Errr I forgot about e-on and thier... " download it now, but wait for ever for the serial #" policy... :( god folks.. i give you my Vue5 serial... (why they need? that to give them money for something else? that's kinda not needed!!!) then I get the link to download it... but now i have to wait for them to send me a serial #?? what's up with that? errrr!!! ok reality Check... trying to keep the theft down.. understandable, but two things... 1. most people that will steal it wont buy it anyway... money saved/made... $0.01 2. annoying those that do buy so they may hesitate and possibly not buy again? $$$$HUNDREDS$$$$ may be even thousands!!! join us in reality E-on!!! locking yourself in a dark basement so no one can touch you... turns you into a broke, gollum looking thing.. :( OK I've vented!! :) but really folks.. it's VERY annoying

Yeah a little surpried at how long it takes to get the numbers. Been waiting as well.

Oui, tres Francais! :P Actually, perhaps it's Europeansee below. I'm afraid I have to sympathize with you on this one. I think I now have the serial numbers for the last veggies I bought. Didn't take long to get the first, wrong ones (one business day) but it took several trieson their partto get what might be the right ones too me. (I haven't had the courage to tryyou realize how upset I'm going to be if these don't work! That being said, they are a small outfit, and they are generally pretty responsive to complaints, especially compared to some who shall remain nameless. AND they have the grace to apologize when they really have screwed up. They are certainly no worse, at worst, than many. Now for the European angleMaxon (Deutschland, a.k.a. Germany) does something similar with C4D: you get a temporary serial number with the software that's good for about three months, while they snail mail the permanent numbers to you. You can also phone them and get the numbers sooner. I wish e-on would adopt the same system for their downloads, but they DO email the numbers too you, usually within one business day, at least in my experience. While this can be frustrating, it's not unreasonable. But I can't help feel that the paranoia is not justified for small-ticket items. But cheer up! This is nothing! You want annoying, just look at what Congress is up to! >}:^{D>

Xfrog is the same way...I believe they are out of Germany..I had to wait 48 hours to get mine...no biggie..it was worth it in the end :) I love my trees LOL

In addition with Xfrog..if you get a new puter upgrade you have to RE-Request new serial numbers ~eye roll~..talk about paranoid.

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yep i have to agree with you all, not a biggy but its not protecting their app @ all, and it only upsets potential and current customers (im not just talking about e.on now). especially xfrogs policy is a big turn off, the big turnoff with it all is that the ones that would steal the software can do it in 2 minutes without worrying about getting a new serial due to a reinstall......

Weird discussion here. A polemic answer. Does it mean that you don't lock your house or car because others are robbed out? Especially when you upset all the other family members with that that want to go in and out without disturbance! I can't see a bad thing in the fact that companies try to protect their business basics. Of course it is discussable what a good protection policy is. But you will never get THE perfect answer. Some try it this way, others that. And the other point that made me answer. Funny to read all those prejudices about Europe and France/Germany. I do business with/for Hewlett-Packard a lot. The absolute slowest response times does have the guys that are based in the States. Incredible. When i have a normal reaction time of 2-3 days in Europe i have a standard reaction of 2-3 weeks from the States - or even worse. What does that tell us? That all depends on the people that deal with something, not where they are located. BTW, i think you all haven't dealt with Onyx (TreePro), an American company. There you can learn a lot about paranoia. Are all American companies like that?

I don't know, but all other experiences I've had with downloadable software were rather different and a lot faster. I just bought two of the v5e modules - there is no mention in the entire ordering sequence of the fact that you need a serial number, let alone when and how you will get it. Only after trying to run the exe-file you get stranded in the second screen, which asks for a serial number you don't have. With @Last's SketchUp, who do a lot better (and are in the US ;-)), I had my registration number in my mailbox almost before finishing downloading the program.

Yaa.. that is my point.. 99% of the software I purchase Online/download, I have a serial by the time my client checks mail next,(set to check every 10 mins)

Eovia had me one before I could even start downloading the Upgrade.

just seems annoying that you can almost get it faster just by buying the mailed box.

actually I just this sec got mine... it came sometime today, was only a Day.. but still... I use Download usually because I can get the software right at the time of purchase, impulse buyer :)

anyway.. software.. very cool!!!!..., download policy... sucks...

but now I have it and I'm over it, just have to remember next time :( I hope no one thinks I was after e-on or anything.. just annoyed, thier software and the company's responce time for support is very good!!

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wabe i dont care where the company is from, im from europe myself :) and europe is a great place to live in for alot of reasons. thing is a protection like xfrogs only hurt legit customers, companies should of course have serials, that is the lock, and we all lock our house, but that wasnt the case in this discussion :) serials should be generated instantly when you purchase your app and send out instantly if you request a new one, there are far better solutions then xfrogs and others.

I got my numbers this morning, so I'm happy. Still think they need to speed that process up a little. Tested changing a model in poser and it updated perfectly. Off to play ~G~

Can't really criticise them this time - placed my order and got the numbers within 4 hours.

I had to laugh at this one by Wabe I also deal with Hewlett-Packard and they usually get back to me the same day. I really don't think it has to do with what country the company is in. However more so with the type of inquire and the willingness to respond. Many times the answer has to be looked up or researched or the person may just not want to respond for what ever reason. One reason I always try and keep a very close relationship with my customers. I go out of my way to be as nice as I can to them and it seems to pay off for me. :). e-on has always responded well as far as I am concerned. Also, they have always been very nice to deal with. The Serial number issue may take too long I must agree however when I inquired about this problem I got a response right away that they are doing their best to speed things up and make the proper changes and still provide good protection. In this day and age I think we are all so busy and use to quick turn around in our every day lives we just expect and demand the same in all areas of our purchasing. Any way I thought this thread was worth a reply too for what its worth. Take care.

Don, i think you misinterpretated something. I talk about marketing communication jobs, not support issues here. The situation is that we even get jobs from the States (from HP) because our response times are way faster than they are used to. But their responses on the other hand are incredible slow. However, nothing that needs to be discussed here really.

Thanks for the reply I understood what you meant and I guess my point is response times weather support or marketing can vary depending on the responder it has nothing to do with what country you favor. We can influence the responder however with a good approach. I am glad you agree that a quick response can get you favorable results. I find most companies that I deal with respond well to a good approach H/P, e-on or other wise. Forgive any misunderstanding but I think my point is clear. BTW this is the perfect thread to discuss this and thanks for bringing it up. Take care and have a good day.

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Well Wabe the comparison to lock your house is not really correct. If compared to a house it would be more like: You bought the house and got your keys, Now you decide to buy a new shower. The company comes and install it but when you try to take a shower the next morning nothing happens. Looking more closely at the shower you see a small hole surrounded by the text 'In order to activate the shower you will need a key and it should arrive in a couple of work days'. Or After living in your house a while you realise that you don't like the placement of the house. You would really had prefered if it was placed closer to the garage so you decide to hire a big crane in order to move your hose. Everything went smooth untill the point where you try to enter your house. Now, just because you moved your house a little your keys no longer works on your door......and worse is, the company that sold you the house was bought by Abdulla Oil, witch the US goverment suspected to also creat weapons of mass destructions, so they sent a tactical nuke (a weapon of not so massive destruction) just in case. So sorry, you will never be abla to move into that house again... Well, jokes aside. Zbrush and XFrog works the same way. When I bought Zbrush and found out about the license system I returned the product (I even made some money on the difference in exchangerates between the buy and the return). As Xfrog was a lot cheaper I decided to keep it anyway. The point is that I would never buy anything expensive if I don't get a liftime key with it.