Author Topic: KORD Purchase Help  (Read 7031 times)

FlyClow

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KORD Purchase Help
« on: May 01, 2008, 04:57:16 pm »
Greetings!

I am hoping that I can receive some help with the purchase and activation of KORD. I am running FS on a computer that is not connected to the internet and my computer that does have internet access does not and will not has FS on it. I have browsed through the site but was unable to find clear instructions on how to purchase the product and transfer to the FS computer. Would anyone please be willing to explain this process? Thank you. I look forward to flying at KORD.

Regards,
Kyle

thepilot

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Re: KORD Purchase Help
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2008, 05:22:04 pm »

virtuali

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Re: KORD Purchase Help
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2008, 09:46:58 pm »
Dear FlyClow,

First, I apologize for the lack of a fast reply but, as I think everybody would have imagined, 1st of May is vacation all over the world (I think) and, since it was happening on Thursday, we had a long weekend off.

Second, I have removed all the nonsense about the Addon Manager being "buggy" or difficult to use. The Addon Manager works fine, it's far easier than any other method, it offers FAR more reinstallation options (3 DIFFERENT METHODS) when changing hardware, it offer the most important "Try before Buy" and, as clearly explained on the FAQ on this website, it's NOT used "just" for sales and piracy protection.  That's the wrong impression users get because the sales interface is the only one they get it touch with, so they assume there's no need for the Addon Manager anymore, once the program is bought, save for the piracy protection.

As clearly explained in the FAQ, the Addon Manager was only way that allowed us to create high detail scenery of big airports, without losing fps and offering several features to the scenery not normally possible with the MS SDK.

So, for the last time, let's stop once and forever meaningless suggestions about getting rid of the Addon Manager, because this is not going to happen.

Now, to return to the original question:

The Addon Manager is by far the easiest system to purchase a product, because it doesn't requires the user to Buy, *wait* for the serial (that might not arrive, because email got lost, filtered, etc.), insert the serial risking mis-typing it, losing more time than necessary. Our system is far better and far easier to use because one will be able to IMMEDIATELY use the product, a few seconds after purchase and without risking unreliable email or having to type serials. It's all done automatically, and it always WORKS.

Of course, it's so easy for the vast majority of users: those that are using Flight Simulator on a PC with an Internet connection active. This covers 99% of the cases so, it's obvious that wouldn't make much sense to have a worse and less reliable system for 99% of the users, just to make it easier for the remaining 1% that doesn't have an Internet connection on the PC they use to fly.

NOTE: there's NO NEED of a fast or permanent internet connection: the purchase lasts only a minute, after that you will never need to contact again during use so, even a very old 56k modem will do (who doesn't have one ?)

This, of course, doesn't mean it's not possible to buy the product, is simply slightly more complex.

In case of a PC with no Internet connection but WITH FS (9 or X) installed, the procedure was correctly explained in the other forum message.

However, in case of a PC with no Internet and no FS on it, is *STILL* possible to Buy the product. The current Addon Manager has TWO Buying options: the regular one, and the "Buy on Web / PayPal" that can be used both for PayPal and Credit Card payments. This purchase is more "traditional", using a Web store and a serial that will arrive via email, that will need to be manually typed and then activated, using the off-line activation, as explained in the other thread.

The "Buy on Web" option, of course, is only available with the Addon Manager so, the catch would be what to do in case there's no Flight Sim on the purchasing machine ? Well, the "Buy on Web" option doesn't do anything fancy or out of the ordinary: it simply start a browser on a specific link were product can be purchased so, it would work even without the Addon Manager.

I hear the question: "Why not posting that link, so your purchasing method would look exactly like everybody's else ?"

There's a very simple answer: we WANT you to Try the product first! There's a Trial for a reason and, if we simply put a store link, many people will purchase the product without trying it first, and this is not we want. At the cost of losing sales, we prefer having people all 100% sure of their purchase.

So, in your specific case, I will give you the web store link to purchase the product via PM but please, please, install the Trial first....


thepilot

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Re: KORD Purchase Help
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2008, 10:03:41 pm »
Wow, I see you're very open-minded for criticism  ;D

virtuali

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Re: KORD Purchase Help
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2008, 10:15:30 pm »
Wow, I see you're very open-minded for criticism

Only when it's done on valid grounds.

