Customer Error Reports - Please Send Them In

Unlike some software application developers, Autodesk has made an enormous effort and commitment to get the error reports for review and investigation to determine the cause and what can be done to resolve the error. Windows Error Reports (WER) are great and have assisted Microsoft in fixing many of the most common issues in their applications and operating system such as Windows XP. The problem is when another application developer relies on the generic error reporting that are sent to Microsoft instead of the developer of the application that experienced the error. The generic report from the non Microsoft software company states "We are sorry for the inconvenience, Please tell Microsoft about this problem". The most likely result is that Microsoft will not be fixing that other applications error.

Examples of Autodesk Customer Error Reports

Successful Customer Error Report Submission Result

The AutoCAD Customer Error Report includes the following:

Operating System name and version

Product name and version

Graphics configuration driver name and version

Applications that were loaded when the error occurred

Active command when the error occurred

Autodesk uses the data contained in the error report only to troubleshoot the problem. The error report is transmitted over a secure connection and is not used for marketing activities.
For a complete description of Autodesk's privacy policy.

Please send these reports in, as they will help in determining any problems you may be encountering. I have called people that included their contact details in the reports to let them know that their issue had been addressed in a Service Pack (see past article from November 2003 "Your Customer Error Reports Are Very Important").

Just remember we cannot fix what we are not aware of so anytime you see the Customer Error Report dialog, please send them in. Even in beta testing for AutoCAD, we have resolved most errors that caused an exit. By the time we hit the later betas, the customers testing the beta remarked at how difficult it was to get it to error out. It is usually a very small number of issues that are ultimately responsible for the majority of errors. When the issues can be identified or a pattern discovered they can be addressed and always include your contact details so we can if needed follow up for sample data or further details.

The Customer Error Report may be disconcerting in this age of widespread privacy violations, but there are no hidden motives here. Autodesk goes to great lengths to protect the customer’s privacy. The main purpose and main result of sending in Customer Error Reports is software with fewer errors or conflicts, and that benefits both of us. The benefit is for you as a user of the software encountering fewer errors and for Autodesk as the developer of the software as we want the most dependable product possible. so please when you see one of these Customer Error Dialogs fill them out with as much detail as possible and contact information and then submit it.

Cheers,
Shaan