I bought three planes from X-Aviation last year.  I installed them.  They worked.  They have stopped working.

I wrote support a week ago for some assistance, got a ticket #, and was asked again what the issue was.

I reiterated the license fail issue. The planes were working, but now are not.

I have heard nothing back after answering them.  I waited a couple days and then sent a note saying basically "hello, what's up".

I got frustrated and posted on the forums they use for their products, and low and behold an X-Aviation member responded.

My view is why would you be able to respond, and not friendly, taking that time on that forum, yet you can't advise me how to fix my license fail issue?

I love the planes but find the service/support is dismal.  Disappointing is how I feel.  Flight1 and their wrapper system is also frustrating at times but at least they are responsive to their ticket system and find you solutions.

I now think I know what the issue is, it just occurred to me this morning.  I tried to upgrade my system from Win7 to Win10 a few weeks back.  The upgrade failed for a whole lot of complex reasons many of which are posted on Microsoft help sites, things like boot up to black screen, greyed out menus and others.  So I restored my PC back to Win7.

I suspect that attempt at upgrade and reversion to Win7 may have done something to however the licensing registration works.  But I don't know for sure.

I am sitting waiting patiently for any sort of response from those folks.  Nadda.

 

How long does one wait and how long would be reasonable for a response to help with an issue. For three planes yet?

Regrettably, this is not the first complaint, by a long shot. While I haven’t experienced such unpleasantness, what really annoys me about X-Aviation is its infernal re-licensing routine, which is all-too frequent. I fully understand the need to protect against pirates, but this system is clunky and (from X-Aviation’s position) purely self-serving with no regard to the irritation it generates. Imagine if the providers of all XP payware followed the same policy. You’d never reach the taxiway.

Edited February 5, 20215 yr by Brian Mackie

I want to acknowledge they reached out to me after I made this post. And I provided them with a lengthy detailed analysis of this issue.

I sure hope they stay focused and respond promptly.

3 hours ago, Brian Mackie said:

Regrettably, this is not the first complaint, by a long shot.

The vast majority of the time, complaints that go unanswered are from people who have shared add ons.  They then assume X-Aviation is simply not replying to these people, not realizing it's because they have shared.  X-Aviation doesn't reply to those people until a thorough investigation is done into why their license has been flagged as "shared".  Once determined the add on has been shared, the support request to lift the de-activation goes in the out tray and is not replied to, and these people then go on to moan and complain about the terrible customer service.  Personally, I have wasted way too much time on people asking me for help in activating my add ons, without me realizing they obtained it through sharing.  Now I just direct them to X-Aviation support.  Not because I don't want to help those who are legitimate customers, but because activations need to go through X-Aviation support to be properly looked in to.

@1st fltsimguy Just the fact you mentioned going through 2 different operating systems tells me your products were flagged as being on 2 separate computers, and I'm guessing you can't activate those add ons.  Activations are deeply looked in to because we have far too many people trying to rip off not just us, but EVERY developer.  It's because of these people that Flight 1 has a wrapper.  And other publishers have their own DRM.  They are a necessary evil, but blame the people who share add ons for us using it.

Legitimate support tickets are always looked in to and taken care of before they are closed.  X-Aviation is going through an extremely busy time now with 2 major product updates released and 2 more about to be released.  Response times may be a little longer than the usual 3 days.

1 hour ago, GoranM said:

The vast majority of the time, complaints that go unanswered are from people who have shared add ons.  They then assume X-Aviation is simply not replying to these people, not realizing it's because they have shared.  X-Aviation doesn't reply to those people until a thorough investigation is done into why their license has been flagged as "shared".  Once determined the add on has been shared, the support request to lift the de-activation goes in the out tray and is not replied to, and these people then go on to moan and complain about the terrible customer service.  Personally, I have wasted way too much time on people asking me for help in activating my add ons, without me realizing they obtained it through sharing.  Now I just direct them to X-Aviation support.  Not because I don't want to help those who are legitimate customers, but because activations need to go through X-Aviation support to be properly looked in to.

