X-Aviation

[Stick 0]

As the X-Plane community grows with the release of XP10, there's a real opportunity for XP devs to grow likewise. ...and this will happen, if we support them....

 

But support is 2 way and I wanted to post about a hugely disappointing experience with X-Aviation.

 

Last year I got into XP9 and purchased in close succession, 3 products from X-Aviation, totalling around $100.

 

Fast forward around 5 months, and I suffered a catastrophic HD failure and lost not only my FSX and XP installations, but also all of my installers. (Yes, I know they should have been on an external drive! ... I know this now ).

 

I logged into my X-Aviation account to find that I had a download link for the CRJ product and was able to download it. Great.

 

I then went into my other 2 orders to see that the download counter for one showed "179 downloads remaining" and the other showed "1 download remaining". (They were all bought around the same time so no idea why the d/l allowances are so inconsistant.

 

Anyway, although it appeared I did have downloads left for these products (which I had previously only downloaded once), I had no links, and no ability to d/l.

 

I sent off a polite email to X Aviation asking if my links could be renewed, but received no reply. I have since sent numerous further emails to X Aviation (through the proper support email channel that is give within my account, in their website), and have received not a single reply back.

 

How easy would it be to allow me a download of these products that I only bought 5 months ago, and which I have only d/loaded once previously? ........ Fair enough if they wanted to say "ok, this is the last time we'll let you download" and give me a ticking off, I'd accept it. But to repeatedly ignore emails and fail to give me access to the products is pretty mean IMHO. they know I'm a genuine buyer.

 

Do X-Aviation think I am going to spend the money again with them to purchase these product again, 5 months later?

 

I have read many similar comments around the 'net about Cameron, his attitude, and poor service from X Aviation, which is why I have raised the matter here.

 

Now, contrast this experience with that of the Dash 8-Q400 from Armchair Aviation..... an email off to them explaining the same problem, and I had an installer for a brand new updated version sent to me within a couple of hours .............

 

X Aviation need to take a look at vendors like Flight 1, Just Flight, etc, and realize that good customer service is an investment that will always give a positive return....

[Comanche 417]

Well I hope your situation gets resolved. I learned a long time ago with FSX to back up my stuff. I had an external drive I bought just for this purpose and when I needed it, it broke and I lost everything. It took forever to get the stuff back and some of it I had to buy again or pay a fee to re-activate my links.

I now store all my addons on cheap USB drives which I keep in the safe deposit box at the bank around the corner from me. I know it sounds silly, but my CRJ is locked away in celler at my bank..

 

Rob

[Aerodynamic 0]

I'm new to X-Plane and ordered my copy of X-Plane 10 from X-Aviation. Many of the staff were at a conference and this delayed the same-day shipping that I expected. However, I received emails from X-Aviation explaining the situation as well as a follow up email to make sure I was satisfied. I found it to be very professional.

 

Stick, you should try contacting them once more. Or perhaps you'll get a response from someone on here. I am sure X-Aviation will make it right. Maybe just bad luck?

[GoranM 3,764]

Stick

You may have a spam filter stopping emails from XA coming through.

I personally know the average support turnaround time at XA is less than 11 minutes per customer. That includes re-activating download links.

Cameron never ignores customers unless he finalizes the issue and considers the matter settled. There was one case where a matter was considered settled with a customer of the MU-2, even though the customer did not accept it. This customer had requested no less than 20 activations of the MU-2 in the space of about a year or 2. I don't know about anyone else, but to me, that is quite an excessive amount. He requested further activations and they were, understandably, not granted.

You failed to mention the products you bought from XA. Perhaps if you outline the problems you had along with the products involved, it would be much easier for Cameron to help you.

And those people saying negative things about Cameron are probably the same ones who tried to put him out of business over the last 4-5 years.

 

I showed this thread to Cameron just now and he is looking into who you are. Perhaps if you go to the appropriate forums at X-Pilot and address your concerns there, instead of a forum that XA developers don't really frequent that much, you may be met with a much more receptive reply from either the developer/s and/or Cameron himself.

[Cameron XA 272]

Hello, Stick (David Rogers),

 

And thanks to Goran for alerting me to this topic!

