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[JimH]

Noborg,
[From the thread on World Domination]

> Even though I paid for the product, there's no comprehensive list of bugs, no email address or telephone number for support. One can get help from other users and occasionally from JRiver by using this forum, but the forum is hard to find and not always helpful.

----
There are three ways to find it on the web site:

Interact/Talkback

Help/Support [recently added at a user's suggestion]

Company/Contacts, where it says this [and all links are live]:
----
Frequently Asked Questions
MJ User Guide
Price, Payment, and License details
If you can't find an answer above, please ask at Interact/Talkback
Note that these are the only options available for support.
----

In Media Jukebox, the Home page has links to the FAQ, the User Guide, and Interact.

In the program, it's under Help/Interact.

If you write to info @ jriver.com or music @ jriver.com you will also be directed to these pages.

Any ideas on how to make it easier?

[noborg]

Hi JimH,

Thanks.  I actually hadn't noticed Help/Support (perhaps added after I first found talkback).  I did find it via Company/Contacts, which is not the typical place, which was a bit frustrating.  It might be better to rename "Help" as "Support", and Help/Support as Support/Forum or Support/UserForum.   I think that Help/Support is a bit misleading, since it leads to a forum where you may or may not get help (which may or may not come from the company).

It's also frustrating to get help with a specific problem via the forum.  You post and have to keep checking, with no guarantee of help.  Most companies offer email support from the company, at least for a period of time after purchase.  I'm curious why MJ doesn't do this.  It certainly won't dominate the world without that.

js

[dragyn]

>You post and have to keep checking, with no guarantee of help.

If you make a profile with Interact (username/password), you can have it send you an email when someone replies to your post. This way you don't have to keep checking.

[JimH]

[noborg's message moved]

JimH,
I read the response; thanks.

> 1. $24.98 isn't much money, surely not enough to be indignant about.

I agree. I'm not indignant, and I hope I didn't come across that way. I'm just pointing out, in response to a request for advice on how to dominate the world, that it won't happen without a more-reliable program and better support.

> 2. You aren't buying JRiver when you pay the $24.98. You are buying the right to use the program.

It's conventional to expect some support (if only for a limited time) after buying a program. I've bought lots of $25 programs and ususally am satisfied with the help I get when first starting out. If in fact it's the policy that MJ is unsupported, then this should be made clear to those who buy it so they won't be disappointed.

js

[noborg]

Dragyn,  

Thanks.  Didn't know about that. (Did I miss something obvious?  Perhaps some prominent info about the email notification option would encourage people to create an account.)  

js

[KingSparta]

>>Did I miss something obvious?
I think so, but many do

[JimH]

[moved]

[JimH said]
Noborg,
Your message was moved to [this thread] ..... If you want to complain about the quality of the product and the quality of the support, please use [this]thread.


[noborg said]

JimH,
No problem, we can continue the discussion in that thread. But the impression you give is quite unreceptive ("if you want to complain..."), especially given your mission to make MJ the best jukebox in the world. This all started because I was unable to get help with a specific feature (that appears not to work) and came across your request for input on how MJ can become the best jukebox in the world. You say you wanted only marketing ideas, but software marketing and software quality are tightly bound. (I have spent many years in the software development business, and learned this the hard way.)

js

[KingSparta]

Most of the questions asked can be found in the help files.

They currently need work and lise is working on them now, I gave her some input on ATI TV card in e-mail.

Help is nice and I think Jim, matt and all the others at J River do a good job at support. And when the "Bar Flies" are around and the moon is not full we\they can be helpful also.

I think there are something’s that both J River and the bar flies don't know, everyone’s system is dif but we try to help when we can.

If the programmers and Jim were in here 24\7 they would never get the betas out and a finish product. I think it is a balancing act that must be done.
please give all of us a chance to help, if we can we will chime in.

[Doof]

I'm wondering if the "Interact..." option under MJ's Help menu should be renamed to "Online Support..." or something similar.

To those who have never been to Interact, that menu option may not be the most intuitive choice when you're looking for help.

[AndrewD]

No question, everyone here tries as hard as they can to be helpful, and more often than not they are.

However, I have a hard time reconciling JimH's statement that he is tired of people complaining with the simultaneous desire to get more people to buy MJ.  Do you think that if your sales doubled that the number of issues would drop?  Or that the traffic on this board would go down?  Or the number of frustrated users who paid their $24.98 and have to "bump" their questions back to the top of the forum to get them looked at would go down?

Right now (and this is purely conjecture but I have 17 years of IT industry experience to back it up) the majority of your users are the "early adopters", those users who will try something new and different and better even if it has bugs.  They are more self-sufficient and less apt to whine about odd behavior and the occasional crash.  As your quest for world domination advances, the proportion of "average" users, with average ability and (perhaps) less than average patience for buggy code will increase.

What does all this mean?  It means that
1) Despite your desire for the complaining to stop, Jim, it will likely continue or increase as your product's penetration increases
2) The fact that the complaining has increased lately may mean that world domination should be postponed for awhile ....

And finally - and I have to say that after following this forum for several weeks now, I was shocked that you would make this statement - making a statement like the price of your product is low enough that your consumers should not get indignant if it doesn't work correctly is absolutely ridiculous.  It was defensive, and it was bad salesmenship.

[JimH]

AndrewD,
Thank you for your excellent advice.  Please remember that we are in beta.

[KingSparta]

I have been thinking about this for some time

What might help is a help system like Microsoft has, with levels of help

Free - Help Pages \ program help files

All levels above the web pages, cost money like I think they have a level for around lowest at U.S.$199, high end U.S.$2,799

Therefore, if you want to ask JimH a question (you can ask 2 questions), you get more questions the more money you pay

Since Windows XP costs $199, you get 2 questions for MJ that would mean for $24.95 you get 2 questions you can ask. if you want to ask more you need use your Visa and you can buy the MJ Universal version of help at a low cost of $249.50 you can ask 4 questions

Jim will then think about your question and give you his best answer after a cup of coffee (stirred not shaken).

[JimH]

Thanks.  I needed htat.