@1st fltsimguy Just the fact you mentioned going through 2 different operating systems tells me your products were flagged as being on 2 separate computers, and I'm guessing you can't activate those add ons.  Activations are deeply looked in to because we have far too many people trying to rip off not just us, but EVERY developer.  It's because of these people that Flight 1 has a wrapper.  And other publishers have their own DRM.  They are a necessary evil, but blame the people who share add ons for us using it.

Legitimate support tickets are always looked in to and taken care of before they are closed.  X-Aviation is going through an extremely busy time now with 2 major product updates released and 2 more about to be released.  Response times may be a little longer than the usual 3 days.

Thanks for you long reply.  Cameron and I are working on it today with no success.

But, what in heck are you talking about....I said "I tried and upgrade to Win10"  it failed I reverted to my original Win7. Period.

All my other planes, addons and massive amounts of other software are working just fine thank you very much.  I just conjectured that perhaps that attempted install might have done something odd. I don't think what you are saying is true, I'm trying as we speak to sort out issues, like password problems, like anti virus problems, although they have not solved the issue...AND further I have other X-Aviation products that ARE WORKING.  And my P3DV4.5 and all its addons are working, and my very old FSX believe it or not is still working. Stop guessing please.

Here is what I expect.  "Got your ticket we are working on it, stay tuned we will get back to you shortly but we may take a few days."  Write that down please.  Then folks would know that something is happening not just lost in cyberspace.  This is what I'm getting at, talk to us, let us know you're busy, whatever. Days of silence are not an acceptable business practice and I used to run a multi million $$ bookings consulting firm and communication was the key to its success...well that and word not allowed good work.

Gees.

Edited February 6, 20215 yr by 1st fltsimguy

Let's back up for a second.  I'm trying to clarify.  I'm not accusing.  I'm also letting you know why support might be a little slower at this time.  After all, you did open up your first post by "I bought three planes from X-Aviation last year.  I installed them.  They worked.  They have stopped working."

Followed by..."I reiterated the license fail issue. The planes were working, but now are not."

And I clarified by saying the DRM recognized Win 10 as a new OS/new computer.

38 minutes ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

Here is what I expect.  "Got your ticket we are working on it, stay tuned we will get back to you shortly but we may take a few days."  Write that down please. 

The XA support system doesn't work that way.  Once you submit a support ticket, you get an automated reply in your email with a ticket number.  THAT is the "we have received your enquiry" response you want.  XA gets hundreds of support tickets a day.  Going through each one and replying with, "We have received your support request and are looking into it" would be an extreme waste of time.  That's exactly why the automated ticket number was created.  

However, it DOES state that they will reply within a few days...just as you wanted

"Please use the button on the right to contact us with any 
comments or concerns.

Also consider visiting our forums for quicker answers from those in our community.

We will reply as soon as we are able and will endeavor to reply within 3 days, but usually quicker."

 

Also, if you submit more than 1 ticket, before you are replied to, your original ticket gets reset in the reply queue.  Thereby increasing wait times, as stated on the support page...

"Please do not send multiple e-mails or this will delay our response to you!"

 

All of that is on the CONTACT US page.

 

In saying all this, I'm not really sure what you're trying to accomplish by posting here.  But whatever.

Edited February 6, 20215 yr by GoranM

Can only add, windows 10 can be a pain in the word not allowed, but if you want Vulcan you have no choice, And since the license is tied to what seem to be a windows hardware key, sometimes when when 10 updates it can flag a license issue. you simply than need to disable it on one machine in there menu, Its a pain ,but win7 never seemed to have that issue. I am curious to why win10 wouldnt take???

2 hours ago, GoranM said:

X-Aviation is going through an extremely busy time now with 2 major product updates released and 2 more about to be released.  Response times may be a little longer than the usual 3 days.

