Reporting Bugs

[Brett Brown]

Who would have thought in 2022, that Graphisoft will only accept reports of bugs in AC 25 if you are an existing subscription holder (or whatever it's called in various countries)?

I have started to use AC 25 for a month now and reported 4 confirmed bugs ( don't know what the rest of you have been doing for the last year since 25 has been out ) to Graphisoft UK. I reported numbers 5 and 6 in the last few days and they realised I wasn't a subscription holder anymore and got this reply, Quote " Without a support contract I'm not able to process these bug reports, as they will take development time and you require an answer."

Hold on, I am supposed to pay Graphisoft for the privilege to report Bugs? Bugs that cost me money in time and frustration because they are unable to supply a stable Software product?

Isn't the point of Software developers to supply a stable bug-free product for their existing customers and future customers, so the sooner people report bugs the better, and a time saver for the rest of the customers. Although that didn't work here as 26 is due out soon, and 25 is still full of bugs nearly a year after release.

Of course, who knows when or if these bugs will be fixed but this sort of attitude certainly supports me cancelling my subscription for 26.

I wonder how many others like me haven't paid their recent subscription because of Graphisoft's attitude on

transparency and the feature failures in recent versions?

I thought 25 was going to be a stable version after the 2 highly publicised bugs from the first release but seems not.

I paid for 25 and now I am not allowed to better the software for my continued use and others users. Their attitude still seems to be anti-customer relations as been said elsewhere on this forum and even in this new forum setout. Seems nothing will ever change. So why would you or I want to support them?

[Lingwisyer]

When you say Bug Report are you talking about detailing out something that does not work or issuing a bug splat report?

I kind of get the reply if it was the second, though it is not a consumer friendly reply and probably should be reworded, as something has caused a fatal error and they would need to troubleshoot it based on system specific information.

If it was the first, then that reply is really disappointing... more so if said bug was around in previous versions of AC...

Ling.

[Barry Kelly]

@Brett Brown , you mention cancelling your subscription for 26.

Most people that have a subscription have it as part of a Select Service Agreement (SSA) which offers "free" upgrades and "free" support among other benefits ("free" as in you pay for it with the agreement subscription every year).

If you do have an agreement and are locked into yearly fees, then you should be able to get support - check your agreement.

If you are simply paying for upgrades each year (or when ever you want to upgrade) yourself, then no this does not include support if you contact them directly.

The bug reporting system (crash report) through Archicad should still work if you take the time to send it off.

You will hear nothing back though, and you won't be able to contact support to follow it up if you don't have the SSA.

It is disappointing though, if you have purchased a genuine license, that they will not help you.

Especially if it is a recent version.

Old versions I can understand there is no support - even when we have an SSA.

Barry.

[Brett Brown]

The Bug report I am saying is not the crash reporter but a blatant bug in one of their tools etc that has been confirmed by Graphisoft. I don't consider that Support. Support in my view is asking how to do something if you don't know what you are doing. Which I must add is the majority of questions on this forum.

The point is you can use their current software AC 25  and not be in a current SSA, depending on the date your SSA is due to be renewed, they don't care about you and your experience in helping all software users, if you are outside the renewal date. How is that going to encourage me to buy a new SSA in the future.  We are trying to get a stable software, they definitely need help in achieving that, so as I am an expired SSA customer I am not able to report Tool/Software bugs.

[DGSketcher]

@Brett Brown I share your view and my SSA was hanging in the balance but I decided to proceed with renewal on the basis of the sum of the parts.

On the bug front, reporting issues is a dubious prospect at the best of times. I genuinely believe GS has been for many years just fire fighting priority bugs. Your chances of seeing a fix are no better whether you have an SSA or you report them here. Should the local office listen to someone with a currently supported licence? In the interests of customer relations then "Yes", because the software has a potential defect that impacts all users. But, even with an SSA, don't hold your breath on hearing a response or commitment on fixing the bug. Long term backlog is a phrase commonly used by GS for too many issues...

[Rob]

Hi Brett,

I see your point and I have to admit that your case is rather unfortunate... I appreciate there is a blurry area when you wish to report a bug but at the same time you cannot contact UK tech support due to a lapsed SSA.  Perhaps to justify our tech support reply - the system does not allow them to record your case as your account is virtually closed for this kind of activity... sometimes, and I am not saying it would be your case as I did not see the bugs you wished to report, there is not so obvious feature design intent to a user or anticipated workflow that user is not following which can appear as a buggy behaviour. Having said that, I am more than happy to take your bug reports on board and convey them to our devs... just ping me with a private message and I will send you my email address.

Cheers,

Rob

(Director of customer success in UK/Ireland)