Nick,

While I believe there were more than communication issues at fault here, I've sent you an email through your gmail account explaining.

And yes, thanks again to volter for helping out here. Your assistance IS appreciated! And I'm sure I'll be hitting GeekAtPlay again soon.

Quote - What part of navigation and style you don't like? And how would you change?

Thank you.

The biggest problem I recall having was searching for any particular tutorial after viewing it once. I would find one, view it, and then come back later only to find it exceedingly difficult to actually find it again. I am dense on ocassion, but it happened several times.

Regarding how I would change it...  not really sure. Perhaps have one page where ALL of the titles of each training video are listed as opposed to having them in separate categories that you have to navigate to. This way you can peruse one page and maybe easily catch the title you're looking for. You have MANY Vue tutorials so it took a LONG time to find a specific tute. I honestly don't know if this would help, but I think it might be easier searching. IMO of course. I do very much like that you have what Vue versions the training is targeted at - VERY helpful.

Actually, I think the style is fine - it's really the navigation that I found difficult. Then again, I'm sure there are many who like it just as it is. Unless you've got quite a bit of negative feedback, it's probably better not to change it.

One other thing I noticed...  if I were going to buy a CD - which I intend to do - finding a particluar CD (for Vue training) also seemed difficult. Is there a page with ALL of the training on CD listed? That way I could go down through the descriptions and choose. It seemed very confusing to me.

Thanks!

Oh...   you're with GeekatPlay? Great stuff - I've checked out LOTS of tutorials there as well. Don't particularly like the style/navigation of the site, but then that's not a big deal. My site actually is far worse! The quality of the training though is great.

Any nudge you can provide would be appreciated. I do NOT want to have to contact the BBB and FTC, but I have before regarding an AutoDesk issue years before with MotionBuilder standard and I will again if need be here.

Again, thanks for your help - regardless of the outcome.

Quote - Send your email to me, i will redirect to him for very fast respond.

Hey Volter....

Well here it is January 18th and I still have not had my DVD's sent. I did download the files, but I'm still expecting the DVD's - that I paid for along with shipping. I actually expected to have them by now. This Saturday it will be four weeks since I placed the order. There really is NO excuse for this extreme delay. I really don't care how nice Nick is in person, his customer service absolutely SUCKS. I won't be purchasing from him again.

I would GREATLY appreciate it if you could let him know that I am pissed and that I want/demand the DVDs I paid for. My next set of emails - as I told him in the email I just sent to him at all three available email addresses - will be going to the Better Business Bureau and Federal Trade Commission. I'm getting tired of getting no response and still not have any DVDs. I really don't care what he thinks of me. I started out being nice and understanding, but when you don't get ANY reponses to your queries, it starts to really get frustrating. Nick brought this on himself. I will not have anything nice to say about him whenever people ask about his training materials.

Anyway...   your help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Unfortunately it's not that. I emailed him directly from his sales email that he sent me (and of course the website too) and it took more than a week to get back to me. I responded then to an email he sent me just the other day and still nothing - it's been more than 48 hours. As his website says...  will repsond within 24 to 48 hours.

I'm sure that he is a fine person, but he doesn't really know how to run a professional business with good customer service. Considering this incident, I am soured on even checking out what new he has to offer. I'll be perusing through Geek-At-Play and buying their stuff before I check out AsileFX again. And I find that somewhat depressing since he probably IS a good guy and seemingly knows his stuff. But if you don't have good customer service, you WILL lose customers. And right now...  that customer service gets one star out of 5 - that one star is for sending me the download link.

I wish him luck, but until he takes customer service seriously I won't be back.

Quote - Agree no one should, but i am offering help.

And that's great! Really. My question would be...how can you get access when emailing directly AND their web page email access doesn't obtain a response? It's just REALLY sad that people would need ANYONE's help to contact a business.

But again, your offer IS appreciated!

Quote - Send your email to me, i will redirect to him for very fast respond.