This is the problem with some developers.

This is another issue why people are complaining about X_Aviation, just from this condescending statement people should not touch this "company".

Regardless of pending updates or releases customer service should be a priority, ultimately the customer keeps you going and not waiting for an answer for days to come and when you guys are not busy.

I agree that the issue is more likely to be due to the operating system upgrade, unfortunately some people are not computer literates and no mater what you want to believe your customer service and mentality

is not up to the par with many business in our days.

 

39 minutes ago, killthespam said:

This is the problem with some developers.

This is another issue why people are complaining about X_Aviation, just from this condescending statement people should not touch this "company".

Regardless of pending updates or releases customer service should be a priority, ultimately the customer keeps you going and not waiting for an answer for days to come and when you guys are not busy.

I agree that the issue is more likely to be due to the operating system upgrade, unfortunately some people are not computer literates and no mater what you want to believe your customer service and mentality

is not up to the par with many business in our days.

 

It's not about brushing customer service off until we're not busy. It's the fact that having numerous product releases causes more customer support, thus the queue takes longer to complete with the increased load of questions.

And I fail to see what part of my statement is "condescending".

Edited February 6, 20215 yr by GoranM

Goran, you raise a number of possibilities. If X-Aviation is trying to handle “hundreds” of customer support queries a day, it has:

-         - Too many products to reliably support, or

-         -  Some of these products are way too buggy, or

-         -  Sales are not being balanced by employing sufficient support personnel

I do not believe that the second option is valid. The couple of products I have bought from X-Aviation have been good.

However, you expose a major weakness in your argument by saying that response times may now be a little longer than the usual three days (already excessive, in my view) because X-Aviation has released two major product updates and is about to release two more. That tends to confirm suspicions that X-Aviation is sales-oriented, rather than service-oriented – and that it probably lacks the capacity to promptly deal with tickets.

That was my worry when I first bought a product from X-Aviation, some years ago. I subsequently observed a great deal of adverse comment about its customer service on various forums and, although these comments were anecdotal, I was nevertheless deterred from purchasing again (apart from the great TBM-900, of course, for which X-Aviation holds an unhealthy monopoly).

Why do I resist buying from X-Aviation? Because I know that the customer is king. That’s a concept proved beyond doubt, but is apparently still not wholly accepted by X-Aviation. It’s a commandment that, if ignored, always ends badly for the supplier.

Edited February 6, 20215 yr by Brian Mackie

2 minutes ago, Brian Mackie said:

Goran, you raise a number of possibilities. If X-Aviation is trying to handle “hundreds” of customer support queries a day, it has:

 

-         - Too many products to reliably support, or

 

-         -  Some of these products are way too buggy, or

 

-         -  Sales are not being balanced by employing sufficient support personnel

 

I do not think that the second option is valid. The couple of products I have bought from X-Aviation have been good.

 

However, you expose a major weakness in your argument by saying that response times may now be a little longer than the usual three days (already excessive, in my view) because X-Aviation has released two major product updates and is about to release two more. That tends to confirm suspicions that X-Aviation is sales-oriented, rather than service-oriented – and that it probably lacks the capacity to promptly deal with tickets.

 

That was my worry when I first bought a product from X-Aviation, some years ago. I subsequently observed a great deal of adverse comment about its customer service on various forums and, although these comments were anecdotal, I was nevertheless deterred from purchasing again (apart from the great TBM-900, of course, for which X-Aviation holds an unhealthy monopoly).

 

Why do I resist buying from X-Aviation? Because I know that the customer is king. That’s a concept proved beyond doubt, but is apparently still not wholly accepted by X-Aviation. It’s a commandment that, if ignored, always ends badly for the supplier.

