Hello David,
When with MicroTalk, we tried that--letting people pay monthly--and got
burned more times than I care to remember! It was a great concept, letting
people that could not afford it all at once, have a chance at getting it,
but the execution was something totally different! It was one of our first
rude awakening as a developer/vendor, that you don't need to be sighted to
be a crook. Those that abused the system caused it to be cancelled within
the first 6 months. When I left MicroTalk last October, they still had
outstanding debts going back to 92! The software could be written off as
experience, but the hardware couldn't!
Even with the on-hold credit card number method got abused by the card's
owner going back as much as 6 months to have the credit card company give
them credit for all of those charges by a company that they, (the card
holder), knew nothing about! Just about in every case, the benefit of doubt
went with the card holder.
The audacity of those people astonished me when those same users would call
for tech support, and expect to get it! One idiot even asked if he could
return his synthesizer for repair! I processed his work order and notified
the main office to keep it when it arrived, and the guy threatened a law
suit against us for keeping *his* synthesizer! He felt that it fell under
what he termed, "Common-law property", on the same lines as "Common-law
marriages!" Go figure.
MicroTalk isn't the only company to experience this type of theft, but from
a vender's viewpoint, the concept isn't worth the losses.
As far as single monthly payments being extracted from a credit card, I
don't understand the rational, since the credit card can be billed the full
amount, and the user make monthly payments to his credit card company,
rather than the screen reader vender; unless it is the high interest charged
on the credit card...but, that is what credit cards are for, isn't it?
Thanks,
Dennis Brown, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Visit the Blind Programming site at http://www.mindspring.com/~brown99/
----- Original Message -----
From: David R. Sherman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 1999 9:22 PM
Subject: Re: what do you think
> Hi,
>
> I think your idea is great -- however having used HJ products for nine
> years -- I think it is quite unrealistic. HJ doesn't care about giving
> anyone a break. I'm sure their response to this suggestion would be to
> pay for the software on a credit card -- and let the customer worry about
> the monthly payments. (After all, they are a software developer -- not a
> loan agency).
>
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