Let's face it....  NO ONE should have to!

Wow...    that's sad. It really is a shame since they have some really good training. I did get a response just late last night telling me that I could download the training as well. I usually always get the DVD's and don't need the training right away. I figured if I ordered just before Christmas I would get it before New Years. Since that didn't happen and with no email responses, I was WAITING. Fortunately I've got the downloads now.

Though no reason for the delay or any personal response was provided. Apparently Nick doesn't understand the role that customer service plays in a business. If I screwed up with a client - and there have been a couple of times in ten years - I make it right by either sending something overnight or doing something extra AND apologizing. Apologizing can go a VERY long way to mending the bad feelings of a screwup.

I consider AsileFX training top-notch. Just going through these training videos I have found them VERY useful and know that my work will end up being much better for them. It's just a shame that this transaction has been tainted by poor customer service. I worked in Retail for nearly 20 years - customer service was "beaten" into me.  :)

Quote - My most heroic story is about a day in which I did a good deal of overtime for a client of mine; when I left his premises the sun was rising...

Never did that AT a clients' premises....    but did do a couple of overnighters AND slept with the phone which rang early in the morning asking about something that I'd already emailed them about. Still...  I was pleasant.  :)

I'm just HIGHLY annoyed that its' been weeks and not even a simple email reply from AsileFX. I certainly hope that there is a REALLY good explanation for this delay.

It's a business. There were/are no notices on the website of any "vacation" so I would expect business as usual with the exception of a slower-than-normal delivery schedule. I own a business - I got an email from a client ON Christmas needing image files for the following morning. I answered him ON Christmas and uploaded the files and sent him the link. It took a few minutes and did not interfere with any of our plans. He was somewhat ecstatic and said THAT'S why he does business with us. If you can't handle the responsibillities of owning a business, then you will end up not owning it one day sooner than expected.

Quote - *Rendo makes the rules: the Mods have to enforce those rules.

*Rendo makes the rules and the Mods interpret the rules. Since I haven't seen any nudity tags on pictures of apes (which are humanoid in their proportions) I have to assume that someone lost his mind in this instance.  *

Yes they do. Of course they are SELECTIVE about how they enforce those rules - which is VERY sad and why I rarely come into the forums here. This sort of stupidity only shows me again WHY I choose not to spend time here.

When you start seeing SEX in Wabe's aliens, you are a pretty sad individual.

Quote - Your external drive may have had the usb connection fried. :(   if that has happened you should be able to remove the drive from the external enclosure and mount it in the computer case , even if temporarily to copy files off it.

Yes, this happened with a couple of my Western Digital MyBooks and I ended up removing the drive. Fortunately the drive was fine and the files were easily accessed. I would try removing the drive and testing it that way first.

Check out Visual Effects for Directors

http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/

I believe the final price is about $230 or thereabouts + shipping. You might think it expensive, but if you're planning on doing CG with live action/green screen, this is really a MUST and will help you tremendously.

Here is some info:

http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=108023&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

Quote - I investigated this and Adobe have a very good upgrade practice. At the moment I have CS3 and will skip an upgrade and still be able to upgrade for the same price. It is a shame E-on don't follow suit. When I asked E-on about an upgrade from V5I to V7I the price was the same as the V5I -> V6I -> V7I route.

Which is one of the reasons I REALLY like Newtek and upgrading Lightwave. Even with the subscription program that they've implemented, you can STILL skip versions and upgrade at the same price. Yes, it really is too bad that companies like E-on are too greedy for their own good. xStream6 was my last E-on upgrade. Their tremendous price increases and upgrade policies have just made it way too expensive for our small production house to keep up. We don't use it as a hobby, but we are too small to continue upgrading at these ridiculous prices. I wonder what xStream8 will cost? $1995? xStream9....  $2295?...    etc. I suppose if you skip enough versions they'll force you to pay MORE than a new user since you should have been paying for ALL upgrades?  ;)