Sign up with GoogleI am both an avid Android user and an avid birder (the feathered variety), so I was pretty chuffed when I learned some time ago that SA Birding would be releasing a mobile version of their popular Roberts Multimedia Birds. What follows is a detailed and long-winded account of how SA Birding have become the embodiment of a company that is only interested in bleeding their customers dry whilst going out of their way to provide as little assistance as possible to potential buyers of their product.
About a year before I had booked a trip to Kruger, I gave them a shout to see what the progress was. "Its just around the corner now! Will be out by Christmas 2011." was the reply. Well Christmas came and went, and over the course of the next year, I would follow up via telephone and Email, only to receive the same "Its almost done" canned response. Eventually in November of 2012, I made a plea to Guy Gibbon (the owner of SA Birding) to please let me get my hands on a pre-release version for my trip. It was a long shot, but I was prepared to drive to their office, lay down my cash, sign any NDAs they required, and even report back with any bugs if they liked. I figured that the app MUST be ready by NOW! It was not to be, and I was forced to buy the Sasol app for my trip to Kruger. It has fewer features and costs half the price, but in the end, it performed admirably and I don't regret it. I'd had enough of SA Birding's deception and when it finally landed in December 2012 I was completely over it.
Fast forward to yesterday when my father decided that he wanted a tablet. Now if I am an avid birder, then my father is bird CRAZY. He has been buying Roberts Multimedia Birds (and all the upgrades) since it was first released, and has met and spoken with Guy Gibbon on many bird outings with the various bird clubs. Although I tried to talk him out of it, my dad was adamant that he wanted the Roberts Android Edition. The catch was that I was heading to his house that evening, and he only has a 384k internet connection and Roberts Android Edition has a complex installation procedure where you download the app from the App Store, and then separately download the 1.25GB dataset on a PC, to be later transfered to the tablet. There was no way that I would be able to set him up in time, and no way that my dad could tackle it without my help; after-all he'd never used a tablet before.
So against my better judgement, I decided to give them a call and see if their attitude had changed at all since I last dealt with them. Unfortunately, it has not. Here's a transcript of the short call I made:
Woman: "SA Birding, hello?"
Me: "Hi there. My father is getting a tablet today and I'm heading there tonight to set it up. He has a very slow internet connection, is there any way that I can download the dataset now so that I can take it with me?"
Woman: "Nope."
Me: "..."
Woman: "...."
Me: "Oh... I understood that the dataset was a separate PC download, so can you not just give me a link or something?"
Woman: "Nope."
Me: "Hmmm. Okay, that's a real pity, you're SURE there's nothing you can do to help us out?"
Woman: "I'm sure."
Me: "Okay, thanks. Bye."
I wish that I could say that I embellished that transcript a bit, but that is quite literally how it went down. I hung up the phone absolutely livid! I spent the next half an hour trying to find a link to the dataset just so that I could call her back and throw it in her face, unfortunately without much luck. What I DID find though was that SA Birding actually will ship you a DVD with the dataset on it, FREE OF CHARGE! Might have been useful for the woman on the phone to mention that pearler! And if they supply it on DVD, why can't they supply me a download link for crying out loud?! Still, whatever reasons they may have cannot excuse the attitude and complete lack of sympathy for the situation.
So anyway, when I got to my folk's place that evening, we went through the long-winded process of buying the app and getting the dataset. Sure enough, after supplying my dad's Gmail address on the website, it spat out a bog standard URL that she could have QUITE easily provided to me on the phone if she had ANY willingness to help whatsoever.
If you are unfortunate enough to have decided that you want to buy this rip-off piece of software (the only Android app I've ever heard of where you need to buy it for each device you own - at a whopping R600 a pop) and you found this post because like me, you were looking for the dataset, please drop me a PM and I will GLADLY mail you the link so that I can save you the frustration that they have put me through.
About a year before I had booked a trip to Kruger, I gave them a shout to see what the progress was. "Its just around the corner now! Will be out by Christmas 2011." was the reply. Well Christmas came and went, and over the course of the next year, I would follow up via telephone and Email, only to receive the same "Its almost done" canned response. Eventually in November of 2012, I made a plea to Guy Gibbon (the owner of SA Birding) to please let me get my hands on a pre-release version for my trip. It was a long shot, but I was prepared to drive to their office, lay down my cash, sign any NDAs they required, and even report back with any bugs if they liked. I figured that the app MUST be ready by NOW! It was not to be, and I was forced to buy the Sasol app for my trip to Kruger. It has fewer features and costs half the price, but in the end, it performed admirably and I don't regret it. I'd had enough of SA Birding's deception and when it finally landed in December 2012 I was completely over it.
Fast forward to yesterday when my father decided that he wanted a tablet. Now if I am an avid birder, then my father is bird CRAZY. He has been buying Roberts Multimedia Birds (and all the upgrades) since it was first released, and has met and spoken with Guy Gibbon on many bird outings with the various bird clubs. Although I tried to talk him out of it, my dad was adamant that he wanted the Roberts Android Edition. The catch was that I was heading to his house that evening, and he only has a 384k internet connection and Roberts Android Edition has a complex installation procedure where you download the app from the App Store, and then separately download the 1.25GB dataset on a PC, to be later transfered to the tablet. There was no way that I would be able to set him up in time, and no way that my dad could tackle it without my help; after-all he'd never used a tablet before.
So against my better judgement, I decided to give them a call and see if their attitude had changed at all since I last dealt with them. Unfortunately, it has not. Here's a transcript of the short call I made:
Woman: "SA Birding, hello?"
Me: "Hi there. My father is getting a tablet today and I'm heading there tonight to set it up. He has a very slow internet connection, is there any way that I can download the dataset now so that I can take it with me?"
Woman: "Nope."
Me: "..."
Woman: "...."
Me: "Oh... I understood that the dataset was a separate PC download, so can you not just give me a link or something?"
Woman: "Nope."
Me: "Hmmm. Okay, that's a real pity, you're SURE there's nothing you can do to help us out?"
Woman: "I'm sure."
Me: "Okay, thanks. Bye."
I wish that I could say that I embellished that transcript a bit, but that is quite literally how it went down. I hung up the phone absolutely livid! I spent the next half an hour trying to find a link to the dataset just so that I could call her back and throw it in her face, unfortunately without much luck. What I DID find though was that SA Birding actually will ship you a DVD with the dataset on it, FREE OF CHARGE! Might have been useful for the woman on the phone to mention that pearler! And if they supply it on DVD, why can't they supply me a download link for crying out loud?! Still, whatever reasons they may have cannot excuse the attitude and complete lack of sympathy for the situation.
So anyway, when I got to my folk's place that evening, we went through the long-winded process of buying the app and getting the dataset. Sure enough, after supplying my dad's Gmail address on the website, it spat out a bog standard URL that she could have QUITE easily provided to me on the phone if she had ANY willingness to help whatsoever.
If you are unfortunate enough to have decided that you want to buy this rip-off piece of software (the only Android app I've ever heard of where you need to buy it for each device you own - at a whopping R600 a pop) and you found this post because like me, you were looking for the dataset, please drop me a PM and I will GLADLY mail you the link so that I can save you the frustration that they have put me through.
