Re-activation procedure - INTENSELY frustrating / irritating

[shiphen]

Hi

Although I am a long-term fan of Xara, having bought every version since Xara Studio (about 10 years ago), I am INTENSELY frustrated and irritated with your re-activation proceedure.

Because Xara Professional 7 *CRASHED* and became unusable, I have had to re-install it on my work PC. And because like many people, I use three PCs (work, home, laptop for commuting), this meant that I have now exceeded the maximum number of activations.

1. It is incredibly fiddly putting in 6 x 6 digits and very easy to make a mistake.

2. It is irritating to have to then press 3 to move onto the next group.

3. It is even more irritating that the phone system then reads on the number I need to call ("00 49 57 41 34 55 31", I think) ONLY ONCE. So if we dont get it right first time we then have to enter all 48 (6 x 6) digits, plus 6 threes all over again.

4. More irritating still is the fact despite being a UK company you are forcing us to make an international phone call in order to continue.

5. EVEN MORE IRRITATING is the fact that when you get through the phone system talks to us in German(??) for a minute or two first.

6. TOTALLY IRRITATING is the fact the their office turns out to be closed when I called at 11:45AM despite the fact that they claim that it would be open until 12:30PM.

A. What do I do next?
B. Xara - WTF are you playing at?

If you really, REALLY want to irritate your customers it would be hard to think of any automated system that would do a better job of it. Are you sure you havent unwittingly employed the staff of your competitors who clearly wish to destroy your loyal fan-base?

With thanks

Alec

[gwpriester]

Hello Alec

I agree that this needs to be addressed. These days the number of people who upgrade computers or who install Xara on many computers has increased and three installations does seem lacking. But more importantly, it would be better to simply the process of deactivating one use and then activating a new use.

OTOH Adobe did not used to (this may have changed) let you have two versions of the Creative Suite Installed. You had to uninstall one before you could install the new one.

[shiphen]

Frankly it's not just the number of installs, it's the entire process that is painful - exceedingly painful.
And I have a nasty feeling that someone in management has done this deliberately.
And what they seem to forget is that intensely irritating customers - particularly the loyal, long-term ones for no good reason - is NEVER a good idea.

[gwpriester]

I have made Xara aware of your post.

[bb2]

Hi Alec, many thanks for your comments and feedback regarding the activation process

The activation limit will allow you to complete the installation on three PCs without the activation count being exceeded. If you wish to install the product on additional machines then please submit a support request and we will increase your activation count.

Your points regarding the telephone activation suggest you have purchased the product via Magix and not via Xara.

Xara release versions contain a UK and US based number for the telephone activation and calls are answered in English.

Id recommend submitting a ticket from http://xara.com/contact providing your product serial number, name of the product purchased and account email address If you have an offline activation code then please can you also provide this?. We can then assist you accordingly or forward your details to our colleagues at Magix if your purchase was via http://www.magix.com

Thanks

[gwpriester]

Thanks bb2.

[shiphen]

The activation limit will allow you to complete the installation on three PCs without the activation count being exceeded. If you wish to install the product on additional machines then please submit a support request and we will increase your activation count.

Your points regarding the telephone activation suggest you have purchased the product via Magix and not via Xara.

Xara release versions contain a UK and US based number for the telephone activation and calls are answered in English.

Id recommend submitting a ticket from http://xara.com/contact providing your product serial number, name of the product purchased and account email address If you have an offline activation code then please can you also provide this?. We can then assist you accordingly or forward your details to our colleagues at Magix if your purchase was via http://www.magix.com

Thanks

Hi BB2

Thanks for your feedback. However:

1. The point is that it's not the number of PCs that is the problem, it's the number of (re-) installations on the same three PCs.

2. No, I purchased Xara Designer Pro 7 from xara.com. I had never even heard of magic.com before (and at this point I hope I never do again!)

3. No, this is factually incorrect. Although there was both a UK and a US phone number given on the screen, the UK number was definitely answered in German (albeit with an in English repeat)

4. I submitted not one but two tickets on the support.xara.com site, (one a request for re-activation, the other a formal complaint about all of the issues mentioned above). The first was submitted yesterday morning at 11AM, and I have flagged them both as "critical" but neither have been replied to. I have supplied my Computer ID, my Serial Number, my order and the date of my purchase.

Unfortunately even my previous version of Xara Designer Pro (i.e. v6) have become corrupted on both my work PC and my laptop PC...

The point is that I do need to use my software rather urgently!

Thanks

[bb2]

Hi,

- Reinstalling the program on the same machine does not cause the activation count to increment unless a specific set of rules are matched.

- I called the UK number ( note the number you have quoted is a german number and not displayed on UK versions) The call is not answered in German.

- Your support ticket has been replied to accordingly.

Many thanks

[shiphen]

Okay support have now (finally) incremented my activation count up to 7 which will be fine for now. Thank you.

> Reinstalling the program on the same machine does not cause the
> activation count to increment unless a specific set of rules are matched.
In which case my computer must have matched whatever those rules are!
All I know is that I have only installed on 3 PCs and that the installation crashed horribly and failed and therefore had to be re-installed.

> I called the UK number ( note the number you have quoted is a german
> number and not displayed on UK versions) The call is not answered in German.
1. Yes, the number is indeed a phone number for a phone in Germany.
("00 49 57 41 34 55 31")

2. To clarify: on my system, when Activation failed, I was given just TWO choices of country (the US and the UK) and that German phone number is the one that was given for UK use. That is what I meant.

I have tried phoning that number (located in Germany) several times at various times both in the morning and in the afternoon yesterday and again this afternoon (just now at 16:45 UK time) but the phone has never yet been answered by a human being. But it *is* answered (after about 10-20 rings) by a machine. And that machine talks in German for the first 18 seconds. That is what I meant.

Yes, I definitely bought my software directly from Xara.com and I have all the emails to prove it.
If it helps, using Help ==> About... the version that I am running appears to be "Xara Designer Pro 7.1.1.17261 DL Jun 7 2011"

Note: This is me spending time valuable giving feedback, trying to help Xara deliver a better service.
A little contrition of tone wouldnt go amiss, XARA.

[sgiff]

I'm not sure about the activation problem but the installation manager was a huge pain. It literally took several hours on my connection to download and even with that it was going nowhere, I waited until very late to purchase this app Xara 7 pro so I don't think it had anything to do with too many people downloading it. It literally is being clamped on speed at the server end because I have a fairly decent connection. I finally gave up and found a copy online that someone had uploaded and installed it.