2009-04-10 So this implies, that the product was inoperable since April 10th for every customer because Declude didn't obtain a new annual AVG license and had to wait a few days for this "transaction" to complete? That means the product was unusable for 13% of the year? This can't just be brushed aside quietly. Best Regards, Andy --- This E-mail came from the Declude.Virus mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to imail...@declude.com, and type "unsubscribe Declude.Virus". The archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com. --- This E-mail came from the Declude.Virus mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to imail...@declude.com, and type "unsubscribe Declude.Virus". The archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com. --- This E-mail came from the Declude.Virus mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to imail...@declude.com, and type "unsubscribe Declude.Virus". The archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com. --- This E-mail came from the Declude.Virus mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to imail...@declude.com, and type "unsubscribe Declude.Virus". The archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com. --- This E-mail came from the Declude.Virus mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to imail...@declude.com, and type "unsubscribe Declude.Virus". The archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com. --- This E-mail came from the Declude.Virus mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to imail...@declude.com, and type "unsubscribe Declude.Virus". The archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com.
