I do not think all has been said regarding TDS-3

I cant belive people are still ranting over this. TDS was a damned good program that has served many well, but is now becoming out of date technology wise. Time and technology move on, and if DCS feel they need to make a different approach to help in the fight against the nasties out there then so be it.
Lets be clear though, TDS was only a £30 program, not a £30,000 program so lets put things in perspective.

 

Hi Kentish,

To use analogy, that I think may reflect why so many users are upset (I do not include myself, since I switched to Ewido for real-time monitoring some time ago):

Suppose you, as a user, spent several weeks (possibly months) deciding on a new alarm system to guard your house, and, after all of this work of finding, paying for, and installing the alarm system, which you feel is crucial to your security, you receive a phone call, on Friday evening, without any warning, that your alarm system has been immediately turned-off and is no longer operational. Hmmmm ... Don't you think this may be just a little upsetting?

Regards,
Rich

 

@ EWT,

Your last post was removed.

As you were told by the Site owner....moderating of posts will not be discussed further in this thread. Please continue the discussion on this topic's subject....or heed what LWM suggested and slide him a PM if you really feel froggy and have anything further to say about this moderating matter.

 

This is not much more than another venting thread.

I bought TDS-3 because most experts felt it was the best in the industry.

I do trust the DCS vision, and comprehend what it takes to run a meaningful, and financially responsible company. I suspect many posting here probably don't fully get the latter point.

For me, there's no reason to doubt the intentions of DCS. It's impossible to please everyone, McDonald's sure doesn't. But probably in the end, if DCS were to just say the heck with it, we quit...most people would say "they were a great outfit...they developed products ahead of most others out there..."

Seems like that's where they are headed, and I'm anxious to know what they bring.

Just my pennies...

TR

 

Maybe so, but then its not a £30 pc software item.
TDS is just a program at the end of the day, and DCS will produce something of equal if not better quality, so lets get off their back.
They have produced many quality programs over the time, so just because TDS is stopped why does that mean DCS will no longer provide excellent software?

As I said, perspective is needed.

 

I do not think it is the quality of the product that is in question. In fact, quite the opposite. Users, probably would not be at all upset, if they found themselves all of a sudden without a "poor product" (they might be quite happy!).

Rather than the quality and reliability of DCS products, I believe the question lies in the quality/reliability of the company's managment decisions regarding the best interests of their customer base. Did it have to be done in this way? Were there other approaches that may have been better for users? These are the questions that I believe most of the posters on this thread have posited.

Regards,
Rich

 

Since TDS has a determind following, dont you think they were damned if they did and damned if they didnt?
As I see it, there was no easy way to stop TDS without any amount of people getting upset.
Ultimately, I feel you have to trust DCS's judgement on the program and way forward, and personally I do.

 

I'd have appreciated an email regarding this so I didn't have to stumble across the news.
There may be very good reasons behind the termination of TDS-3, but reading the posts, it's been a PR disaster in many peoples eyes just banging up a post on a forum.

These people will go and tell others and this will do Diamond CS's reputation harm.

Shame really.

 

I can't believe it. I have subscribed to TDS-3 for over 2 years and the only way I found out is that the news is now all over the newsgroups on Usenet about what DCS did. You are so right. Not even an email-- I mean, how much time and effort does it take to email your subscribers about the situation?!? You ain't kidding when you said a public-relations disaster. Judging from the posts here and in the newsgroups, it looks like the DCS reputation just got a royal flush-- and I'm not talking about the winning kind either. A competely bungled operation which will distance most of their following, including yours truly. :-(

 

P.S. I just read their website-- I couldn't believe what I was reading, particularly in the area of "in the best interests of our customers". What a patronizing statement. I'd like to decide what is in my best interests, thank you. More like in their own best interests, because they couldn't make enough money by giving away the next version for free for all they promised to. Unblelievable.

 

No matter which way you cut it, this event has been poorly managed and has created an impression that DiamondCS has not really looked after its customers.

We could have been told by email that the updates were stopping etc, rather than just wondering why the process wasn't working. Some reasonable offer of compensation (other than licences to programs many - most? - already own) might have been made for those who paid good money for this program and service on the understanding that it would be on-going and that a new version to which they were entited was on the way. Other avenues such as the possibility of paying a subscription to fund the updates might have been explored.

