🚀 go-pugleaf

MW Ron <mwron@metrowerks.com> wrote in message news:<mwron-FEB556.10330002032004@news.newsguy.com>...
> >> >Currently the website and online store don't say anything about an
> >> >academic version.  Is an academic version going to be available of
> >> >this?
> >> 
> >> Yes there will be,  Information should be on the web site soon.
> >
> >Hmm, currently the online store does not list it (March 2nd, 9:34 GMT)
> >and there does not seem to be any other sign of it on the website yet.
> 
> I'm told they won't have it ready until the end of the week.  The 
> product manager had surgery and this has cause some of the burearacy to 
> get delayed.

Dear Ron,

I did indeed manage to order the academic version of the tools.  And
they did arrive today.  So far, so good.  However, what I paid for
shipping is far from acceptable!

First I can only select FedEx International shipping for a "tiny" fee
- US$14.10. Does not sound too much, now does it? Well, upon arrival I
had the expected 16% value added tax ready, and was surprised that I
not only pay tax for the import (as expected), but that FedEx also
charges 8.35 Euros of administartion fee for this service. So, in
total I paid: US$75 for the CW Pro 9 Academic, and US$21 for shipping.
 Thus, I paid an additional 28% of the sales price for shipping of
just a half pound of stuff!!!

I frequently order English books and DVDs at Amazon.com for shipping
to Germany. They use regular airmail.  It takes seven to ten days, but
I pay just US$9 (US$4.49 per book plus US$4.49 per shipment) for a
single five pound book or US$7 for a single DVD (US$ 2.49 per DVD).
And I don't have to pay some odd FedEx administration fee for
processing by the postal service either!

Given that I waited many month until the CW 9 academic version was
available, waiting another five days for it to arrive via regular
airmail would not have killed me.  In conclusion, I am *happy* with
the product and the support, but *not* with the hassle to get
up-to-date versions.  I seriously get the impression that Merowerks
sales management has zero interest in international or academic
end-users. Maybe you should mention to your sales management that
there are now three compilers available for the Mac...

I don't use the other two compilers for various reasons, but if
Metrowerks does not want to sell their products to me in a fair manner
and at the same time (or only a bit later) as commercial versions are
available, next time I need to upgrade, I will first look elsewhere
before I buy another upgrade from Metrowerks!

    Thorsten Fr�hlich