By Graham K. Rogers

A photographer I know who lives in Phuket sometimes contacts me if he has problems with his Macs or the iPhone. I had a call this week concerning his use of Adobe Lightroom which he favours. He has version 2 and I remember him asking me about an upgrade to version 3 when that came out, as he was unable to get any answers. In the end, he stayed with Lightroom 2 and was perfectly happy.

Now that Lightroom 4 is out, with a lot of improvements, he feels it is in his interests to make the effort so wrote email to all of the local dealers of Adobe products he could find. He contacted me 8 days later when none of them had replied. By coincidence, as we were chatting, two did send replies, but this was in response to a rather fiery follow up that he had sent.

My suggestion was to take the online route. I cannot remember the last time I bought boxed software -- maybe it was Snow Leopard. For years I have been downloading shareware with few problems (a couple of programs I haven't liked, perhaps). All my applications now, especially since the Mac App Store changed the dynamics, are purchased online. The Lightroom update on the Adobe site was shown as $79 (2436 baht). Note that price.

My photographer friend looked at the information in the email. Part of it was a comment from the boss to the staff member responsible for getting in touch sooner (we both agreed). A follow-up email a few minutes later had the information, but it did not have what he asked for: information about updating from version 2 to 4 and compatibility was not answered at all.

What he got was the price of,

• Lightroom 4 Multiple platform Asia Pac English Retail - 5,800 baht
• Lightroom 4 Multiple platform Asia Pac English Upgrade - 3,700 baht

There was VAT of 7% on top of that with a total price of 10,165 baht (when he would only want one of the two). Delivery was 2 - 3 weeks. Compare this with the $79 for the download from Adobe (above): instant, after Adobe's tedious registration process.

As I said: online purchasing and downloads work for me. Customer service is better with a computer too.

Many companies here -- not all of course -- set themselves up with a basic web presence and email contact system, but it is a waste of time trying to contact anyone by this means. And even some of the companies that do use such contact methods, may leave the customer (or potential customer) in limbo for days.

Pricing too is not keeping pace with global markets. Rather than having a product in stock, items are ordered (probably from Singapore) as and when a customer wants an item. The time delay is unsatisfactory as well as the markup, particularly when other avenues are open to buyers. The corporations whose products are being marketed are not being served properly either. It may be a small market, but there is no apparent motivation to expand. Consumers here are often the last consideration.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.