 

I read through this topic with great confusion. Someone stating they have sent in a "dozen" e-mails to X-Aviation (in the title no less!) with no response is rather suspicious while also disturbing! We do not believe in poor customer service, and strive to answer customer support e-mails/tickets in a very timely (often minutes to a couple of hours) manner. To see someone have this kind of a problem and long lasting opinion of our services is something that should be rectified immediately, so I went investigating this problem right away...and the information I dug up is rather astonishing given the accusations.

 

So, Mr. Rogers, lets run down everything here, shall we?

 

When Goran messaged me about this I was actually mid-completion (eight support e-mails/tickets left!) of customer support requests over the weekend (more specifically yesterday), as it was Easter Sunday, and for many a great day to be spending with our families. All this to say, we took some time out of the office to spend with our families for the Easter weekend as some of you could imagine! :)

 

Mr. Rogers here claims to have sent in a "dozen" of e-mails to X-Aviation, yet that didn't corroborate at all with our tech support channel. Not at all. Not in the inbox, not in the spam box, nowhere! I went through the remaining eight support tickets left to try and see if this person could have had his support issue in one of my remaining unread requests, and sure enough, it was. The weird thing, however, is that Mr. Rogers sent in TWO e-mails, not a dozen. Furthermore, these two e-mails were sent in three minutes apart. It is very evident he sent no other e-mails in-between this time, and because his requests were sent in on Easter Sunday there was no response given yesterday.

 

Here's his original e-mails sent in, yesterday, Easter Sunday:

 

E-mail #1:

 

Hi,

 

I purchased the Corvalis TT last year, but my PC Hard Drive died a week ago and I lost my entire Ex-Plane installation, and all addons. I have logged into my X-Aviation account today to re-download the Corvalis, but there is no download link available. Could you please reset this? (I was able to re-download the CRJ, it just seems to be the Corvalis that has no download link). Thanks.

 

E-mail #2:

 

As per my last email, for the Corvalis TT, the same applies to the Sequoia F8.L Falco. It shows as 1 download remaining but there is no link. As per my last email, I've just built a new system after a catastrophic HD failure, and lost my installers for the 3 products I currently have with you. I was able to re-install the JRollon CRJ, but the Sequoia F8.L Falco and the Corvalis are showing no download links for my purchases. Could you kindly re-activate the download links for these. Thanks.

 

By the way, Mr. Rogers, while investigating this I skipped the line for you and answered your two e-mails in case you weren't aware.... So, to those following this topic and wanted to know the issue above, it's evident that Mr. Rogers has greatly exaggerated his story here. He did not send in a dozen e-mails, he sent in two, and both have been answered with a one-day turn around after a holiday when his original e-mails were sent in.

 

 

All that out of the way, I still find some of Mr. Rogers' initial post here troubling, so I'll respond to his points as necessary:

 

I then went into my other 2 orders to see that the download counter for one showed "179 downloads remaining" and the other showed "1 download remaining". (They were all bought around the same time so no idea why the d/l allowances are so inconsistant.

 

This looks to have been an error on our part. When we last released an update the links remaining vs days got swapped in the database. Crazy that no one has yet mentioned this, but thanks to you, this has been fixed! :)

 

I sent off a polite email to X Aviation asking if my links could be renewed, but received no reply. I have since sent numerous further emails to X Aviation (through the proper support email channel that is give within my account, in their website), and have received not a single reply back.

 

By numerous you assumably mean "one."...three minutes after your first as displayed above!

 

How easy would it be to allow me a download of these products that I only bought 5 months ago, and which I have only d/loaded once previously? ........ Fair enough if they wanted to say "ok, this is the last time we'll let you download" and give me a ticking off, I'd accept it. But to repeatedly ignore emails and fail to give me access to the products is pretty mean IMHO. they know I'm a genuine buyer.

 

It's quite common that people lose their backups and we've always been happy to reset peoples' links! You were treated no different in this manner other than you've had to wait a whole extra day for support due to Easter Sunday. No one "repeatedly" ignored any of your two e-mails.

 

Do X-Aviation think I am going to spend the money again with them to purchase these product again, 5 months later?

 

Absolutely not!

 

 

I have read many similar comments around the 'net about Cameron, his attitude, and poor service from X Aviation, which is why I have raised the matter here.

 

I find this one rather puzzling. In most cases we'll have customers who are used to extremely rapid response times at X-Aviation and when times are slightly busier (especially after a major release) and someone doesn't get a response "immediately" (talking minutes to a couple of hours here) they will get upset. Not once, however, have we ever ignored a single customer. This would defy our customer service philosophy.

