Topaz Customer Service is the "pits"

[MacUser2]

I have been experiencing extremely poor support from Topaz . This has been going on for over a month. The problems that I have encountered are primarily centered around their poor response, they either do not reply or when they did finally reply, they seemed to have lost track of our email chain.

I have been using Topaz plugins for at least a dozen years, and never ran into this problem before.

Since my emails to Topaz customer support seem to be falling on deaf ears, does anybody know how I can inform Topaz senior management of this problem.

I am planning to purchase a new computer in the next couple of months, and as it stands now, I doubt that Topaz will be joining me on my new machine. I like their products and their update policy is the best in the industry. However, without access to a reliable customer support system, I see no benefit to remaining with them.

 

[Toermalijn]

I have been experiencing extremely poor support from Topaz . This has been going on for over a month. The problems that I have encountered are primarily centered around their poor response, they either do not reply or when they did finally reply, they seemed to have lost track of our email chain.

I have been using Topaz plugins for at least a dozen years, and never ran into this problem before.

Since my emails to Topaz customer support seem to be falling on deaf ears, does anybody know how I can inform Topaz senior management of this problem.

I am planning to purchase a new computer in the next couple of months, and as it stands now, I doubt that Topaz will be joining me on my new machine. I like their products and their update policy is the best in the industry. However, without access to a reliable customer support system, I see no benefit to remaining with them.

Put in a second request for the AI Gigapixel offline link. Never got back to me the first time. Will see what happens this time.

It used to be very responsive and quick, never experienced this before.

It's probably a sign on the wall that you can't maintain a free upgrade policy in the long run. If you don't make enough sales, you have to cut expenses.

 

[JLGF1]

Wow.

 

[Zeee]

Wow.

This reminds me of being in one thread there trying to figure out why we were getting that worm look after using AI Clear. We were starting to get some good info and the moderator shut the thread down. I guess they didn't want to advertise the problem.

 

[JLGF1]

During the Studio-2 plug-in fiasco (which is still not universally supported) I suggested a user try Affinity Photo to use both Topaz legacy plug-ins and Studio. For my trouble, I was bullied by the forum moderator (Don) and eventually had my account suspended.

So, their support is trending toward ON1 and Skylum.

 

[Toermalijn]

During the Studio-2 plug-in fiasco (which is still not universally supported) I suggested a user try Affinity Photo to use both Topaz legacy plug-ins and Studio. For my trouble, I was bullied by the forum moderator (Don) and eventually had my account suspended.

So, their support is trending toward ON1 and Skylum.

My faith has been restored. A helpful lady gave me the link for the offline installer and all is well. Gigapixel ai 4.4.1 is installed now. Couldn't make 4.4.0. work on my system.

 

[MacUser2]

Consider yourself lucky. The unhelpful lady apparently loses my correspondence even though I receive emails acknowledging receipt of my request for help.

I hope they clean-up their act because they have great products and their update policy is the best.

 

[Toermalijn]

Consider yourself lucky. The unhelpful lady apparently loses my correspondence even though I receive emails acknowledging receipt of my request for help.

I hope they clean-up their act because they have great products and their update policy is the best.

More people got an offline installer sent by Topaz Labs, so I don't consider myself lucky. They are doing their utmost to solve the problems.

 

[JLGF1]

Consider yourself lucky. The unhelpful lady apparently loses my correspondence even though I receive emails acknowledging receipt of my request for help.

Of course, the initial ack email is automated. Obviously, the return replies are not. However, the point of a ticketing system is so they don't lose your emails and that they know whether they have responded or not. Apparently, that's not working so great either.

 

[brucet]

Years ago when I first started using Topaz products you couldn't fault their service. It was the 'best' in the industry. Then something happened. No idea what but it changed. In my experience it was not so much Topaz but those relaying the messages. Some of their messengers need to have a better understanding of customer service.

In my case they continually told me it was my hardware causing the problem. But their next upgrade fixed the problem!!!! (I just installed Studio 2 'again' and their latest 'hardware' problems has vanished. Now Studio 2 works fine).

Topaz still has good products. I still use them daily. They just need to review their customer service/contact policies.

regards

 

[OzarkAggie]

In my case they continually told me it was my hardware causing the problem. But their next upgrade fixed the problem!!!! (I just installed Studio 2 'again' and their latest 'hardware' problems has vanished. Now Studio 2 works fine).

All graphics applications, especially games, video editors, face the prospect of optimizing for two different protocols. nVidia uses proprietary processors (CUDA) and Radeon uses OpenCL. So hardware can be an issue that vendors like Topaz must overcome.

I have a new build on the bench using the new Ryzen cores, and I'm opting for Radeon video. 8 gig of 256 bit memory. If that doesn't crunch Ai and Studio 2 I'll register my own complaints.

But I do this knowing that applications optimized for CUDA, like Adobe's, achieve slightly better performance albeit at a higher price.

 

[JLGF1]

All graphics applications, especially games, video editors, face the prospect of optimizing for two different protocols. nVidia uses proprietary processors (CUDA) and Radeon uses OpenCL.

https://developer.nvidia.com/opencl

 

[JLGF1]

One reason is because Joe Federic and Heath Robinson are no longer there afaik.

 

[OzarkAggie]

All graphics applications, especially games, video editors, face the prospect of optimizing for two different protocols. nVidia uses proprietary processors (CUDA) and Radeon uses OpenCL.

https://developer.nvidia.com/opencl

"To cut to the chase, AMD support OpenCL and Nvidia support their own proprietary CUDA framework. So which framework do the major applications support you may ask? This is where things can get a little more complicated. Different apps support different GPGPU frameworks, in fact, some support both OpenCL and CUDA and some support neither.

"Obviously, because CUDA is a proprietary framework it requires Nvidia’s support and time to integrate it into applications, this means that the functionality is always fantastic. However, CUDA is not as easy for apps to adopt as OpenCL (as it is open-source). Regardless of this, CUDA is still supported by a wide variety of apps of which the list continues to grow.

"As an easy rule of thumb, if your app supports CUDA, grab an Nvidia card, even if it also supports OpenCL."

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create.pro

Of course for the casual user, the amateur photographer who does a bit of video for fun, it's a better choice to save $200 + on a graphics processor because you won't be seeing a real improvement in speed. Not until you hit around $600 for a GTX 1070, and pros spend double that because time is money.

*On a personal note, I only added this for the benefit of those who might be misinformed by your reply. I've always used nVidia graphics cards because I didn't like Radeon's software. Now the reverse is true. So the premium nVidia charges is no longer worth it, and the performance curves don't justify it. Some of this is based on games benchmarks because that's the most readily available data.

 

[Toermalijn]

All graphics applications, especially games, video editors, face the prospect of optimizing for two different protocols. nVidia uses proprietary processors (CUDA) and Radeon uses OpenCL.

https://developer.nvidia.com/opencl

Low level means in this case that you can directly approach the cores, wich is a little harder. DX12 also supports low level programming. It should yield better performance.

 

[JLGF1]

I was under the impression that this application uses the OpenGL API regardless of the underlying HW? If so, that would mean the actual GPU HW is abstracted away from the developer I would think.

 

[MacUser2]

It shows!!

How do we get corporate Topaz (not the customer support people) to become aware of the problem?