| The World Leader in Animal-Related
Software™ Today is
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 |
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Product Support Center
Welcome to our Product Support
Center! For every net-citizen who owns (or is considering purchasing) our products, this
should be the first place to stop for answers to your support questions. We have several
features to make it easy for you to obtain automated answers to your questions, 24 hours
per day, 7 days per week.
Our Product Support Center is
divided up into sections. Please click on the section you wish to use, and this page will
scroll to the place you need to be.
Sections:
Man's Best Friend Software maintains
an on-line database with answers to the questions we get, plus information about problems
we've encountered. Solutions are offered in these lists. You may search the database by
product and keyword. If the database does not have the solution you need, please Report a Support Issue to Us, and we will look into it at once. This
database is continuously updated.
Instructions for use: Choose the
product and up to three keywords and click the search button. For example, if you are
trying to find out about Error Message #28 in The Breeder's Standard, use
"Error" and "28" as keywords. Only one word per line!
A list of topics with those keywords will appear. Click the "Zoom"
word next to a specific topic to read its details.
Search The Database:
[ Back
to Top ]
This section in the Support Center
contains news and announcements from our support center. Please check here periodically to
find out the latest information.
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Product Support
Sunset
As we continue forward with our product
development, we occasionally need to adjust the products that
are given support by our Technical Support department.
Therefore, we announce a sunsetting schedule, where our older,
obsolete products are to be discontinued from technical
support.
After the sunset date, if you areusing the
listed product, you will need to upgrade. Continuing
support is available for US$40 per incident, both email and
phone, for one year after the sunset date,
non-refundable, and paid in advance. After that date,
the product will not be supported.
We are sorry that we have to do this.
However, we have over 37,000 customers, using 45 program
versions across our product lines. Our Support
department needs to have a manageable number of program
versions to work with.
Sunsetting
Schedule
As of this point, TBS is supported from
version 2000 forward only.
TBS 2000 support is restricted to prepaid as of August 1,
2005. TBS 2000 support terminates as of August 1,
2006.
TCS 2.0 support is restricted to prepaid as of August 1,
2005. TCS 2.0 support terminates as of August 1,
2006.
TBS 2001 support is restricted to prepaid as of September
1, 2005. TBS 2001 support terminates as of September 1,
2006.
TCS 2001 support is restricted to prepaid as of September
1, 2005. TCS 2001 support terminates as of September 1,
2006.
TBS 2002 support is restricted to prepaid as of October 1,
2005. TBS 2002 support terminates as of October 1,
2006.
Netigree 1.0 and 1.1 support is restricted to prepaid as of
October 1, 2005. Netigree 1.0 and 1.1 support terminates
as of October 1, 2006.
TBS 2003 support is restricted to prepaid as of November 1,
2005. TBS 2003 support terminates as of November 1,
2006.
At this time, there are no sunsettings scheduled for
Netigree II, Pedcasso, Groomer's Helper, Compuped, CompuShow
or Entercat. |
Happy Support Customers Speak Out!
All we needed was a little time and a lot of Kathi Charpie! We wish to thank you for your patience as Kathi got her feet wet in the
support zone. Now, we're hearing back from you! Some of these comments were so
great, we were compelled to share! "Kathi, thanks so
much for your very clear instructions."
-- Pamela Brink
"Hi,
Kathi. Thank you for the prompt reply; I do appreciate it." -- Mary Ann Chalmers
"Kathi, thank you for you
assistance. I truly appreciate it. ...I will let you know if I need some help." -
Chuck Bell
"Thank you for your prompt
attention and CompuPed 4 now sucessfully installed." -- Kate Mansfield Nolan
"Yes it worked!! Thanks for your
help." -- Dave Harris
"It worked like a charm, THANK
YOU so much! You do not know how frustrating this has been. Thank you for your quick
response and solution, it is greatly appreciated. -- Charlene MArshall
"Thanks It is working fine now.
Thanks for your help." -- Catherine Grant
"Well, this is just wonderful.
You know, I spent 2 hours trying to figure out if I could add a breed. It's so
simple. Thank you." -- Charlene Renslow
"Thanks for your help and
patience!" -- Marie-Christine HALLÉPÉE
"Thanks for your quick reply. I
will attempt your directions tonight after work." -- Kathy Kenny
"Thanks so very much, for the
prompt response. You have unlocked the secretes of Compuped to me once again, and
now the mystery begins!" -- A. I. Kalmanash
And these are only some of the comments received since
April 1!
