How long to wait for reply from support -- do they ever reply?

tai4de2

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Just wondering whether Blue Iris is known to ever actually respond to support@blueirissoftware.com... for people without paid support in case that matters. I have two licenses and am having a problem that I can't resolve... have emailed them but no reply yet (3 days).

Any insights?
 

fenderman

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Just wondering whether Blue Iris is known to ever actually respond to support@blueirissoftware.com... for people without paid support in case that matters. I have two licenses and am having a problem that I can't resolve... have emailed them but no reply yet (3 days).

Any insights?
Blue iris is developed and supported by one guy with part time assistance of another person. Three to 7 days is not unusual.
 

tai4de2

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Blue iris is developed and supported by one guy with part time assistance of another person. Three to 7 days is not unusual.
Thanks for the reply and info. I didn’t realize it was that small of a staff.

I’m generally quite satisfied with BI and respect the work that goes into it, especially for the price.


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J Sigmo

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A lot folks have expertise with BI on this forum. Perhaps you could ask here and get some answers faster.
 

slodat

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I sent an email over two weeks ago asking to buy a second license for remote management. Never got a reply.
 

IAmATeaf

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I sent an email over two weeks ago asking to buy a second license for remote management. Never got a reply.
I’d try resending it, I’ve had to do this before as at busy periods it’s very easy to miss the odd query.
 

slodat

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Great minds think alike. I sent a second email. I know he’s busy.
 

jaydeel

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I’d try resending it
This weekend the following sentence in the boilerplate reply (from support@blueirissoftware.com) caught my attention for the first time... Perhaps sending an entirely new message with an altered subject line might be advisable... I’ll give it a try.

“Also be aware that replying to your message to inquire about its status causes our email system to move your request to the end of the queue once again.”
 

tai4de2

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I did get a reply today with some good suggestions that I will try.

Also I did start by posting here on the BI Troubleshooting forum. I’ll update that other thread I started for my specific issue once I find a solution. (It’s about remote administration, I won’t repeat it here since there’s a dedicated thread for it.)


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Blue Iris is a great product and I have used it for several years now. However, poor customer support can overshadow a great product especially when support is supposedly included with the license purchase:
Basic support is included with your initial software license purchase. Before your Basic support expires, please use the Upgrade/Renew button on the Options page.
I'm now experiencing a timeout issue when viewing one video stream and then jumping to another video stream via the web UI and cannot get any response from BI support. This is very frustrating because this use to work flawlessly and I'm assuming a BI update was the culprit.
 

Edcfish

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Support is included. that does not mean that support is instant or even fast.
From my (admittedly limited) experience I have seen more minor fixes and improvements in BI than in the vast majority of other software packages I use...and all except the major version change from 4 to 5 were free to the users with or without a support package.
If you have not already, open a thread on these forums with the specific details of your issue.
The amount and quality of assistance here is amazing. (not to take anything away from the very small and I would guess very very busy BI developer)

While it may be an issue with a BI update, it is more likely a combination of your BI setup + network configuration + browser settings.
I am on the most recent 5.x.x.x version and have no issues going from camera to camera via the UI3 interface on any of the PCs (or smartphones) I use it on.
 
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Support is included. that does not mean that support is instant or even fast.
I'm on week two with three follow-up emails and still no BI response on a separate issue. That's very poor customer service IMO, especially for a paid product.

While it may be an issue with a BI update, it is more likely a combination of your BI setup + network configuration + browser settings
I'm not disagreeing with this and it could entirely be an issue on my end...my frustration is the lack of any kind of response from BI support. Something along the lines of: "We are extremely backed up with support tickets", "Please expect a 4 to 5 day lead time", etc... would be better than nothing! It's as if my emails go into a black hole. If we are paying for a product then the developer should hire additional resources to assist with customer support if that's the predicament he/she is in, that's just part of growing a business. I originally came here for support but this post caught my attention and I needed to vent but I am definitely going to post my issue on here. Thanks!
 

fenderman

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Blue Iris is a great product and I have used it for several years now. However, poor customer support can overshadow a great product especially when support is supposedly included with the license purchase:


I'm now experiencing a timeout issue when viewing one video stream and then jumping to another video stream via the web UI and cannot get any response from BI support. This is very frustrating because this use to work flawlessly and I'm assuming a BI update was the culprit.
It doesn't overshadow it as you are still using the product.. you cannot expect immediate response for a $60 piece of software. There are many other VMS that will provide support including phone support an exorbitant fee for support as well as insane per camera licensing.
 
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It doesn't overshadow it as you are still using the product.. you cannot expect immediate response for a $60 piece of software. There are many other VMS that will provide support including phone support an exorbitant fee for support as well as insane per camera licensing.
It's been two weeks and three follow-up emails with no response on a separate issue. Would you mind sharing the other VMS options you speak of?
 

fenderman

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It's been two weeks and three follow-up emails with no response on a separate issue. Would you mind sharing the other VMS options you speak of?
Digital watchdog IPVMS, which is rebranded NX witness sold in North America.... Avigilon, milestone.... Once you see the pricing you'll come running back.
 
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Digital watchdog IPVMS, which is rebranded NX witness sold in North America.... Avigilon, milestone.... Once you see the pricing you'll come running back.
I like that Digital Watchdog can run on Linux, I've wanted that with BI for the longest time! Have you had personal experience with any of those VMS? If so, did they actually assist you with technical issues?
 

tai4de2

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Personally, I pretty quickly rule out any product that doesn't have a CLEAR, STRAIGHTFORWARD statement about pricing that I can see without too many clicks on the company's website. The Digital Watchdog stuff and some of the others therefore fall off my list just about immediately because it frustrates the piss out of me trying to figure out how much it would actually cost! -- even if they might be "better" in some ways than BI. From what I've seen, it's hard to beat BI's combination of price point + features.

I also kinda like that BI is targeted at more of an enthusiast crowd. For a $60 or $70 product that has just about everything except the kitchen sink, I appreciate the opportunity to help myself too.

Not to take away from frustration when something doesn't work, I experience that too, which is why I posted this thread to begin with. The suggestions I got in the response from BI didn't work, and I'm now waiting on another response.
 

fenderman

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Personally, I pretty quickly rule out any product that doesn't have a CLEAR, STRAIGHTFORWARD statement about pricing that I can see without too many clicks on the company's website. The Digital Watchdog stuff and some of the others therefore fall off my list just about immediately because it frustrates the piss out of me trying to figure out how much it would actually cost! -- even if they might be "better" in some ways than BI. From what I've seen, it's hard to beat BI's combination of price point + features.

I also kinda like that BI is targeted at more of an enthusiast crowd. For a $60 or $70 product that has just about everything except the kitchen sink, I appreciate the opportunity to help myself too.

Not to take away from frustration when something doesn't work, I experience that too, which is why I posted this thread to begin with. The suggestions I got in the response from BI didn't work, and I'm now waiting on another response.
DW is about 70 dollars per camera with lifetime upgrades to new versions 0- including completely new version.
 
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