Agree with you, rmbother. I would just add that I find it disingenuous to offer “free upgrades for life” only on products that the company knows it’s going to mothball and that there will be no further upgrades, free or otherwise.
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I’m sorry but when a commitment is made and products are sold to customers on that basis, it should be honoured. It’s obviously legally an issue too in some countries under ‘trades descriptions’.
Why has it happened? Topaz as a company seems to have expanded past its advisable size, as evidenced by “new jobs at Topaz” section. But despite this size, perhaps because of it, the product itself (not the underlying technology) has certainly deteriorated, I’m afraid to say there are many buggy releases. For example it still doesn’t work quickly on Mac OS, often stops from functioning, needing a restart often, this is not an Apple issue.
The underlying technology versus the Interface.
The underlying technology is occasionally spectacular. (whoever is in charge of this, thanks). But the interface still makes no sense visually or logically, and pays no respect or reference to other existing imaging products. The previewing is extremely slow, no ability to perform background processing or batch processing with different algornms. Functionality for the customer had been ignored in favour of a kind of “virtue signalling” interface, without basic features. One small example is zoom keyboard shortcuts. This is a small issue obviously, but it illustrates the fundamental issue you have there. No customer-focused or thoughtful decisions at all, in this area of the product.
For anyone needing to improve the output quality of poor images, it’s on balance, still a valuable product. Topaz certainly DO need to protect their product, and keep the technology locked away on the cloud, and I understand this, as its is now the sole selling-point of the software.
Pricing
I don’t like the suggested new pricing. its too expensive for a product that for most using it productively, it simply performs one task. Most people who were sold a product, deserve to have that honoured, and this is legally supportable certainly in the Uk where I live. I think a smaller fee for existing customers, they would voluntarily support. If the product gets better , not deteriorates of course.
Product decisions
Some of the product decisions have also become plainly strange. and you wonder about the experience of whoever made them. For example the auto-color correcting image of RAWS There are professionals using Topaz GigaPixel - who certainly don’t want the tonal values of their images altered in any way. The end-result is simply what an auto-curve, perhaps blended to luminosity, or Camera RAW “auto” in Photoshop can do. So it seems to be about Topaz appearing to be making ‘progress’ but actually doing something straightforward and available with a few clicks to anyone for 20 years. It’s this type of thing that’s so obviously manipulative of the less experienced customer, that makes you consider abandoning the company,
My impertinent Suggestion
You need to reward whoever it is who researchedt he new AI algorithm(s) for Topaz GigaPixel - and ‘restructure’ the hell out of interfacing and product-management decisions. Otherwise it’s only a matter of time before your entire business gets overtaken by more reasonable competitors. With new publicly available AI technology, any reasonable prediction would suggest that the future of company isn’t looking good right now.
This is a genuine help, I hope it’s seen in that way, thank you
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You seemed to totally have missed the point here. A promise is a promise and when in a contract is legally binding. We all appreciate that when you purchase a NEW product there are T&CS containing the upgrade policies attached and we have the choice to purchase or not. BUT this is not what Topaz have done. They have allowed us to purchase A PRODUCT with infinite upgrades … FULL STOP. If you are going to change the policy of the same product and A NEW BUYER wishes to purchase that product knowing there is an upgrade policy they he have the choice… what Topaz have done is basically illegal and appears that their sales are so poor that they have tried to fleece their current user base rather than compete for new customers… I like many others have used and love their products for many years, but myself like many other users have principles and it is those very principles that prevent us from buying into upgrades. What Topaz should do is the right thing and immediately honour their contract by returning to providing free upgrades to the users that qualify and offer the upgrade policy to NEW USER.
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Seems you’re being silenced my man:
“It’s been a while since we’ve seen adb-41170 — their last post was 1y ago.”
That’s sitting on top of this post I’m replying to - 9d ago.
That message would refer to the time since their previous post, not the current one. No idea if it’s correct or not.
Why would that be added next to their new post though? His last post was indeed a while ago - but that would make sense only to place the notice next to --that-- post… not the new one.
No, think about that…why would you flag a months old post with a message no one will ever see? It ONLY makes sense when they start posting again, as an indicator that they WERE silent for a long time and have returned.
No man. Think about why they flag the post. If he’s returned, and is now posting, his absence is irrelevant… They flag the old posts to let you know that there’s possibly not going to be an answer on yours, if you reply to that old post. Usually this flag actually is placed on the * old * posts.
People do see really old posts all the time - it’s called Search, you know. The vast majority of benefit of this forum is not the current posts, but the old ones - simply through statistics.
That simply means that the op hasn’t been seen for a year or more and is just welcoming them back. Their last post before this one 10 days ago was on Sep 27, 2020. Nothing unusual at all it is a system generated welcome message … not a flag.
I guess the happy-face next to it does indicate that friendliness/welcome-back aspect. OK - point taken. 
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Wow - they just continue to amaze me. I got this email yesterday:
“Our Photo Upgrade Plan brings you unlimited upgrades for all your photo apps for 1 year—at a huge savings.”
Until you look at the fine print - “The Photo Upgrade Plan provides unlimited upgrades for our Image Quality Bundle apps for 1 year.” Nothing in the email explains what the “Image Quality Bundle” is. But if you dig around on the web site , you will discover that it does not cover all 4 of the products which require the paid support - mask AI is excluded.
So just like “for life” actually means "until we decide to do something else, in Topaz language “all” means “some”.
Just another example of “buyer beware” because Topaz will say one thing when then mean something else. Incredibly close to a bait-and-switch, but they cover themselves with the fine print.
Legal, yes. Ethical, not at all.
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I caved in and bought that last weekend. I never bought MaskAI but have Remask. I could have bought MAI for $46 but didn’t. MaskAI is not even listed on the main Topaz web site now, even if you select “All Products”. You have to drill down to even know it’s still offered. So, I guess it joins their abandonware.
I’m still not at all happy with Topaz and their current management. But they presently best fit into my workflow. As soon as someone else really covers this (hopefully Adobe, at no extra cost), I will be gone for good.
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I don’t know if you’ve ever looked at ON1, but if you haven’t it might be worth a shot. Their noise reduction is every bit as good as (or better than) DeNoise now. Their DAM isn’t as mature as Adobe, but I like the product (and the perpetual license) better than LR, and I hate bouncing around in and out of plugins.
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I wanted to upgrade to Denoise 3.5, I have Denoise 3.4.2. I was very surprise that the price of the $49.
I think it’s too expensive. Denoise works very well but after all it does only one thing…
I bought anyway because I have a new M1 Mac and I what the software to work properly on my Mac. I did notice the version 3.4.2 to be buggy. So you got for this year but it’s the last one.
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There is a huge difference between “innovation” and simply improving on existing software…nothing new about that. There is NO “innovation” here.
At this point, I cannot even use the software I purchased from Topaz. The website just runs me around in circles and drops me off at the option of upgrading but not reverting to the software I paid for. Now all my software is in “Try for Free” mode. Not happy at all with the deception!
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No deception, previous versions are available from support or in the product release section on this forum … If you need help just ask …
Hi Eric,
Can you please inform me why Topaz Labs support has been absolutely awful? I bought one of your bundles in November/December, could only install 2 of the 3 products (Sharpener AI refused to install), email support several times and heard nothing until this week. The solutions have only caused more problems, most recently GigaPixel AI will not allow me to save/export photos, meaning one of my projects is at a stand still. My experience with Topaz Labs has been very disappointing. I’m ready to give up on Topaz Labs.
I would start a new thread here, but it appears that I’m not authorized to start a new thread in these forums.
Thank you.
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