I agree with much of what David has said below, but it seems to me that VFO could still be much more up front and direct about the changes being implemented and VFO's expectation that such changes will be beneficial to all of its customers. Some corporate generated "spin" would be helpful.
It is confusing to mere mortals who have paid for our Window-Eyes to read comments about dealers being withdrawn, but when I look here in New Zealand, I notice that VFO has two dealers, but neither of them historically at least deals with all products. And in fact - I have an optelec braille display, purchased through a dealer who is not VFO. So to whom has my Window-eyes record gone if I want support - which I don't and never get anyway? VFO as the front for Freedom Scientific has discouraged direct contact from customers outside of the U.S., whereas after much discussion I did have direct contact with the old GW Micro and the more recent AI Squared. What happens if my Optelec product needs to be serviced? So whilst mergers, takeovers, buy-outs etc inevitably bring changes as to how things are done, finding out through users being surprised at what they discover is simply bad public relations. Regarding Window-eyes and my braille display: VFO still fronts Freedom Scientific far more vigourously than it does AI Squared and Optelec. Given this - my uninformed, speculative logic indicates to me that perhaps Alva displays will be discontinued in preference to Focus displays, and that Window-Eyes will compete with NVDA as a free product, (but please donate if you like it) and so forth. VFO's wall of death silence contributes to our uninformed speculation. Finally: why do we rant about this when VFO is not even having the decency of responding with at least some reassuring words prepared at great expense by the marketing and public relations team? My answer: we just like talking to ourselves and venting, which is the alternative to much more destructive courses of action. Vaughan. -----Original Message----- From: Talk [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of David via Talk Sent: Tuesday, 10 January 2017 10:31 p.m. To: Chris Skarstad; Window-Eyes Discussion List; [email protected] Subject: Re: All phone calls now directed to VFO Excuse me, please, but what is all the desperation about? It is several months now, we have been aware VFO has bought AISquared, who in turn bought GWMicro a couple of years ago. So, would it not be simple as natural, to expect them to use their company name, when a customer calls in. If I changed my name to John, would you then be comfortable with me answering calls saying: "Hello, you are speaking to Peter!"? Of course, if you are calling some department of VFO, it will be VFO and noone else who is rightfully answering the phone. All you old-timers want them to still present themselves as GWMicro, when you call in. But if I was a new customer, or at least relatively new, calling a long-distance number for the first time - I sure would be confused if I know the manufacturer of my screen reader to be VFO, and someone comes on and say: "GWMicro, how may I help you?" And since they are all one big company now, it is time for us to realize that their merging has been more fully completed. Gone are the days, when a front-desk operator had to be physically located in the same building as his employer. Who knows, when you call in now aday, the operator that answers the phone, might be sitting in his living room, back home in California, Texas, Virginia, or even in New England - simply just transfering your call to the actual department and personel. Do you all know, that some companies even have dismissed their front-desk operator altogether these days? They buy the service from another company, who has specialized in that kind of services. So, calling a company, talking to some customer care personel, does no longer dictate that this person even is employed by the company he is representing when talking to you. He just sees which number you are calling, and knows what to answer accordingly. Nope, I am by no means telling this to be the case here, but just because the company happens to use their real and updated name when answering the phone, does tell nothing as to whether they have stopped supporting their long-time customers. Let's just finalize this message, with a scenario, and you all make up your mind. Imagine that GWMicro had never been sould out. They would have stayed exactly the same company, same staff, same productline. But for some reason, they decide to rename the company, giving themselves a more modern and humanlike name. So, they decide: We want to be named "Bread and butter". Now, after the renaming process has all been completed with all authorities and registers, and you pick up your phone and call the company, what do you expect them to say when answering? Use their old, no longer valid name - thereby kind of being dishonest? - Or, use their new and legally registered name? - Would you all have flushed the list with messages saying things are nearing their underground, just because of the name change and the accordingly answered phone call? People, stop desparing, start make sense. If you could come back on the list and tell us that the phone had been answered by a reliable representative, who could confirm that the screen reader no longer is in business - well then wake me up. Till then, I would have expected nothing else from a company, even view it as clear-cut naturalness, that the company presents themselves on the phone, with their legal name. That it happened right now, might be because it was right now all paper-work has been finished. Or, it might be they just decided it was a good and clean time to process the change, at the turn of a new year. I do see nothing in this, that indicates anything but the fact, the new company name is VFO, and will stay VFO. You don't stop being yourself, even if you change your surname when getting married, do you? Or, just because you happen to get a new cellphone, with another number. Where is the sense-making? David On 1/9/2017 9:38 PM, Chris Skarstad via Talk wrote: > there has been absolutely no official announcement that window-eyes is > going away. I'm so glad everyone here has all the answers and that > we've all made up our minds despite no official announcement yet. If > we did everything your guys way we'd all be in real trouble. > > > > On 1/9/2017 3:33 PM, Olusegun -- Victory Associates LTD, Inc. via Talk > wrote: >> R I P Window-Eyes! Even though we are still together, I must begin >> preparing for the funeral service for real! No, not trying to scare >> you, >> but the handwriting is definitely on the wall and we can all refuse >> to read >> it. Sad doom days slowly coming down with a bang, bang!! >> >> Sincerely, >> Olusegun >> Denver, Colorado >> >> >> --- >> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. >> https://www.avast.com/antivirus >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the >> author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. >> >> For membership options, visit >> http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/rascal0826%40verizon.net. >> For subscription options, visit >> http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com >> List archives can be found at >> http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com >> > > _______________________________________________ > Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the > author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. > > For membership options, visit > http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/trailerdavid%40hotmail.com. > For subscription options, visit > http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com > List archives can be found at > http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com > . > _______________________________________________ Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. 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