I have bought their 737-800 for FSX and while it is not a bad plane(it actually is quite good) the thing that bothers me the most is the price. Granted i really wanted a 737 for FSX and PMDG was a long way away at the time. But when you concider that my level d 767, coolsky md 80,and captain sim 757 are all in the $50 range and arguably have more system depth than the Ariane model. Adding the fact that their FMC is horribly out of date so that most sids and star waypoints are not even in the database. I do lots of flying of VATSIM and this fact alone makes the aircraft unflyable. I had it installed on my system, had to reactivate after i reinstalled windows vista and they sent me some message about they are going to count my activations and i will only get so many. I was so tired of it by the time I installed windows 7 i havent even reinstalled it. Now that the PMDG plane is on the way ill just wait and get that. The sad thing is PMDG has an intial estimate of around $80 for the plane with is about $35 less than what Ariane's costs. I have no doubt which will be of better quality.

I completely understand/agree. I am anxiously awaiting the PMDG 737 as well (not to mention the 777 which I'm even more eager about) but love flying the latest Boeing offerrings so had to give the Ariane another shot.

Yup, it appears Ariane Design constantly shoot themselves in the &@($* with episodes like this. That's a shame, because their FSX 737s are very good. With the present exception of the new X2.5 700ER at the moment that is, which appears to have a throttle glitch bug, however, since it was only released the other day, and they are currently patching it, I imagine that will get sorted out. They did get an install patch for the thing out really very quickly indeed the other day, so they clearly can get on the case with things like that.However, one would hope that they'll begin to demonstrate a similar alacrity when addressing matters of improving service too. To be completely fair, they have done that in some areas when compared to what they used to be like, nevertheless, when we read things like the above customer experience, it is apparent that there is certainly more they could do to improve their image.Unlike a lot of people, I like to give them a chance myself, but the goodwill candle is being burned at both ends when I read stuff like the above tale. It is certainly true that there is a fair bit of misinformation where their products are concerned, and that is one of the reasons why I reviewed their FSX 900ER at my own expense for Avsim, and found it to be pretty good. In spite of that, and as much as I'm inclined to try and help them shake off some of the mud that has stuck to them from the behaviour of years past because of their products, as I would with anyone who turns over a new leaf, that will not extend to defending this kind of thing, and they clearly do themselves no favours by it. I do hope they realise that and do something about it, because as I say, their product is actually a good one, even if the service which accompanies it clearly leaves something to be desired if this tale is anything to go by.Al

Very nice sentiments, Al, but you couldn' t convince me to be so generous. I'm one of the "silent majority" who many times has read of these experiences, but rarely expresses a view either way. We just quietly vote with our wallets. This "company" has a long, long history with many members here, and it's very plain that Ariane hasn't listened, hasn't learned and appears quite unconcerned that they've lost so many customers because of similar cases like this one. Like Captain Sim has - they lost me long ago. Respectfully,

That's exactly my point, I'm not trying to convince anyone other than Ariane themselves. From the comments in this thread we can see the effect that their methodology in recent years has had on sales, and this incident is unlikely to improve matters.Al

I've been holding off on bringing my Ariane 737 onto my new computer because I've seen problems with Windows 7 on their forum and I am sort of dreading the complications of reactivation on a different machine. I may try it if I get really tired of 757s :-) I'll report on the experience one way or the other.

