Update vs. Upgrade

[DavidAVogel]

Lasersoft:

I am disappointed that the management of this company is so sadly missing the point of concern by many of it's customers.

When a consumer buys a scanner with provided scanning software- the expectation is that the software will work to run the scanner... and that the software will have free, downloadable UPDATES to run on computer system software. (At the same feature level as the provided software.)

UPGRADES of software, with new features, improvements, etc. are another, different issue. Those who want or need new featues can pay the price. This is understood.

Unfortunately Silverfast management is (as we say in the US) mixing apples and oranges. Your consumers should not be expected to buy additional upgrades to run their scanners! I, for one, am not interested in new or additional featues- nor should I be expected to pay for them!

In my case- I purchased an Epson Photo Scanner that came with Silverfast as part of the purchase price of the scanner. One of the reasons I bought this particular scanners was that the Silverfast plug in allowed me to scan directly in Photoshop- which is my main tool for graphic work. (I run CS2 Photoshop on a Mac G5 with OS 10.4)

Now that I am running CS3 Photoshop I have found that Silverfast CRASHES my application everytime I scan. When approaching Lasersoft for fixes: I and others were told to buy the upgrade; only to find that it STILL CRASHES CS3 PHOTOSHOP. The last forum posting I saw stated that LASERSOFT DOES NOT SUPPORT CS3 PHOTOSHOP.

I think that is inexcusable. As far as justifying cost increases- this doesn't fly. I'm sure Lasersoft does not get packaged with scanners for free. I consider part of my purchase price of the Epson scanner payment for the Silverfast software.

Finally, you might notice that Canon, Epson, and HP ALL provide free driver updates, etc. for their equipment. Lasersoft should do the same.

[LSI_Giess]

Dear DavidAVogel,

The fix for the Photoshop CS3 problem is now available for download from our website. The SilverFast plugin vers. 6.5.0r6 itself has not being changed. Therefor the version number is still the same.

Berthold Giess
LaserSoft Imaging AG

[DavidAVogel]

As I replied elsewhere on the forum- The "fix" for PSCS3 crashes is purchase of Silverfast 6.5.

This is not fair or even ethical treatment of those who bought SilverFast as operating software for their scanners.
Many of those users don't need or want the "new features" of SilverFast 6.5.
And many of those users- including me- feel your company is extorting them for additional payment of $30, $50 or more- just to keep their machines running.

My additional payment should not be the "fix' for this problem. A simple, free, downloadable, update that prevents CS3 from crashing would be appropriate.