 

You’re missing too much information. Customer service is handled by developers AND X-aviation. I personally deal with TBM customer support, since I was one half of the dev team. You will see my responses to quite a few forum posts. Activations and some minor issues are handled by x-aviation themselves. The 3 day response time is pretty much standard across all publishers. You’ll be lucky to get anything earlier from anyone else. 

Total non sequitur, Goran. You use my passing reference to TBM-900 (for which I know you were a major author) to avoid the points I raise about the overall X-Aviation customer experience, which you attempted to defend in your earlier posts. I'd just make one final point, before moving on to something more positive: If X-Aviation's support was adequate (which is to say, it promptly deals with people who are not tech-savvy before they resort to complaining on forums), why are there complaints on forums? You know, and I know, why that happens.

"Customer service is handled by developers AND X-aviation". That might account for the delay between someone raising a problem with X-Aviation and them passing it on to "developers". Not the finest-possible customer support model...?

Oh, and by the way, I get much more rapid responses from Aerobask, HiFi, XVision, X-Camera and Laminar Research, for example, than that apparently offered by X-Aviation. But then, I've never had cause to seek X-Aviation support, for the reasons stated in my earlier post.

Edited February 6, 20215 yr by Brian Mackie

It’s obvious I won’t get anyone to agree to my point. So instead of continuing an unofficial support discussion here, I’ll end this and refer you to the appropriate support channels. 
My aim was to clarify and settle any bad feelings you may have, as well as offer some assistance, but I can see that’s not going to happen.  Complaining about another store on another forum yields little benefit. 
have a great day. 

Edited February 6, 20215 yr by GoranM

43 minutes ago, Brian Mackie said:

However, you expose a major weakness in your argument by saying that response times may now be a little longer than the usual three days (already excessive, in my view) because X-Aviation has released two major product updates and is about to release two more. That tends to confirm suspicions that X-Aviation is sales-oriented, rather than service-oriented – and that it probably lacks the capacity to promptly deal with tickets.

To be clear:

The X-Aviation contact page states 3 days, usually sooner. This is to set a proper expectation, and it is better to under promise and over deliver. Product releases have NOT delayed our response times beyond the published 3 days, but have pushed them towards the published time. Questions range from tech support to order questions, and is just a factor of daily business.

29 minutes ago, Brian Mackie said:

If X-Aviation's support was adequate (which is to say, it promptly deals with people who are not tech-savvy before they resort to complaining on forums), why are there complaints on forums?

It's not so black and white. More often than not, it's a matter of impatience. Sometimes it's someone saying "still no reply" after literally only asking in an initial email an hour ago. Other times it's a day later. Regardless of this, we post a timeline that we adhere to for a reason. And, finally, forums are naturally a place for complaints and/or instant gratification. That's the world we live in. Technology has conditioned us to it.

 

43 minutes ago, Brian Mackie said:

That was my worry when I first bought a product from X-Aviation, some years ago. I subsequently observed a great deal of adverse comment about its customer service on various forums and, although these comments were anecdotal, I was nevertheless deterred from purchasing again (apart from the great TBM-900, of course, for which X-Aviation holds an unhealthy monopoly).

As an aside, I have just dug up your e-mail history with us in two prior support ticket instances. In both cases you were answered the same day, multiple times on some.

@GoranM just alerted me to this thread, but before even seeing it I think even @1st fltsimguy (who started this thread), can confirm that I have been conversing several times today with him, and, at the end of the day even he was not out of the last reply received response window we post. Stating that he "wrote a week ago" is misleading in that it doesn't tell the rest of the story, which is he sent numerous e-mails after that, and is something we inform not to do. He has admitted to not reading this, and that's okay. We do our part to communicate it though.

For all intents and purposes, tech support works fine and you'll always receive a reply as indicated on the contact page, often times much sooner

Edited February 6, 20215 yr by Cameron XA

Thanks, Goran.

Negative as expected, of course, but I hope it promotes a discussion at X-Aviation and among its developers about how to avoid threads like this.