We thank you for your support, and we are happy to assist you.
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| Latest Patch Level Numbers:
The Breeder's Standard
2003(tm) Build 1900
The Breeder's Standard
2005(tm) Build 1614 (Discontinued June
2005)
The Breeder's Standard 2003(tm) Build
1044 (Discontinued June 2004)
The Breeder's Standard 2002(tm) Build 990 (Discontinued 2002)
The Breeder's Standard 2001(tm) Build 900 (Discontinued August 2001)
The Breeder's Standard 2000(tm) Build 648 (Discontinued as of June 21,
2000)
The Breeder's Standard 4.1 32-bit: 4.1.376 (Discontinued from sale June
4, 1999)
The Breeder's Standard 4.0: 4.0.268 (Discontinued)
------
The Cattery's Standard 2005(tm) Build
1222
The Cattery's Standard 2003(tm)
Build 1087 (discontinued 2004)
The
Cattery's Standard 2001(tm) Build 996
(discontinued 2002)
The Cattery's Standard: 2.0.198 (discontinued June 2000)
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Equestrian's Standard 2000: 2.0.260
-----
Groomer's Helper 2000(tm) 2.0.250
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NETigree® II Build
296
NETigree® 2001
(discontinued)
NETigree® for TCS 2.0, TES 2000 and TBS 4.0:
1.0.065 (discontinued)
NETigree® 32-bit for TBS 4.1:
1.1.094 (discontinued)
-----
Groomer's Helper: 1.10 (Discontinued)
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Equestrian's Standard: 1.0-P2 (discontinued on May 11, 1999)
MegaPed for TES: 1.0-P1 (discontinued on May 11, 1999)
-----
Old Breeder's Standard 3.10: 3.10-P4 (no more Patches will be issued,
please upgrade)
Old Breeder's Standard 3.0: 3.0-P2 (no more Patches will be issued,
please upgrade)
Old MegaPed for TBS 1.0: 1.0-P5 (no more Patches will be issued, please
upgrade)
Old Cattery's Standard 1.0: 1.0-P2 (no more Patches will be issued,
please upgrade)
Old MegaPed for TCS 1.0: 1.0-P3 (no more Patches will be
issued, please upgrade)
Use these numbers to determine if you are on the
latest patch level. (4/11/2002) |
| TBS 4.x and older Product Support Sunset As of June 1, 2001, we will no longer provide telephone
product support for The Breeder's Standard(tm) Version 3.0 and 3.1, or MegaPed for The
Breeder's Standard(tm) Version 1.0. We also have discontinued support on TBS
Versions 4.0 and 4.1 and their MegaPed modules. E-Mail support will be provided on a
limited basis until July 31, 2001, and then all support will be terminated for these old
versions.
Please upgrade to the newer product line to
continue to receive support after the cut-off dates. (4/3/2001) |
| Support via E-Mail Please ensure that you send all product support e-mail to
the address support@mbfs.com. Other
E-Mail addresses, especially the old CompuServe and AOL addresses, are not monitored for
support traffic, and messages left there may not even be seen for an extended period. In
fact, one of the old addresses, MBFSoftwar@aol.com, is not even owned by
us anymore. The person at that e-mail address is not affiliated with this company in any
way. So, please use our new Submit Support Incident feature on this page, or send e-mail
to support@mbfs.com. (10/23/1997) |
[ Back to Top ]
Use our new Active form to report
support issues! This form gathers diagnostic information automatically and sends it
back to us for review. Get answers faster! Click here to
go to the active Support form (requires a browser that supports ActiveX on a 32-bit
Windows platform).
Use this form to report product support issues to Man's Best Friend
Software. This form is always faster than sending e-mail to support@mbfs.com since
your request does not have to go through a whole pile of Internet mail servers.
Please be sure to give us the information we need to correctly assess your situation. This
includes:
- What program you were working on
- Exactly what you were doing in
the program at the time the issue arose
- The complete text and number (if
any) of the FIRST error message you receive, at the very least. If you get a string of
error messages one after the other, then the later messages are usually not as important
as the first one.
- All of the other details of the incident you can
remember.
- Your Control Number (or invoice number) if you
have it handy.
- We must have your E-Mail address, plus either your
full name as on the invoice or your control (or invoice) number, to render assistance. If
you are using a trial product, tell us by typing in TRIAL into the control number field.
