Leaving you either out of pocket or without a service you valued but no longer have or both? The service might not be planner related.
I seem to be the un-lucky one, because over the years I can count at least half a dozen instances of this happening to me in one form or another.
Sometimes the company just wants to move you to a higher costing service, in one case this week for on-line back up I was potentially facing a bill of 4-5 times more per year compared to the fixed price I've paid for the last 4 years. Or in another instance instead of a fixed one off price for an application they want to change you to a new version of the application that is on an annual subscription charge.
These sort of things can cause you a lot of grief in terms of data loss or having to move to another service and then reload your data etc etc.
Fortunately.... these things rarely happen with paper planners! OK a size might be discontinued, for example Deskfax or Mini or M2. But Filofax and other vendors will continue to supply their inserts for a number of years afterwards until the point at which the number of sales has decreased to a point where it isn't economical for them to continue to supply such a small market.
However, it's only paper and printing... so you can print your own given suitable files and printing skills, so it's not a total disaster?
These sort of IT issues/changes often make me reevaluate my actual requirements, quite often I've found that I don't need a complicated solution, a much simpler one will be perfectly adequate. The same is often the case with our planners and organisers.....
How often do you re-evaluate your actual requirements for your planner?
Of course it is Friday so please feel free to discuss anything organiser/planner related.
Have a safe and relaxing weekend.
Yes, I've been let down by internet providers several times, changing tarrifs and provision.Annoys me no end Steve.Even here in the planner world, I get frustrated by Etsy providers who charge on the higher side for printables which you download and print, that's not a deal breaker in itself because you either say yes or no to the cost and printing time, but when they don't put their inserts on up early enough for printing well ahead of the next year, then that is a deal breaker for me. Working in teaching, I need a full academic year diary from September, and need to print the inserts in August, ready for a September return. Some folks need to print in July for an August academic year return. Not offering your clients a diary early enough for printing at home, frankly will just lose sellers their trade and business. Philofaxy had their diaries onsite and FREE months ago. Why can't others be as on the ball I ask myself?? Well done Philofaxy.
ReplyDeleteI used to do CMS Web design with minimal database programming for years in addition to my full time job. Many times having to upgrade the CMS program for multiple sites was hugely problematic and stressful since the CMS was open source and support was not guaranteed. I finally got to the point where I would have gladly thrown my money at anyone to just handle it. I finally threw in the towel when I got tired of chasing down vermin who were pirating my design work. Now, I have a simple blogger site that I will find focus with after I retire.
ReplyDeleteI have been shopping ebay for used Filofax binders. I've been pretty lucky to purchase some excellent leather binders at a reasonable price. One thing to watch out for is those sellers who don't really know much about Filofax; especially the sizes. I purchased what the seller called Pocket and when it arrived it was a personal size. (To them it must be "pocket" sized.) I did get a refund for it, as I use either Pocket or A5 binders. If you're not sure, or the photos included were hard to see, ask the seller. It will save everyone a bit of time.
ReplyDelete