Software Product Life
Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 1:37 pm
Hi everyone
I'm having an interesting experience with DolphinCadCam's Partmaster programme .in oct 2011 I purchased a
"hobbyist" version of Partmaster pro V10. (about $500us) not cheap. I have been very happy with it . DFX to gcode is fast
and easy with pretty comprehensive tooling and machining options including a animated preview .
However last week the motherboard on my pc(win7) "died" and a completely compatible replacement was unobtainable ,so
windows had to be reinstalled . I took the "opportunity" to upgrade to windows 8.1 and an I7 cpu . everything worked
smoothly until Partmaster . partmaster won't activate the licence. Ok i thought I'll put Partmaster on the win7 laptop ,
Partmaster still won't activate.
After contacting support at Dolphincadcam I was informed
Quote
'
Hi Richard,
We no longer have access to V10 licensing, just V11 or V12. Have you considered upgrading to V12?
--
Regards,
Thomas Luttmann
'
my second query got this response
'It's not that we don't want to help, it's just that we can't. What I can do is give you the Milling software for $200 to
help. There are some nice features added since v10. The software industry does work the same, there are many programs that
you cannot run on old Windows. Let me know if there's anything else I can do.
On 10/8/2014 10:01 PM, richard wrote:
> Thomas
> What are you telling me here, is it that v10 is not compatible with windows8.1 and that I have to buy an upgrade that
costs heaps and offers no extra functionality at all for me. Or am I now unable to even reinstall it on another win7 machine
.Of all the software packages I use yours is the only one that has no migration path to windows 8 . if this is the way you
support customers don't expect any repeat business from me.
> I tried your latest version in july and was very unimpressed at that
> time (and also particularly annoyed that the trial totally trashed my
> v10 installation) I can see no benefit in it for me . v10 does
> everything I need I really just want to use it on my new pc (the old
> pc has a dead motherboard repair/recovery was not possible)
>
'
note that the "am I now unable to even reinstall it on another win7 machine" question remains unanswered.
my third try as yet unanswered
'
Thomas
I have tried to install v10 onto my win7 laptop and get the same error (no internet connection available) . can you answer my question .
am I now unable to even reinstall it on another win7 machine ????
I won't be a happy camper if I need to buy a new version every few years for no other reason than your crappy activation process is no
longer supported .how long till the new version fails too ?
Of all the software packages I use yours is the only one that won't reactivate .very disappointing I'm not keen to reinvest in a product
that has such a unreasonable shelf life, my version 10 licence is 3 years old today.
I simply can't believe you would expect me to pay for a reactivation.
'
I feel somewhat cheated by this and i never expected such a short life for this product (especially at the
price). $500 us for 3 years hobby use . now it feels like extortion, buy their upgrade or go somewhere else and then have
learn how to use it all over again.
How do others Feel about this sort of treatment and has anybody else had a similar experience , it certainly makes me
appreciate art's work with gearotic more and more.
I'm having an interesting experience with DolphinCadCam's Partmaster programme .in oct 2011 I purchased a
"hobbyist" version of Partmaster pro V10. (about $500us) not cheap. I have been very happy with it . DFX to gcode is fast
and easy with pretty comprehensive tooling and machining options including a animated preview .
However last week the motherboard on my pc(win7) "died" and a completely compatible replacement was unobtainable ,so
windows had to be reinstalled . I took the "opportunity" to upgrade to windows 8.1 and an I7 cpu . everything worked
smoothly until Partmaster . partmaster won't activate the licence. Ok i thought I'll put Partmaster on the win7 laptop ,
Partmaster still won't activate.
After contacting support at Dolphincadcam I was informed
Quote
'
Hi Richard,
We no longer have access to V10 licensing, just V11 or V12. Have you considered upgrading to V12?
--
Regards,
Thomas Luttmann
'
my second query got this response
'It's not that we don't want to help, it's just that we can't. What I can do is give you the Milling software for $200 to
help. There are some nice features added since v10. The software industry does work the same, there are many programs that
you cannot run on old Windows. Let me know if there's anything else I can do.
On 10/8/2014 10:01 PM, richard wrote:
> Thomas
> What are you telling me here, is it that v10 is not compatible with windows8.1 and that I have to buy an upgrade that
costs heaps and offers no extra functionality at all for me. Or am I now unable to even reinstall it on another win7 machine
.Of all the software packages I use yours is the only one that has no migration path to windows 8 . if this is the way you
support customers don't expect any repeat business from me.
> I tried your latest version in july and was very unimpressed at that
> time (and also particularly annoyed that the trial totally trashed my
> v10 installation) I can see no benefit in it for me . v10 does
> everything I need I really just want to use it on my new pc (the old
> pc has a dead motherboard repair/recovery was not possible)
>
'
note that the "am I now unable to even reinstall it on another win7 machine" question remains unanswered.
my third try as yet unanswered
'
Thomas
I have tried to install v10 onto my win7 laptop and get the same error (no internet connection available) . can you answer my question .
am I now unable to even reinstall it on another win7 machine ????
I won't be a happy camper if I need to buy a new version every few years for no other reason than your crappy activation process is no
longer supported .how long till the new version fails too ?
Of all the software packages I use yours is the only one that won't reactivate .very disappointing I'm not keen to reinvest in a product
that has such a unreasonable shelf life, my version 10 licence is 3 years old today.
I simply can't believe you would expect me to pay for a reactivation.
'
I feel somewhat cheated by this and i never expected such a short life for this product (especially at the
price). $500 us for 3 years hobby use . now it feels like extortion, buy their upgrade or go somewhere else and then have
learn how to use it all over again.
How do others Feel about this sort of treatment and has anybody else had a similar experience , it certainly makes me
appreciate art's work with gearotic more and more.