Removal of Live Help from our site and components

I write to let you know that we have taken the decision to remove the live chat/help buttons from our website and components with effect from 15 June 2006.  The reasons for this are many, including, but not limited to:

• The general acceptance of Skype as a method of obtaining both Live Help and presales support.
• The abusive emails from customers saying that the live help buttons (javascript) takes too long too load, or distracts them while working inside our components.
• We don’t have enough time to host endless live conversations, 6mins x 10 visitors = a whole hour!
• The cost of the LivePerson service is over GBP£1000.00 per year (Yes we know there are free alternatives, but LivePerson is the best of the best)
• Our live chat service is offline more than online as we try to get some work done.
• Other methods of support and self-help support are available, most support and presales emails are now being replied to in less than 12-24 hours (A major improvement on a few months ago)
• The LivePerson client software is not compatible with Linux, which means always running two machines.

We will shortly be reintroducing our new Customer Centre with a whole host of other self-help support options, including the new forums and possibly a wiki for registered customers only.

We will remove the tracking code and LivePerson buttons from our components on the next point release of each component.