iTunes and Napster-to-Go step aside, RealNetworks is in the house

Until yesterday [26 April 05], Real[Rhapsody] had me as a reasonably satisfied *paying* customer. However, because of internally *well-known* beta-related problems which Real[Bad] elected not to address before releasing its new product/service to the market, it literally forced this customer to its competitor.

After five hours of attempting to install RealBad's new player/service, I was told they knew there were technical problems they had not yet solved. That left this paying customer entirely out in the cold. I could not use the new player, and they refuse to allow downloads of the old player. (And yes, I spent 2.5 hours on the phone with their tech support to no avail.)

So, I have had no choice but to switch to Napster. Clearly Napster's competitive entry forced RealBad to prematurely release a badly flawed product--and resultantly lose at least this customer who did his very best to stay with them. Yes indeed, there's nothing like committing suicide in self-defense when pressed to the wall by your competition!

(They also deleted all negative reviews of my experience that I posted to their support/community forums. Something to hide? Trying to be less than upfront with customers? So it would appear, eh?)

Until yesterday [26 April 05], Real[Rhapsody] had me as a reasonably satisfied *paying* customer. However, because of internally *well-known* beta-related problems which Real[Bad] elected not to address before releasing its new product/service to the market, it literally forced this customer to its competitor.

After five hours of attempting to install RealBad's new player/service, I was told they knew there were technical problems they had not yet solved. That left this paying customer entirely out in the cold. I could not use the new player, and they refuse to allow downloads of the old player. (And yes, I spent 2.5 hours on the phone with their tech support to no avail.)

So, I have had no choice but to switch to Napster. Clearly Napster's competitive entry forced RealBad to prematurely release a badly flawed product--and resultantly lose at least this customer who did his very best to stay with them. Yes indeed, there's nothing like committing suicide in self-defense when pressed to the wall by your competition!

(They also deleted all negative reviews of my experience that I posted to their support/community forums. Something to hide? Trying to be less than upfront with customers? So it would appear, eh?)

Until yesterday [26 April 05], Real[Rhapsody] had me as a reasonably satisfied *paying* customer. However, because of internally *well-known* beta-related problems which Real[Bad] elected not to address before releasing its new product/service to the market, it literally forced this customer to its competitor.

After five hours of attempting to install RealBad's new player/service, I was told they knew there were technical problems they had not yet solved. That left this paying customer entirely out in the cold. I could not use the new player, and they refuse to allow downloads of the old player. (And yes, I spent 2.5 hours on the phone with their tech support to no avail.)

So, I have had no choice but to switch to Napster. Clearly Napster's competitive entry forced RealBad to prematurely release a badly flawed product--and resultantly lose at least this customer who did his very best to stay with them. Yes indeed, there's nothing like committing suicide in self-defense when pressed to the wall by your competition!

(They also deleted all negative reviews of my experience that I posted to their support/community forums. Something to hide? Trying to be less than upfront with customers? So it would appear, eh?)