Stating that the Addon Manager is "buggy" and difficult to use and it would be better if it was using serials (that the Addon Manager CAN optionally use, just see how the "Buy on Web" options works), it's not constructive criticism: it's simply wrong.

The Addon Manager now offers two purchase options:

One (the "Buy" button ) is the regular option, and it's entirely automated.  The other ("Buy on Web" button), that was added when O'Hare was released, is using serials that arrive via email and need to be manually typed.

Since we introduced the "Buy on Web" option, about 90% of the users still prefer to use the regular Buy option and almost everyone except a few, use the "Buy on Web" only because of the PayPal option that is not possible using the regular "Buy" method.

That says a lot what users like to use more, when they have a choice. I wonder why anyone would prefer having to wait a serial via email and having to type it (hoping the email has arrived), when it's possible to have it entirely automated instead.

thepilot

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Re: KORD Purchase Help
« Reply #5 on: May 04, 2008, 10:37:15 pm »
Stating that the Addon Manager is "buggy" and difficult to use and it would be better if it was using serials (that the Addon Manager CAN optionally use, just see how the "Buy on Web" options works), it's not constructive criticism: it's simply wrong.

Wait a moment, we're actually talking about two different things.
A serial that needs to be activated online works for me, but not for PCs used without an active internet connection.
So you always have to write a complete explanation how to do. Funny eh?
Oh, and concerning the 'buggy' addon manager...
After both Zurich and Chicago release, many users' flight simulators did not start any more.
You are welcome to tell me what takes longer:
Opening gmail, copy the serial code, enter it, and use the scenery
or
waiting for a solution from you which took ,as far as I remember, a few hours.

Just said this 'cause you mentioned the time factor.
« Last Edit: May 04, 2008, 10:39:53 pm by thepilot »

virtuali

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Re: KORD Purchase Help
« Reply #6 on: May 04, 2008, 11:12:24 pm »
A serial that needs to be activated online works for me, but not for PCs used without an active internet connection.

So, you are in agreement that the default method works for 99% of the users. Up to today, we had 2-3 people asking how to purchase without internet connection, out of several *thousands* who downloaded the Trial...

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So you always have to write a complete explanation how to do. Funny eh?

Since the number of people asking this question is so low, I don't see the problem. However, your criticism might be relevant to the MANUAL, and here we ARE open to criticism: we might add a section in the manual that will cover purchase without internet connection, for those interested.

However, since we are keep getting emails about reactivation, from users who only consumed 1 activation, when it's clearly stated on the manual that we have 6 activations on different hardware before calling support, is highly doubtful how many would actually read it, if we add another section to it.

Had you criticized the manual, that would be different. Still, it doesn't have anything to do with the Addon Manager itself.

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After both Zurich and Chicago release, many users' flight simulators did not start any more

First, your definition of "many" is questionable at best, since, as I've said, we had many thousands of downloads so, by definition, ANY software that gets downloaded by thousand of people WILL crash on a certain percentage of user's machines, without meaning the software is buggy.

For the Zurich release, in fact, the solution to the "bugged" Addon Manager wasn't a new Addon Manager release but, instead, trying to help the very few people affected, so see what was their problem on their machine that prevented the Addon Manager to run. After the problem was found, the SAME "bugged" Addon Manager always worked. So, it's obvious it wasn't "bugged" in the first place, since we managed to make it run even on those problematic few users, WITHOUT having to release a fixed one.

O'Hare was an entirely different issue and wasn't an Addon Manager "bug" but, rather, our failure to properly test the installer, due to the fact we have to release two different set of files, depending if the user has or hasn't patched FS9 for >2GB of RAM and, unfortunately, we let slipped ONE wrong file in the installer, that only affected user with one kind of config. Again, this wasn't solved by updating the Addon Manager itself, just the installer with the updated file.


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You are welcome to tell me what takes longer: Opening gmail, copy the serial code, enter it, and use the scenery or waiting for a solution from you which took ,as far as I remember, a few hours.
Just said this 'cause you mentioned the time factor.

It took a few hours for the following reasons:

1) As I've said, it only affected people with one kind of configuration, so we took more time than the usual just to identify the problem. Funny enough: NO beta tester had the affected config.

2) I can only upload files at 30K/s maximum. This means releasing a full O'Hare installer for FS9 only takes about 1 hour just to upload it.

