|
JIMW I purchased Interiors from from the Apple Retail Store in Pleasanton CA on 10/4/05. The store rep indicated he new little about it but had not heard any complaints. I got it so that I could redesign my home - office, a smallish, square room with a single window, closet and door. I want to experiment with various pieces of modular office furniture for the ideal layout before purchasing it. The marketing info on the box lead me to believe that this product could be used for this purpose, including custom shapes and sizes. After trying to use it for a couple of hours, this is what I experienced: The product was full of bugs - some that caused crashes and caused me to loose my original layout. You could only modify the included library of objects as to size and shading. To design your own easily you had to purchase a companion program that was not sold in retail store in the US. The cost of this program was almost as much as Interiors. You could take apart a library object in the main program into its elemental components and reshape them into what you wanted - a very complex and tedious operation only useful for the simplest items. The only obvious support was via email as the company, Microspot was only in England and had no US support services. The only alternative for US support was their major wholesale and professional distributor who was not at all interested in providing support unless you purchased it online, directly from them.This was also the only US source of the companion program. Bugs include such things as the placement tool reversing directions when a library object was rotated 90 degrees, doors disappearing when placed in corners, and various other placement and measurement issues. To make a long story a little shorter I found it not to be up to the task I purchased for. I also became stuck with the product, because by the time I finally got any support for it, my return window had been passed. I did finally get a call from England as email support for my issues was totally inadequate, and while the gentleman was polite, few concrete suggestions were offered. Support for my issues were mainly in the for of apologies, excuses, and promises. During the call I was offered the companion product as significant discount if I would purchase it before a new version came out. It was NOT indicated to me that a new version would be release shortly. In early January, a revision came out with an upgrade price half what I originally paid for the product. Their was also a form on their website if you thought you deserved a free copy because you had recently purchase it. I filled it out in mid January but never even got the courtesy of an automated reply. I then called the US distribution company and was given a rude and ugly brushoff. So I am now stuck with a virtually useless and buggy product, about 4 months old, for which I am not going to invest any more money into to see if the update actually fixed the bugs I reported, or if they just added some new features and more bugs, along with its abysmal support.. However if anyone feels that my review is to harsh or unfair and would like this product I will be happy to offer it to them, complete with license, for my mailing costs. Just reply to this review, include your email address, and I will contact you with the details. I will monitor this product for replies for the next several weeks. I have one additional requirement for this offer. You must write a review of the product on MacUpdate after using it and contacting support with at least one issue. (Version 3.6) |