License expired - what now?

Here is what is missing from the responses from Sophos.

Nowhere have I heard them announce that the problem is just temporary, offer any reassurance to their customers or that they plan to continue normal operations and give any kind of time frame.  It looks to me that management is doing a terrible PR job on this no matter what the problem is.

Instead they just give what now seems to clearly be a false excuse to stall for time.

Sounds like either financial trouble and pending bankruptcy or some kind of legal liability problem.

The fact that they won't just tell you what is going on in a credible and transparent way is ominous.

Even if they somehow survive this, the Sophos brand is crippled by these actions.

It's too bad.  Sandboxie is an outstanding program.  Apparently the management isn't nearly as good as the developers (or as good as the customer support referring to the person in this thread who has the unfortunate job to be stuck in the middle of this mess between management and the customers).

Hopefully, if Sophos goes belly up, they will sell off Sandboxie to someplace that has better management.

This Sophos reticence smells like lawyers. "Don't say anything, don't admit anything, don't confirm anything, just tell them we are working on a response. Wear them down. Eventually they will go away."

They are just another junkware company that has run into trouble. Have you seen their stock price? It has dropped like a rock. They obviously have bigger problems to deal with. And their incompetence doesn't inspire much confidence.

Sophos has heavily damaged, if not totally destroyed the good will Sandboxie had with thousands of users.  I doubt they could find a buyer for it now. 

Then give a time scale to be more transparent.

If this wasn’t so pathetic it would be amusing to see such incompetence in action.

I was hoping to make the announcement this week, so probably next week at this point.

Seth I sympathize with you.  Whatever the cause, I'm sure it's not an easy situation for anyone involved at Sandboxie central.  And I look forward to your clearing up some of the mystery as I am sure others do as well.

But I see another problem.

How will the "server problem" explanation pan out.

If it was a server problem, either Sophos has the most incompetent IT operations in the computer industry and after all this time has STILL been unable to resolve an issue that resulted in the complete cessation of revenue from Sandboxie or they have been not only lacking transparency about what the problem is but actually telling their customers a lie about what was happening and giving them false information.

Neither one of these possibilities sounds very appetizing to a customer nor instills a sense of trust in the relationship.

And, if we now are going to be told that it was NOT a server problem, but in fact something else, that wouldn't help with the trust issue much either would it.

At this point my best guess is that Sophos will announce someone else bought Sandboxie.  But we shall see.

From a customer's perspective I think the important thing is to have Sandboxie in the hands of a reliable, honest, trustworthy and competent developer.  Let's hope that is the final result.  This is an outstanding and unique program.  It deserves that kind of home.

"At this point my best guess is that Sophos will announce someone else bought Sandboxie."

Or that they are spinning it off.

My fantasy:  Ronen Tzur saves the day by acquiring Sandboxie once again.

 He poured his brains, energy, and sweat into creating and maintaining this once-great program.  He was always involved in the forums.  He was always responsive to problems.  He was always upfront and honest.  A straight shooter.  What a class act.

 For those of us who have been long-time users of Sandboxie, it's sad to compare and contrast the Ronen Tzur days with what we're experiencing now.

Let’s hope that Sophos do sell it, but not to some clown outfit that only wants to milk the user base until it dies through lack of development.

Appreciate the efforts in keeping a push to feed us some cues as to what's actually happening, and of Sandboxie's future.

Ryan Cruze said:

 

If it was a server problem, either Sophos has the most incompetent IT operations in the computer industry and after all this time has STILL been unable to resolve an issue that resulted in the complete cessation of revenue from Sandboxie or they have been not only lacking transparency about what the problem is but actually telling their customers a lie about what was happening and giving them false information.

Neither one of these possibilities sounds very appetizing to a customer nor instills a sense of trust in the relationship.

Perhaps they have the most incompetent IT operations in the industry, AND they are lying as well.

A2Razor said:

Appreciate the efforts in keeping a push to feed us some cues as to what's actually happening, and of Sandboxie's future.

 

Why's that confusing? Would you rather Sophos releases absolutely-nothing and continues that trend?

I'd rather something (anything) to nothing.

Why's that confusing? Would you rather Sophos releases absolutely-nothing and continues that trend?

I'd rather something (anything) to nothing.

A2Razor said:

Why's that confusing? Would you rather Sophos releases absolutely-nothing and continues that trend?

I'd rather something (anything) to nothing.

I more vote for LYING! Start a poll?

It's PR 101.

If they are involved in a situation or transaction that they cannot publicly discuss, then when asked about what customers should do, or about what is going on, they should state that they cannot comment at this time.  Period.

Under no circumstances should they EVER give FALSE information.  That is simply asking to have your reputation destroyed.  And it is always unnecessary.

I don't know if they gave false information or not, but if not, it will be a fascinating industry lesson to learn how a broken server caused a public company  -- that is in the business of computer networking and security -- with over a half billion dollars in sales and over 3,000 employees -- to completely shut down the operations of one of their products for going on several *MONTHS*.

That story will be a case study in how NOT to manage your computer resources for college IT courses across the planet for decades!

Else it will be a case study in B schools for how NOT to handle PR.

Do you think they are lying about their other products too? You really have to wonder.