However, your entire argument that it takes more time to wait for a fix than having to wait for an email and type a serial, is wrong anyway, because is based on the wrong assumption that all users will always have this problem, so it's normal having to wait.

Of course, this is not the case because the only people that had to wait "a few hours" for the O'Hare fix, were only those who downloaded the installer the first hour after it was released (because we put it offline immediately after spotting the problem) and of those, only those who had the one config that wasn't tested.

Instead, when the purchase is done by serials that arrives via mail and need to be typed, and this is the only method available, the waiting factor will always be there, for the whole life of the product, for everyone that will download it.


This is no excuse for our failure to properly test the installer. In fact, we have the O'Hare 1.1 patch ready since a week already, but we haven't released yet, because we don't want to make the same mistake twice.

But still, this doesn't have anything to do with the Addon Manager being buggy or not or with the purchasing method being easy or not. If we were more thorough with testing, and if at least one of our testers had the affected config, the *same* Addon Manager would worked for everybody.
« Last Edit: May 05, 2008, 12:26:52 am by virtuali »

thepilot

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Re: KORD Purchase Help
« Reply #7 on: May 04, 2008, 11:34:33 pm »
OK, it might have worked for some users. For those ones who posted in the thread back at this time, it didn't.
Maybe I'm wrong but I assume there were a lot of users also having problems but who didn't post in anticipation of a new version.
Actually you did the same mistake twice - with Zurich and O'Hare. This wouldn't have happened if your system didn't rely on a .dll file.
I see it's impossible to convince you of something else or to make you admit other's opinions and thoughts, so I stop here.
You can always make things unnecessarily fancy...
Fortunately you are the only one who thinks this way (thank god!...)

virtuali

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Re: KORD Purchase Help
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2008, 12:09:46 am »
Maybe I'm wrong but I assume there were a lot of users also having problems but who didn't post in anticipation of a new version.

Since the problem was FS not starting anymore, it's difficult to believe many users had issues like this, and not reporting it.


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Actually you did the same mistake twice - with Zurich and O'Hare

No, read the explanation again: Zurich wasn't an Addon Manager "problem", rather some people with specific system issues, that we always helped solving it, WITHOUT having to change the Addon Manager in any way. O'Hare was really an installer fault. Again, no new Addon Manager was needed to fix the problem in the initial O'Hare release, just putting the correct set of files in the installer.


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This wouldn't have happened if your system didn't rely on a .dll file.

This is not different that having airplanes depending on, let's say, FSUIPC and not properly working or creating "problems" in FS, if the installer doesn't properly put the correct/updated version or (if the product doesn't even have an installer) if the user doesn't keep the .dll updated.

In my web shop, I sell boxed addons products coming from all FS developers, and I keep answering support questions to customers having problems with FS not starting anymore or displaying the "old .DLL" message each time it starts, because the installer put an old FSUIPC version so, it's not any different than the Addon Manager situation.

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You can always make things unnecessarily fancy...

That the Addon Mananger it's an easier purchasing method, is a fact. If the serial/email method was easier, since the Addon Manager DOES support it now, we'd see more people using it, but in fact they aren't.

Yes, the Addon Manager makes things more complex for people without Internet connection but, as I've said, it's better to have it simpler for the vast majority of people, at the cost of making it more complex for a few users.

I thought to have clearly explained, many time already, why it wouldn't be possible to release our product as they are, without the Addon Manager, even without having any kind of copyright protection.

The initial wrong premise is to assume (and I think to have explained this, many times already) the only use of the Addon Manager is to sell and protect the product. I agree this is an easy mistake to make, because that part is the only one the user get it touch with, but this doesn't change the fact that the Addon Manager is needed by the product.

We can only try to explain it, and we did it, by writing it on the FAQ, by writing on this forum and still, as we can see in your case, people do not *want* to believe it, because their formed their own opinion that the Addon Manager is needed "just" for sales/activation.

To be even more clear: even if we used a different sales system, our products will STILL include, depend on and would not work without, the Addon Manager, just like (sorry if I repeat myself) an airplane might be sold using Flight1's wrapper, and be dependent on FSUIPC, and not working if, for any reason, FSUIPC has issues, is old, etc.
« Last Edit: May 05, 2008, 12:31:24 am by virtuali »