PMDG customer forum deserve a better forum platform

[roarkr 104]

Hi,

 

As a premium flight sim vendor I believe PMDG deserve a better forum platform than Avsim can deliver today.

 

Avsim's forum platform is slow and unstable and in my view do not give PMDG customer the service they want and pay for.

 

The traffic to PMDG's forum is not that heavy and should be much better if right forum platform technology was used.

 

Every morning when I try to connect (I am from Europe) to PMDG forum, I get the service not available. When I get connect to the service it is laggy, slow and very unpleasant to use.

 

Are PMDG aware of this situation and the their customers frustration?

 

[Mike777 163]

 

 

Every morning when I try to connect (I am from Europe) to PMDG forum, I get the service not available. When I get connect to the service it is laggy, slow and very unpleasant to use

 

Hi, Roar,

 

How do you know the problem isn't with your particular setup, web access or ISP? 

 

I live in the U.S. Central time zone and I rarely experience serious difficulties.  Around 8:00Z sometimes AVSIM is inaccessible due to maintenance, but other than that I don't experience any more occasional delays than with any other site.

 

Mike

[skyrider 0]

I'm in agreement with 'roarkr': I'm located in the UK & have major problems accessing this site, as well as anything to do with AVSIM.

 

An improvement in service would be very much appreciated.

[Gnacino 48]

I'm in USA, Central time zone.  I do experience problems with AVSIM.  It seems that they do some kind of maintenance regularly.  When they do, you can't get on the site or can't navigate thru it.  For going thru so many maintenance interruptions, you would think that the site would be running a lot smoother.  How I miss Tom A.

 

G Nacino

[Guest]

 

 

Avsim's forum platform is slow and unstable and in my view do not give PMDG customer the service they want and pay for.

 

AVSIM is free ... if you look to your right on this page above the Donate button you'll see that AVSIM is a free service.

 

If you are looking for official PMDG support they have a support ticket system that is very good and responsive that you can access via their Operations Center.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[ailchim 206]

I'm from the UK ( which is close to if not actually part of Europe :smile: ) and get very little problem logging onto the AVSIM site or the forum.  I'm very happy having the PMDG forum here with the vast arrray of other stuff I get from this site so let's leave it where it is, thanks. 

[scandinavian13 5,192]

 

 

Avsim's forum platform is slow and unstable and in my view do not give PMDG customer the service they want and pay for.

 

For the record, this Customer Support Forum is not funded by any purchase through us, or otherwise. AVSIM is funded by donations and ad revenue. What you pay for is the official Support system. AVSIM is free, and they've been here for years to provide a great, free service to the community.

 

 

 

Are PMDG aware of this situation and the their customers frustration?

 

We've all seen the issues here from time to time, but it's gotten better.

 

If you need direct support - especially when things aren't going well here - see the link in my signature.

[Hammerheadmike 6]

Gentlemen, I have something to say on this matter - and I welcome your comments accordingly.

 

 

1. I'm glad AVSIM exists for my occasional visits to the PMDG community. Thank you for that.

 

2. I do find it slow and "crashy" when using it from the UK, which would surely harm Ad click-throughs.

 

3. AVSIM might be free, but we are still being sold to with the banners - therefore the "free" issue is a non-issue notwithstanding the donations option.

 

4. Here is the mystery:

    

I might be in Kiev, Ukraine for a while, and look at PMDG AVSIM briefly. Nope - cant do that... DB error, site error, or whatever error.

 

At the same time, I open up my remote server connection in UK - and can get to AVSIM ok.

 

Go back to Ukraine 3 seconds later - nope, still broken

 

In the UK rdp server again - works fine.

 

This behaviour was consistent for 3 weeks.

 

--

 

The businessman in me believes that AVSIM is preventing certain countries from accessing the site. Sorry if I'm incorrect - but it follows the evidence seen so far.

 

Why would they restrict it? Well its very hard to get anything delivered to Ukraine. And its hard to pay for anything online in Ukraine.

 

Ergo, our Ukrainian friends seems to be getting an artificial rough ride on this site, to allow for "commercially viable" visitors to click and take action on the Ads. Which is a shame, yet I sympathise with both side of the argument - if indeed this is the reason.

 

PMDG ought to know about this experience, as it's linked to their brand - even if its not the official support channel.

 

Have a great day everyone.

[codechris 9]

As others have said, if you have a problem put a ticket in. Best way to resolve your issues

 

In response to Hammerheadmike, I do remember one member of forum staff, can't remember his name, blocking IP's from certain countries, like Russian and China I belive, as he thought they where maybe attacking the website. And people have been IP banned in the past, I've seen a few people state things similar to that, so again it's perfectly possible that IP or that subnet has been blocked by Avsim

[rafaelrodriguez 0]

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Please before complaining about this site, realize the terrible situation that we the customers are when we need support from, for example: Asus or TP-Link. They are supposed to help, it is part of the deal. However there is no way we could contact a human being in Asus or TP-Link and if we are lucky enough to get a person then that person has no idea about anything plus he or she speaks with an ununderstandable accent from the other side of the world.

That is bad and that is a Chinese reality.

Rafael Rodriguez

[downscc 1,327]

AVSIM seems to go through brief periods of intermittent service but I simply exhale and do something else.  As far as I am concerned it is great to have a very diverse forum with global membership plus a huge library all for no cost (honestly, those banners don't cost me anything).

 

Not speaking for PMDG (betas are not employees or even insiders), but it makes sense for them to moderate a user forum this rich in content broad appeal. At minimum it exposes their name and product to the community.

 

Complaints are one thing, and they are a normal part of providing any service; but a little support would probably do more to solve the occasional problem.

[kevinh 409]

I log in to Avsim from Europe and don't see any of the problems others mention. Sure, access first thing in the morning is sometimes not possible. But remember in U.S. local time this is a low demand period so ideal for maintenance. If the site isn't available, no problem, try again in an hour. It's a hobby website, nothing urgent is being delayed.