GlobalStreams
GlobeCaster Trinity Ripoff Overpriced Incompatible Poor Customer Service

GlobalStreams, manufacturer of the GlobeCaster Video Editing Suite (formerly known as Trinity), Makes a decent product that I have used for many years, however they lack a comprehensive customer service strategy, and they have failed to update their drivers and software to function properly with current versions of Windows XP.

In the following paragraphs I shall attempt to describe my recent experience, and comment on what I believe GlobalStreams could be doing better to improve customer service, and over the long term, customer retention. It is my sincere hope that these comments would find their way back to someone at GlobalStreams who can work towards improving the customer experience.

After recently upgrading my system to a newer, faster computer with Windows XP, I began to experience problems recording video clips to the GlobeCaster editing system. Since I am under a yearly service contract with GlobalStreams, I called their Technical support line. All service personnel were busy, so I was forced to leave a message on voicemail. I never received any call back. I made several more calls, and left multiple voice mail messages. Not once did I receive a single return call. This is no way to treat a paying customer.

As a last resort, I e-mailed the local authorized dealer of the product, and explained the situation.By now, the editing system had been out of commission for over a week. The dealer managed to have a tech support person call me, and after describing the problem, it was declared that my VideoNet card (the PC interface card that controls the video suite) was defective and it would have to be swapped. I was told that a replacement would be shipped to me within ten days of receipt. I shipped the card out to them the same day.

Two months later, I still had not received a replacement, so I e-mailed the tech support representative I had spoken to previously, and he informed me that the part was being shipped out that day. So much for a ten-day turnaround.

When I finally received the part, it turned out to be the very same one I had sent to them for replacement (I compared the Serial number to the one I had kept on file). There was no indication that any repair or test had been performed on it. After inserting the card back into the PC, I was still unable to record to the editing system.in short, more than two months had transpired and I was back where I started, with a system that didn't work.

I e-mailed the local dealer to tell him what had been happening, and he managed to have a senior systems engineer call me to troubleshoot the problem. We went back and forth for a few days, adjusting various settings and re-installing the drivers. According to him, the problem was not with their system, but with Windows XP. His recommendation? Re-install Windows 2000.

Apparently, many Windows XP systems had been having conflicts with the GlobeCaster when certain security patches were installed. Unfortunately, I can't do anything about the patches, since our IT department - under maintenance contract with Microsoft - is required to install any critical updates they receive. GlobalStreams Tech Support has not pinned down the problem, or created any work-arounds as of yet. I basically have to re-install the VideoNet drivers every time I start up the system. For me, this is not a satisfactory resolution.

It is my opinion that GlobalStreams would improve the customer experience by doing the following:

1) CALL CUSTOMERS BACK. This is basic customer service 101. I shouldn't have to call repeatedly to get service, especially if I am a paying customer. There is no excuse for not returning a customer's calls - it is simply unprofessional behavior.

2) POST KNOWN PROBLEMS IN THE ONLINE KNOWLEDGE BASE. I looked up "Windows XP" and no articles were listed. The GlobeCaster User Forum is full of postings mentioning XP conflicts, but there is a lot of extraneous data You would have to invest a considerable amount of time to get any useful information out of it.

Apparently no effort is made by the support staff to sort out the good from the bad and convert useful information into knowledge-base articles. My time is valuable, and my superiors closely monitor the time I spend online. What I need is a brief description of the problem and a few bullet points describing possible resolution strategies, not a rambling conversation that takes 5 pages of reading to find a workable solution.

3) COMMUNICATE WITH REGISTERED USERS REGULARLY in the form of a monthly e-mail newsletter, providing useful tips and information, not marketing hype. GlobalStreams would save themselves (and their customers) a lot of trouble and expense if they made an effort to tell us up-front, in big bold letters, that certain products have the potential to cause conflicts with their video suite. A short e-mail to registered users would prevent thousands of man-hours fielding support calls. Why they wouldn't do something so manifestly in their own best interest (and in the interest of their customers) is beyond me. The only time I get e-mail from GlobalStreams is when my yearly maintenance check is due.

4) PROVIDE A MORE PERMANENT SOLUTION TO WINDOWS XP CONFLICTS, specifically Service Pack 2 (and beyond). GlobalStreams recently released the long-awaited Version 3.0 of their software, brimming with new features, but it apparently does not address the Windows XP conflicts people are having with the editing system. The most important thing to me, the customer, is being able to turn the system on and use it trouble-free. I don't care about new features if I can't get the darn thing to work. XP Service Pack 2 has apparently caused a lot of headaches for a number of GlobeCaster users, but there is no unified message from GlobalStreams on what to do about it, and no apparent sign that anyone is working on the problem. I had to talk to a Senior Systems Engineer before the problem was even acknowledged.

Windows 2000 has been all but phased out by Microsoft, and none of my other software runs in Windows so the idea of abandoning XP and going back to Win2k is not an option for me, and I would bet a lot of other users are in the same boat. Windows XP has been around for 4 years now. The question I have is: "Where has GlobalStreams been all this time?" As a customer, I am no longer content to hear the tired excuse that it's all Microsoft's fault, and we can't help you. Somebody at GlobalStreams must take the responsibility for keeping their product current with the OS it's supposed to run on.

GlobalStreams won't even be able to keep the customers they have, let alone attract any new customers, until they resolve these problems with XP. Every new PC ships with XP Service Pack 2, so how can any new customer find a PC that will work with the GlobeCaster out of the box? GlobalStreams can't seriously think that people are going to buy old copies of Windows 2000 on E-bay to get their GlobeCaster to function properly.

5) FOCUS ON THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SYMPTOMS. The senior systems engineer I spoke to was a really nice guy, very sympathetic, knowledgeable, and easy to talk to. He is clearly an asset to the company, however it is also clear to me that he is limited by the environment he is working in - always putting out fires, and not able to devote much time to looking forward to see where the next problem is on the horizon. My impression is that GlobalStreams as a company is always playing catch-up, and they could be empowering people like him to anticipate and resolve these issues before they are swamped by support calls.

Right now, it seems like the Tech Support team is just as surprised by these problems as their users are. They know there are XP conflicts because users are calling in with them, but even a senior systems engineer couldn't tell me how they planned to resolve them, or when they were even going to start working on them in earnest. It does not appear to be a priority for the company as a whole.

6) BE HUMBLE, AND APPRECIATIVE OF CUSTOMER LOYALTY. I believe GlobalStreams may be operating under the arrogant assumption that they have a captive user base - heavily invested in the equipment, reluctant to find other solutions, and thus forever loyal to the GC platform. But the industry is changing, and there are a lot of low-cost PC-based solutions that have the potential to steal GlobalStreams' business if they can't or won't provide a service that is of value to their customers. They don't appear to be making any effort to be proactive in this regard. The frustrations I experienced as a Tech Support customer are a clear example.

Additionally, the "Wow" factor that once belonged solely to hardware solutions like the GlobeCaster is no longer exclusively theirs. For the cost of one year's maintenance, I can buy a Pentium 4 PC and Adobe Premiere Pro, and write off the GlobeCaster system as a business loss. Sure, I'd hate to do it, but I don't have the luxury of waiting around for GlobalStreams to figure out the problem, and I'd rather take a short-term loss on equipment that's not performing and replace it with something that will work over the long term. I have deadlines to meet, and I don't have the luxury of making excuses forever. For that matter, neither does GlobalStreams.

Company: GlobalStreams
Country: Algeria
State: Missouri
City: St. Louis
Address: 8664 Olive
Phone: 3149975100

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