Hi AllOne other method would be to buy their products via a 3rd party company, such as AVSIM, SIMMARKET, etc then use the reputation of the seller to resolve any issues. :( RegardsPeterH

Actually, buying via Simmarket (when I bought the Ariane FSX 900ER which I used for the Avsim review of it) caused me no end of problems. The download actually came with the wrong documentation amongst other things (it was for an earlier version of the 800 model if I recall correctly), so the activation procedure detailed in the manual did not correspond with the method I actually had to use for the product I had. This led to a situation where Simmarket were telling me to contact Ariane for support and Ariane were telling me to contact Simmarket.I did eventually get the thing activated (obviously, or there would have been no Avsim review), but it wasn't for the help of Simmarket, who still haven't sent me the correct documentation for it, and I put that ticket in last year LOL. As it turns out, I don't actually need the documentation detailing how to install the thing any more, since I know how the procedure goes, but it does show that some tickets you send to them just get ignored if they can't sort them out. So this little story does demonstrate that buying from Simmarket is not always the wonder of helpful support that one might suppose it would be, although to be fair, it is the only time Simmarket has not been ideal and I do still use them a lot and generally never have a problem, so I wouldn't want to put people off buying from them, because I do so all the time. Conversely, when I bought the Ariane FS9 737-800 from FS Pilot Shop, they were incredibly good with support, so the third party seller route obviously isn't always bad where Ariane product support is concerned.In fairness to Ariane themselves, I've never had any real problems with support from them, and although some people might say that is because I am an Avsim reviewer, the truth is, when I first got in touch with them, that actually made them incredibly suspicious of me because of the battles Avsim and Ariane had indulged in in the past, but despite that suspicion, they were nevertheless invariably helpful with activation and support queries. I know that might be hard to believe, but it is true.Al

Yup, it appears Ariane Design constantly shoot themselves in the &@($* with episodes like this. That's a shame, because their FSX 737s are very good. With the present exception of the new X2.5 700ER at the moment that is, which appears to have a throttle glitch bug, however, since it was only released the other day, and they are currently patching it, I imagine that will get sorted out. They did get an install patch for the thing out really very quickly indeed the other day, so they clearly can get on the case with things like that.However, one would hope that they'll begin to demonstrate a similar alacrity when addressing matters of improving service too. To be completely fair, they have done that in some areas when compared to what they used to be like, nevertheless, when we read things like the above customer experience, it is apparent that there is certainly more they could do to improve their image.Unlike a lot of people, I like to give them a chance myself, but the goodwill candle is being burned at both ends when I read stuff like the above tale. It is certainly true that there is a fair bit of misinformation where their products are concerned, and that is one of the reasons why I reviewed their FSX 900ER at my own expense for Avsim, and found it to be pretty good. In spite of that, and as much as I'm inclined to try and help them shake off some of the mud that has stuck to them from the behaviour of years past because of their products, as I would with anyone who turns over a new leaf, that will not extend to defending this kind of thing, and they clearly do themselves no favours by it. I do hope they realise that and do something about it, because as I say, their product is actually a good one, even if the service which accompanies it clearly leaves something to be desired if this tale is anything to go by.Al

I can see where these activation problems come from with this developer, I went ahead and bought the 737-800 from SimMarket because they take Amex, just a little while ago, (Before I saw this thread). There is a pdf installation file, which specifically states it's for Simmarket purchases that came with it telling you how to activate it. Problem is the example they give in the PDF is not from Simmarket, but FS PilotShop, and the information it says to fill out like Cart Id is not on a Simmarket receipt. So I assume that is the order number, next they want the timestamp of the transaction. Neither the email receipt nor the online screens showed this other than purchase date. I finally found it on the print receipt option which showed an actual receipt. After putting this data in, it generated an email to send with everything encrypted. I sent it off but haven't received a response yet, which in itself isn't a problem yet, as it could take a day. I know though when requests for activation is sent this way, it will get kicked out if not formatted correctly, which for the above reasons, I'm not sure it is.

If I get a slow email process for Ariane (either from me or from them, which is not uncommon because their email system appears to be a bit crap), I tend to PM Ed from Ariane on their support forum (which you can register on if you have a product receipt with an order number). That usually does the trick. Despite what people might imagine the Ariane staff to be like, you'll find Ed is actually a nice guy if you PM him and have a chat.Al

If I get a slow email process for Ariane (either from me or from them, which is not uncommon because their email system appears to be a bit crap), I tend to PM Ed from Ariane on their support forum (which you can register on if you have a product receipt with an order number). That usually does the trick. Despite what people might imagine the Ariane staff to be like, you'll find Ed is actually a nice guy if you PM him and have a chat.Al

Thanks I do that! I'll give them til tomorrow first to see if I get my activation. It is night time still after all.