A little care taken in ending TDS3's distinguished career could have made the exercise more positive. As it is, a lot of us feel that we have been treated poorly, and have lost faith in a company that we have supported, recommended, and indeed gone in to bat for on various forums (as I have here: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/ProcessGuard/1088370511/1).

Damage has been done: that's a plain and obvious fact. Now DiamondCS needs to start rebuilding goodwill.

 

Yes, I have been involved in similar situations many times in my career. Basically the steps I took (as part of a team) was to:

1) Make sure that users had plenty of notice
2) Help ensure there was some migration path. Users normally have a set workflow and depend upon the software that they are using. Any disruption requires them to tend to the "emergency" right away - leaving other obligations - some of which require immeidate attention - on the back burner.
3) Make sure there is an equitable compensation for the disruption that was caused through no fault of the user.

Most of the time this causes great stress on the company that is terminating the product. It is the cost of doing business, if the company wants to maintain company goodwill and loyalty. It happens all of the time in the software business. When a company does not follow through in a manner that is perceived as reasonable by the users, then the disharmony generally has a very long lasting effect. It is the means by which users keep their vendors honest.

Based upon my experiences, DCS has a situation on their hands. But it isn't over until it is over, and hopefully that which can be fixed, will be fixed.

Regards,
Rich

 

Completely disagree. This isn't a picture viewer or an MP3 player. This is protection software. I have never heard of an AV/AT company ending (update) support without notice. What DCS did is completely unprofessional and inexcusable.

I also don't think that we are seeing the full picture of customer dissatisfaction on this forum. It is no secret that most people who post here are die-hard DCS groupies.

The fact that Wayne refuses to reply to a lot of people and that he pulls down a poll started by a member shows that he is feeling a lot of heat over this.

Someone in the other thread wrote that this is a PR nightmare. It is.

I hope it doesn't end in a legal action taken against DCS, but I do hope that Wayne learns something valuable here.

Tom

 

I have just found out that TDS 3 is no longer being supported.

I can understand the reasons why the decision was made, the proverbial happens.

I use two other of their products, quite happily.

What I am not to happy about, why could you not E-mail your registered customers about it.

A point to consider in future please.

 

Some good points and some bad points and lots of boring slag matching still going on in here I see

If you were forced into a situation you would do what you can and try to minimize any problems, looks just like what was done here. Could have been done better, but at least free ProcessGuard and it works a lot better than betanews "reviews" suggest just use the help file. I'm happy with it

 

Seems an interesting topic about TDS not touched on yet is the detection. TDS-4 would not be made and promised unless it was going to be better than TDS-3 right ? any idiot could hire 4 programmers to make a beautiful new program with flashy GUI and oo look at the "features" and everything. Behind the scenes a couple of them have made great programs for analyzing trojans and removing trojans. But what does this new scanner actually do ? nothing sorry it cant detect anything except a few common junk and lots of false alarms but ppl will buy it

 

That would be complete lack of integrity. Not what DiamondCS stands for, so they won't go that slobby road. Of course they could have given us just something, but they want to give us something much better. And that's what we're all waiting for.

 

Businesses like this NEED their customers and not to offer at least a month's notice was a huge slap in the face for those who waited for over 2 years for TDS 4. A little courtesy shown could have made the landing a lot smoother.

I think those who are really upset will speak not at this forum but with their credit cards. A courtesy that should have been shown wasn't and that is regrettable.

'Courtesy is the Lord of all Virtues'


Dave

 

That's a very short sighted way of looking at things. Unhappy customers are very quick to spread the news. Each person is going to influence a few other people against DCS. In the future, everytime DCS products are mentioned anywhere you can bet this fiasco is going to be brought up.

Worse yet, many people here are not typical but early adopters and 'experts' that the masses look up to. People who recommend lesser known products to others who would not have otherwise heard of. In particular DCS products. You don't want to alienate these people!

In this thread alone, I see many people who are getting turned off because they recently recommended this product to friends and now they are looking like a fool.

Turning any one of them against DCS, means the loss of more than one sale.

A naive view. A PR nightmare can sink any company, regardless of the superiority of their products.

 

That's a very good question. Courtesy is a very, very important part of business as you are dealing with people. One should never just take others for granted.

Dave