Please remember that, in order to
fix a problem, we must be able to re-create it here. There are very few situations where
we'll hear a one-sentence description and be able to instantly diagnose a problem. The details
are the key to successful support answers on the first try. If you ask, "I was using
the program and I got an unusual message, exactly what is wrong?" we simply cannot
answer. We need more information. What were you doing in the program? What are the details
of the message? If you restart your computer and try again, does the problem go away?
Finally before contacting us,
please Search the Support Database! We may have already answered
your question! It saves us both a great deal of time if the problem is a known one, since
we have already posted the solution on-line for your convenience.
Our programs are very stable, and
generally, when something happens, it requires detailed examination to detect and solve
the problem. Your assistance in drafting a detailed support request is appreciated.
* Your complete
version number (eg. 3.10-P2, or 4.00.204) can usually be found on the program's Help menu,
About option. On programs without a help menu, see the "About" tab or button.
[ Back to Top ]
Support Options and Policies
| Cost* |
Email support: Free.
(e-mails answered First-come, First-served).Telephone Support:
Per Incident billing: A Support incident is one problem report, handled
from start to finish, regardless of the number of calls or emails required to handle the
issue.
The first incident after you purchase is free.
After the first incident, each incident costs US$40.00,
payable in avdvance by credit card. All sales for support incidents are completely
final.**
|
Reaching Support Contact Product Support the following ways:
- On-Line support - this page, two options:
1. Search for Answers in our Database
2. Submit Support Issue.
- E-Mail: support@mbfs.com
(submitting a support issue from this page is always faster).
- Phone: 888-820-0691,
Monday-Friday 8:30AM-5:00PM Eastern Time .
Outside USA: 906-346-5009. (charges may apply as described to the left).
- FAX: 815-806-2134, generally all
the time.
|
| Product Patch Releases |
Product patches may be downloaded
free of charge from this web site. If we need to send you a set of diskettes, then the
charge will be $8.95 to cover our shipping and handling costs. For our new
integrated CD-ROM, the charge shall also be $8.95. This charge shall not
apply if the CD is sent as part of a paid support incident as described above. We strongly encourage you to download and
use the free Auto Update program. It looks on the Internet and
automatically applies the latest patch level to all of our products. Click here for information and the free download. |
Ordering Diskettes or
CD-ROM: Contact our sales number
at:
800-746-9364 or
815-806-2131. |
| Getting Answers |
The most common problem that every
support staff has is getting the needed information to decipher a problem and offer the
correct solution. We need to be able to duplicate most problems on our own computers in
order to offer any helpful information. This requires that you be prepared to give us complete
and detailed information about what you are experiencing, so we can take it down
and render assistance. If you give us vague
information, we will be delayed in answering you because we will have to ask numerous
questions in order to determine how to best help you. |
What to have Ready:
- Your Control Number or Serial Number. We may not
need it if you are listed on our computer, but have it ready just in case.
- The number and all text from any error
message. This includes the text in the center and on the title bar of any error message
boxes.
- Exactly what you did to get the
error message(s), if any. If there were no error messages, then exactly what you
were doing.
- The version number of your product.To locate the
number, choose the help menu and then the About option from the help menu. We need all
digits of the version number (example 3.10-P4 or 4.00.204).
|
| Saving a Phone Call, FAX or
Email |
There are a couple of things you
can do to avoid the hassle of Email, FAX or a phone call. These may get you past your
problems quickly, perhaps instantly. |
Try These things:
- Search the Support Database
to see if we've already answered your problem.
- Verify that you are on the latest patch level of
your software. We list these version numbers in the Technical Support News
section.
- If you are getting a GPF or an Access Violation,
make sure to restart your computer and try again before calling support. Exit
Windows (or shut down Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000), shut the computer completely off
, and then turn it on again. Some Windows DLL libraries, and even some parts of Windows
itself, can have problems if a GPF is not followed by a reboot.
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* All free product
support is offered solely as an accommodation, and our support policies may change at any
time without notice, liability or obligation on our part. No product sale is
contingent upon the provision of any level of product support. Nothing on this
page may be construed to commit us to provide any level of product support at any time,
and the text of your license agreement shall always control. We reserve the right to
give first priority and attention to paying support customers.
** The fact that we may charge for a support
incident does not mean that you are entitled to receive a response or an effective
solution within a specific period of time, or that a solution is guaranteed. It
simply means that we will use our best efforts to solve your problem, and
will in good faith continue to work on a problem until it is solved. The lack of a
solution within a certain time frame is no grounds to refund the transaction. This
is the normal practice within the software industry.
[ Back to Top ]
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