Download and activation request went smoothly, so now it's just a matter of time to see when I get the activation code. I agree with Al that the 737-800 is a very nice airplane. The new 700ER 2.5 has some nifty features like working terrain avoidance radar, but it is hard to jump in even at the introductory price so long as the speed problem remains.

I just read that review again, and I've got to hand it to Al for a well-written, accurate, and very informative unbiased observance. However, my problem with Ariane is that all of these complications reported over activation seem to only adversely affect the legitimate users, whereas the pirates are claming success in cracking the product(s). I just had to ban a member a couple of weeks ago for posting a link to his cracked copy of one of the Ariane 737 models, which was accompanied by several posts (on the user's website, not AVSIM) where people thanked the criminal for the product and noted it to be "working great". So now, assuming those comments are accurate, we have a product that is freely available to thieves while legitimate purchasers are stuck waiting for activation info. I'm 100% behind developers protecting their work, but in this case all I see is a safeguard to keep the honest folks honest. They need to revisit their system of protection, which I was once told they were going to do. Perhaps this is the result?

I just read that review again, and I've got to hand it to Al for a well-written, accurate, and very informative unbiased observance. However, my problem with Ariane is that all of these complications reported over activation seem to only adversely affect the legitimate users, whereas the pirates are claming success in cracking the product(s). I just had to ban a member a couple of weeks ago for posting a link to his cracked copy of one of the Ariane 737 models, which was accompanied by several posts (on the user's website, not AVSIM) where people thanked the criminal for the product and noted it to be "working great". So now, assuming those comments are accurate, we have a product that is freely available to thieves while legitimate purchasers are stuck waiting for activation info. I'm 100% behind developers protecting their work, but in this case all I see is a safeguard to keep the honest folks honest. They need to revisit their system of protection, which I was once told they were going to do. Perhaps this is the result?

I think they did improve matters, but only if you bought it through them, which from what I've been hearing is almost instantaneous. That wasn't an option for me, because they don't accept Amex, and I won't use my debit MC card for a online transaction. So I was fully prepared to have to wait for the activation. What I wasn't prepared for was that the instructions how to do it would be inaccurate.

I think they did improve matters, but only if you bought it through them, which from what I've been hearing is almost instantaneous. That wasn't an option for me, because they don't accept Amex, and I won't use my debit MC card for a online transaction. So I was fully prepared to have to wait for the activation. What I wasn't prepared for was that the instructions how to do it would be inaccurate.

Unfortunately that isn't the case as I bought directly from Ariane and after resolving the missing activation menu I now wait for the activation "response" from Ariane. Presently at 13 hours and counting. To their defense I believe they had staff working long hours to deal with the large amount of activations that were coming in shortly after launch of the new product. As an IT professional I'm shocked that a company would require a manual process to authenticate a user and authorize the products use (why else would it take hours/days for a response); perhaps this is why their prices are so much higher than the competitors :( .I agree that their piracy protection is flawed and does little but to inconvenience their "true" customers. I've seen cracked versions for many of their products and each time I see it I simply shake my head. The only way we can continue to enjoy these wonderful add-on products is by supporting those teams that spend the countless hours working on them. As mentioned in a previous post this piracy demonstrates that Ariane's protection system simply doesn't work.

You solved my problem!!! Thanks Al, very much appreciated. I'm not sure why their support couldn't suggest that given that this seems to happen to a fair number of users.In the end I'm glad this is resolved but I still find their stand on refunds poor customer relations.

Glad to know you got it working.Good job Chock, he wins a cookie.