Their response was:"We are sorry but a refund is not an option. It will tag you with every other affiliate we work with and they may choose to not allow you to buy from them so we like to find a solution and as we said, if that means running some form of interrogation then we may take that action."Andreas

I would understand that as a sort of a threat. Very bad for business.The main reason I don't buy from them is the price. Actually I don't mind paying good buck for a good product but their prices are a little bit over the top.. for me.

I would understand that as a sort of a threat. Very bad for business.

I would additionally understand their response as complete and unsubstantiated BS. Like they've got some failed law student on their "help" desk. :(

I would additionally understand their response as complete and unsubstantiated BS. Like they've got some failed law student on their "help" desk. :(

From what I understand that has long been the attitude of Arianne - back to the days when they would threaten to sue people who suggested that a certain Mr Tishma was anything to do with them, something which was later conclusively proved to be a fact !! As far as I am concerned it is a company to be avoided at all cost !!G

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

Well that plan hit a little snag! I can't get to the forum, because they only sent the forum link to customers, via their activation email, which of course I haven't got yet! What a catch 22!! I guess I'll have to do it via email, wish me luck!

"We are sorry but a refund is not an option. It will tag you with every other affiliate we work with and they may choose to not allow you to buy from them so we like to find a solution and as we said, if that means running some form of interrogation then we may take that action."Call your credit card company and dispute the charge and forward them a copy of this threat. This type of threat is not only bad business practice but it is quite illegal. What Ariane has stupidly put in writing is called blackmail by definition holding you hostage from remedying the situation within the confines of the law by threating to retailiate against you if you do. Let's them explain their rationale to your bank and their high priced lawyers meanwhle your bank will refund your money directly to you and Ariane will owe your bank the money and I bet you dollars to donuts that they won't send the same response to them.

Well that plan hit a little snag! I can't get to the forum, because they only sent the forum link to customers, via their activation email, which of course I haven't got yet! What a catch 22!! I guess I'll have to do it via email, wish me luck!

Ariane forum: http://www.ariane.havetofly.com/Al

Ariane forum: http://www.ariane.havetofly.com/Al

Thanks Al!

Thanks Al!

Hey Tom, if you wouldn't mind I'd like to know when you get your activation email as at this point I've been waiting for a little over 32 hours. I followed Al's advice and PM'd Ed but haven't heard anything from him either.Maybe they sent most of their staff home for the week as they had to work the weekend trying to patch the immediate problems people had trying get the activiation menu to show up :( .Andreas

I liked the early post about voting with our wallets - I have a list of companies I no longer buy from - no matter how good the product, the reviews, the screen shots appear. Those are the companies that have pulled similar activation BS on me in the past or I have seen well documented cases of activation problems on forums such as this. I think a user survey about the number of companies each of us boycotts because of PERSONAL experience with activation problems might be informative for developers.I am a "cost is no issue" consumer and buy impulsively just to get a look at plane - probably the ideal consumer - but I certainly have several companies I will avoid at all costs. Maybe I have a low tolerance for activation problems because I started working on security and very expensive software about 35 years ago and was involved with such security for many years. The current methods used by several vendors are just unacceptable and, as frequently pointed out, only punish honest users. Dishonest users and pirates seem to get around any security scheme in current use.

I tend to agree with you there, and although Ariane's Ed has told me that their activation process is intended to combat piracy, it clearly did not do much to stop their FS9 737 getting ripped off, since that I do know has been widely torrented. Sadly, this means such draconian measures do little other than to deter legitimate customers from buying, but ever was it so.Al

Any poster here get activated yet? Just curious. (I haven't yet.)

Any poster here get activated yet? Just curious. (I haven't yet.)

not yet, it's 2 days now. I tried the email method first, as the first thing your greeted with at the forum, is not to post about activation problems. I just registered, and waiting for that to activate, then I'll try PMing Ed, as Al suggests.

I just got activated after I PM'd Ed.

I just got activated after I PM'd Ed.

I just got activated about 1 hour ago. I was just about to PM Ed, when the email showed up! They claim, because of everyone upgrading to Win 7 it's now taking them 3 days to process activations. They need a better system! The activation itself was kind of weird too. Instead of just selecting the encrypted key, you had to select the entire email text. Well at least it's done. I'm about to take my first flight tonight, (Hopefully)

Good to hear you finally got it activated, but its sad that costumers have to go through this just so they can protect there software, i for one will never ever buy anything from them.