News: all updates for our software and apps
Welcome to the February edition of the Collectorz.com newsletter.
The topics for today:
- Use the Search Box
- Comic Collector 5 for Windows is live!
- Comic Collector 5 for Mac delayed
- Server upgrade complete!
- Starting March 1: Connect Sale, 25% discount on all Connect subscriptions
Before we go on the news, I have a serious request to all of you.
It’s about customer support:
Use the Search Box
In the past few months, Chris, Syts, AJ and I have implemented many improvements to the support information that is avaiable on our website.
We made sure that almost all questions we get from customers are answered either on the product home pages, in the manual or in the FAQ.
We did this to improve our service to you, but we were also hoping to reduce the number of support tickets we receive everyday, which was pretty high.
However, there has been little to no effect. On slow days, we are still getting between 60 and 90 new support tickets and Chris has a hard time giving these all the attention they deserve. On busy days, the numbers go up to 200, and Syts and AJ have to assist to get all tickets answered within 24 hours.
Now don’t get me wrong… we love talking to you, helping you and getting your feedback about our software. It is *the* main way we learn what *you* want.
But the problem is, over 80% of the daily tickets concern questions that are already answered in detail in either the FAQ or the manual. Questions like:
- How do I transfer my software and data to a new PC?
- How do I re-download the software that I have a license for?
- What is the difference between the Standard and Pro editions?
- Is there a limit to the number of entries in the database?
All answered in detail on the website and in the FAQ.
Chris, Syts and AJ are spending most of their time referring users to FAQ entries and manual topics. Time we would rather spend helping people with tough problems, or having interesting conversations about feature suggestions.
So here’s my request:
If you have a question about our products, please use the Search Box to search our FAQ and manuals. The chances are high that your answer is already there. Spending that little extra time searching is very likely to give you your
answer within a few minutes. Whereas if you ask your question using the form, waiting for our answer by email will take up to 24 hours. Easy choice isn’t it?
Just go here: https://www.collectorz.com/support.php , click one of the big icons to select your product and then use the Search box.
Oh, before I forget: please don’t use Facebook or Twitter for support questions. We love seeing your feedback there, but the short messages and the fast scrolling timelines don’t really lend themselves to tech support conversations.
Using the Search Box will help us help you better. Thanks!
Hmmm, that part became pretting long, sorry about that. On to the news!
Comic Collector 5 for Windows is live!
It’s finally here, Comic Collector 5 for Windows!
With version 5 you can finally add comics by barcode: Just type or scan the barcode to get automatic details and cover art for that exact issue (currently for American comics only).
But of course, this release also brings to Comic Collector the popular Find Cover Image, the stats in main screen, the wish list features, and more:
https://www.collectorz.com/comic/upgrade.php
Comic Collector 5 for Mac delayed
The news about the Mac edition is less happy:
We have decided to postpone the release of Comic Collector 5 for Mac (again).
Why? Two main reasons:
- The core database functionality is complete and working great, but adding all “secondary” features is taking more time than expected. We simply need more time to make sure that the Mac release is fully up-to-date with the Windows edition (a moving target) from day one.
- Last week’s Comic Collector 5.0 release for Windows was a huge success, BUT the first build we released was far from stable. This was all fixed within 3 days, but still… we decided this can’t happen again and that we should spend more time thoroughly testing our software, with more people.
I can’t give you a new ETA, sorry. It will be ready when it’s ready. But count on April at least, maybe well into April…
Interested in Comic Collector for Mac OS X? Then join its Preview Club:
https://www.collectorz.com/comic/macpreview.php
Server upgrade complete!
Great news: the hardware upgrade for our database server is complete!
The process of moving to the new server has been a 4-week long nightmare (because of the size of the databases and the huge amount of cover images), but I am happy to tell you that the result has exceeded our expectations.
We have not seen any server downtime or even slow performance since the move.
All searches in the Add Automatically screens are much faster now (especially for books and music) and Connect is more responsive than it has ever been.
For the geeks among us : the new server is running FreeBSD 7.2, on an i7 QuadCore processor, 12 Gb of internal memory, 1.2 Tb of super-fast hard disk space (resulting from 4 x 600 Gb drives in RAID 01 configuration).
Thank you for your patience during the move. I hope you’ll enjoy the result.
Starting March 1: Connect Sale, 25% discount on all Connect subscriptions
Some of the most common questions we get from our users are:
- How can I access my collection database on another computer?
- How do I send a list of my collection to my friends?
- How can I get my database on my phone, PDA, tablet computer etc…?
The funny thing is: we already have an excellent solution for all that:
Just publish your collection online with Collectorz.com Connect.
We are very proud of our online Connect applications, and its users love it, but it seems many (new?) users simply don’t know of its existence.
So we have decided to re-introduce Connect with a 2-week long sale. This sale will run from Tuesday March 1 to Sunday March 13 and it will offer a 25% discount on all subscriptions ($14.95/year instead of $19.95/year).
To prepare for this Sale, check out what Connect can do for you:
Music Collector Connect: https://www.collectorz.com/music/connect.php
Movie Collector Connect: https://www.collectorz.com/movie/connect.php
Book Collector Connect: https://www.collectorz.com/book/connect.php
Comic Collector Connect: https://www.collectorz.com/comic/connect.php
Game Collector Connect: https://www.collectorz.com/game/connect.php
More information about the Connect Sale will arrive in your inbox on March 1.
Talk to you then,
Alwin Hoogerdijk
Collectorz.com https://www.collectorz.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Collectorz (almost 13,000 fans!)