 

Now, contrast this experience with that of the Dash 8-Q400 from Armchair Aviation..... an email off to them explaining the same problem, and I had an installer for a brand new updated version sent to me within a couple of hours .............

 

I'm glad to hear that other companies are working hard to provide quality customer service in the X-Plane community. This puts a much needed good face on the X-Plane payware market, so kudos to Jack and Joe at Armchair!

 

X Aviation need to take a look at vendors like Flight 1, Just Flight, etc, and realize that good customer service is an investment that will always give a positive return....

 

I'm sorry this has caused such angst, Mr. Rogers. Had it not been a day such as yesterday (Easter), I'm certain you would have received a same day reply. Speaking of which...I took the liberty of going back and seeing our full track record of support with you! Your last contact for support with us was on June 16th, 2011. Quoting you in one of these e-mails, you stated:

 

"Thanks for the fast response." - David Rogers, June 16th, 2011

 

You and I actually exchanged SEVEN e-mails in that one day. The dialogue on June 16th, 2011 started with a support e-mail from you at 3:48 AM local X-Aviation office time and was replied to at 3:56 AM...a whole 8 minutes later. Dialog continued through the day as your replies came in.

 

As far as I can tell, David, we have been as every bit responsive and attentive to your needs as I would hope for us to be, and likely more attentive than many other vendors out there (at least with response times).

 

Please don't hesitate to contact us again should you need any further assistance!

 

 

Contact form: http://www.x-aviatio.../contact_us.php

 

All the Best,

Cameron

[Phantom88 3,287]

I was in need of support for a X-Aviation product but couldn't register on their forums.I PMed Cameron here on the Avsim forums and he helped me get squared away Pronto.I'm sure there's a communication glitch somewhere.

[Comanche 417]

I only had one support issue for the activation on the MU2 and it was resolved within mins of my email, so Im very happy the service Ive seen so far.

 

Rob

[Stick 0]

Update:

 

I'm pleased to say that I received my download links from X-Aviation this morning.

 

Thanks.

[snwboardn 87]

Thanks for taking the time to post here Cameron. I think it goes a long way in showing that you and your company care about what is being said about you and take the time to clear the air. I will definitely go out of my way to see if you have software that I am looking for available.

[tkyler 88]

I'd think removal and/or correction of the thread title would be appropriate given that Cameron has given a better documented "case" than has Stick. I don't think it particularly cool to leave a thread title of this nature when such a claim apparently borders on libel. Having been a vendor with XA for a decent while now, a few things are clear.

 

1.) You can't please everybody

2.) Only complaints are voiced, not praise

 

For every 1 bad experience with XA, there seems to be at minimum 100 good ones that don't get voiced. I've seen a guy send in 10 emails to XA on a weekend.....some time minutes apart demanding a response....only to go public with accusations of bad service when he didn't get an answer (in the middle of the night XA time no less)

 

I would like to see the community and avsim moderators review and sound off on such threads with "dubious" claims as these...even though it's free speech....and in such a circumstance when a "attack" such as this comes out....substantiate the claim for the good of the community or remove/correct it if unsubstantiated....also for the good of the community. If Stick can produce evidence of the thread title, then by all means, leave it, but if not, I believe it should be changed.

 

Tom Kyler

Laminar V10 aircraft

Laminar V10 scenery

[Chock 17,769]

I had some issue with an X-Aviation aeroplane and I have to say I thought the response time was pretty rapid myself. In the end though, the real lesson is fairly clear for this tale; get an external drive and get everything backed up onto it (preferably backed up onto two drives actually).

 

Al

[jfv 4]

I agree with Al, Cameron has been A1 in his support, taking the time to answer questions I had

often times within MINUTES not days. Kudos to X-Aviation and their products!!

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

I'd think removal and/or correction of the thread title would be appropriate given that Cameron has given a better documented "case" than has Stick. I don't think it particularly cool to leave a thread title of this nature when such a claim apparently borders on libel. Having been a vendor with XA for a decent while now, a few things are clear.

 

I agree, and have have edited the title.

[TedG 1]

Update:

 

I'm pleased to say that I received my download links from X-Aviation this morning.

 

Thanks.

 

Dare I suggest that an apology is in order?

[Guest bstolle]

Guess that's not going to happen

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/369666-x-plane-10-european-global-version-as-new/