BS - (resolved)

[addman]

Originally Posted by ATAG_Snapper

A simple "Here ya go" from Disastersoft would've bought them incredible good will. Sure, they're under no obligation to replace a lost product, so they didn't. Good for them. But it's already cost them more than the 5 minutes it would take to pull up an account, verify the purchase, and simply send a link to download.

Yes, I've got "Wick vs Dundas"; it's an excellent product. But I'm done with future purchases from them. They clearly have enough customers as it is.

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.

[tintifaxl]

Originally Posted by svend

Glad you made it I have not gotten any reply from them yet.

But you could try to do the same

[ATAG_Snapper]

Originally Posted by addman

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.

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!

[Matt255]

You are kidding right? Do you even know anything about game distribution? 30% of what? Costs for the publishers? Nonsense. 25% at max and I already am an enemy of steam because that's WAY too much for the service.

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.

What's even more scary: all this rubbish you're saying isn't even part of your TOS (AGB). I couldn't even find any TOS on english either although your shop clearly has an english frontend for international customers AND you ship to them.

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

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.

Or do you expect them to crawl through your german (and useless) AGB with a translator?

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

Those who give the old " if you lost your CD back in the day could you just go in and get a new one for free"

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

... this is the day of digital downloads and all the benefits that it brings, including but definitely not limited to being able to download another copy if something happened to your copy...

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.

[CaptainDoggles]

Originally Posted by Matt255

I wonder what people did back in the day when there were no digital download services like Steam around and people bought a CD/DVD and lost it then.

Or even with those games on floppy discs, long before the Internet was used to complain about everything.

I'll probably lose my car now and sue the manufacturer.

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?

[Dano]

Originally Posted by Matt255

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

www.amazon.co.uk

[Matt255]

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... . 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.

[svend]

Originally Posted by tintifaxl

But you could try to do the same

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

[JG52Krupi]

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

Originally Posted by Dano

www.amazon.co.uk

Thanks that made me chuckle!

[CaptainDoggles]

Originally Posted by Matt255

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.

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?

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.

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.