Exactly what I meant! Sometimes you have to think a step ahead when dealing with customers. Good that this whole thing was revealed though because I won't buy jack from them.

But you could try to do the same :grin:

The power of the Internet is phenomenal, especially WRT niche products like a PC flight combat sim. It can either work for you (if you're smart) or against you -- as we see here. For 30 years I dealt with customers selling them fine wines, premium spirits, and specialty liquors. Complaints were not frequent, but they weren't uncommon, either. Lots can go wrong -- defective product due to leakage, exposure to extreme temperatures in storage or shipping, "corked" wine (bad cork), etc etc etc. Most complaints were valid -- the majority of customers are honest. Some complaints were suspect. ALL were handled quickly and courteously, even the suspicious ones. Product replaced promptly, with apologies. Any damages incurred handled expeditiously -- we had some discretion there to satisfy the customer. In 99.9% of cases the customers were so impressed by our sincere concern to put things right that they remained staunch clients AND spread the word. The 0.1% - less than that, really - where an outlandish claim for damages was made....well, that's why you have legal depts. LOL

I'm now in the digital photo/video end of things and I've found the majority of camera & accessory suppliers to be the same. The odd time I've had a problem -- and I'm polite on my end - I'm pleased to say they've always responded in kind. It's just good business!

30% of the final price on Steam.

You say: Valve, please put it on your shop for 49.99 EUR.
Valve says: OK, we keep 30% from that for ourself.

(that's how it read it is usually being done, doesn't have to be correct, i'm sure publishers can discuss that with Valve)

Wether or not that's too much is not yours to decide i'm afraid. If the publishers and Steam are happy with that, they can do it.

Not even Amazon.de has English TOS, crazy isn't it ...:rolleyes:

It's also not part of the AGB that people can expect to download as often as they want (atleast i can't find it). So i don't think translating it to English would've helped.

Well, they could ask if they are unsure? Send an email etc.

OK, i guess that would be me, so here it comes:

I don't think the benefit of "digital downloads" (or digital distribution) has been written in stone anywhere. Not even on Wikipedia.

For me, it is that you can download it immediately after payment (usually) and don't have to wait for the DVD to arrive and you don't have to put a DVD in every time you want to play and that it's often cheaper that way. Overall, i find it more comfortable to use.

Not that you just pay once and don't have to pay attention to anything, because the developer/publisher/supplier will do that for you for free for a lifetime.

Data is not the same thing as a car. This isn't the 70's; times change as technology arises. One of the websites I manage costs a measly 8 dollars per month for unlimited space and traffic. Is desastersoft seriously suggesting that they can't afford to allow him to download another copy?

What's the difference then?
OK, a car is different perhaps. It got wheels etc. Point taken.


Say you buy a CD of your favorite band now. It's data on a disc. Someone put money into it to put it on the disc and give it to you and you pay them for that. Contract fulfilled, job done. You're responsible now for what you do with it.

Same deal with digital distribution. They put money into it by supplying a download link and traffic, you download it, the data lands on your disc (which is your HDD, SDD or whatever). You're responsible for what you do with it.

Same deal. Everything else is bonus. If the supplier can afford lifetime redownload, that's cool (and you are paying for that, even if you don't need it or notice it). I really don't see why the customer now thinks he's the right to demand it, just because it's now digital only. That would only make it unfair for the person who bought the DVD and there would be no reason why that person shouldn't get a second DVD aswell.

@Dano: Did not know that, thanks... :D. There's stuff you can only buy on the German Amazon though, that's the point i was trying to make (or more correctly, that even big German shops don't always have English TOS).


But OK, let's leave it to rest. Looks like this matter has been solved anyhow, so everyone is happy and people can find something else to complain about.

Hehe lol I did. Mailed them the download mail with ordernumber and my paypal transaction ;)

Lets compare, me and my brother brought one of these...

http://www.bigwing.biz/shop.html

for my dad's brithday a few months ago and he only recently decided to start work on it he found the instruction manual had gone missing and the instruction disk was scratched. We contacted them about a replacement and they could have easily said no but they sent both a new instruction manual and a cd all for free, now that is what I call an honest company.

The missing manual and scratched cd was not there fault and they are not that big a company yet they still sent my old man these items free of charge.

Oh and Dano

Thanks that made me chuckle! :D

A CD is different. Each one costs money. By contrast, once you have one digital copy you can distribute it to your customers for free. Bandwidth is cheap, and if you're paying for a bandwidth limited webhost, you should switch. I already mentioned that unlimited plans are dirt cheap.

So where's the cost again?

With a disc, you can install it from the disc unlimited times. That's the whole point of having a disc. When they don't give you a disc, you need a new way to re-install.