MP3 Option Purchase

[tombliss]

I just paid £15 for the MP3 bounce option. I entered my credit card details, and hit Submit, but the page didn't go anywhere. The credit card fields disappeared, but there was no download button, no thank you, no receipt, no new page with instructions on what to do next or how they were just saddling up a pony to deliver my MP3s. Just a blank page - still with my personal info at the top but now blank white at the bottom where the credit card details had been.

It is a truly TERRIBLE website.

I emailed the contact. No reply, obviously.

Looked in my Products Yet To Be Downloaded folder and there were loads of things there I didn't recognise - none of them said MP3 Bounce Option. (so I didn't click any of them)

I filled in the credit card form again. Same thing happened.

So now Avid have £30 of my money.

Then I get this email:

"Hello Tom,

Thank you for purchasing Pro Tools 8 Third Party Content. Please follow the instructions below.

Celemony Melodyne Essential"

What the F*** is Celemony Melodyne Essential?

I bought Protools 8 MP3 Option. It said nothing about this badly spelled rubbish.

I clicked on the link in the email - the only link in the email.

It just took me to my account on the Avid website NOT to anything that said Celendyne Muddly Essence, or whatever it was.



WHY can't Avid get their customer act together?

Don't they want our business?

Will I have to take them to the small claims court to get my £30 back?

You see - if they had proper email support none of this would have happened.

[tombliss]

Oh - something called MP3 Option guide just appeared on my desktop.

But there is nothing to install into Protools, no plug-in nor nothing.

It tells me how to use the darn thing, but not how to get it into my system.

There is now nothing in my Products Yet To Be Downloaded list.

So obviously they are planning on keeping my money and not providing the goods.

Nice one Avid.

[tombliss]

I looked in my account again, and tried downloading this Celery Memory Ejit thing.

God alone knows what it does - the Read Me says nothing at all about MP3s - just a warning that it may cause protools to freeze.

I'm NOT going to install it.

I DO want my money back.

And I do want the MP3 Bounce Option - not all this time-wasting and stressful nonsense.

[DigiTechSupt]

Originally Posted by tombliss

I looked in my account again, and tried downloading this Celery Memory Ejit thing.

God alone knows what it does - the Read Me says nothing at all about MP3s - just a warning that it may cause protools to freeze.

I'm NOT going to install it.

I DO want my money back.

And I do want the MP3 Bounce Option - not all this time-wasting and stressful nonsense.

Celemony Melodyne Essential is a pitch correction plug-in, nothing to do with MP3 Option.

We checked your account (based on your DUC email address) and there isn't an MP3 Option order there, and MP3 Option isn't listed in Your Products or Products Not Yet Downloaded. Can you please check your credit card account to see if a charge went through? We would recommend clearing your browser cache or trying a different browser.

The last reply in the General Troubleshooting stick at the top of this sub-forum has a link to info on the MP3 Option and how to purchase, register, authorize and install it. Here's the direct link to the kbase article reference in that post:
http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/self...p?DocId=357165

Please let us know if that helps or not.

[tombliss]

I've finally had a reply to my email.

The guy claims the credit card company declined payment - which is deeply suspicious because there is £8000+ in that account, and the bill was only £15.

But even so, the website should have told me what had happened.

To give the customer a white screen with NO INFORMATION WHATSOEVER is simply not acceptable, though it's totally in keeping with the Avid customer ethos - which is to take our money and let us sink without trace.

I'm absolutely disgusted with a company who can (nearly) program one of the most complex audio applications on the market, but can't design a website you can find your way around or which tells you what's going on when it's taken your money.

"Celemony Melodyne Essential is a pitch correction plug-in" then why the hell does it not say so somewhere?

There were I think three apps in my 'products not yet downloaded' folder, all with silly names. I say 'in' sometimes when I look they are there, and sometimes they are not (again, useless web-programming). I have no idea what any of them do, because there is just a blue link to download, and NO DESCRIPTION (basic customer info is a LEGAL REQUIREMENT guys). I have NOT asked for, nor paid for any of this rubbish - so why is it cluttering up my Products folder? Even when downloaded there was NOTHING to tell me what it actually does . Go head, try it yourself and see.

Absolutely useless.

I repeat, I searched the Avid site for 'MP3' and got a page marked MP3 Option. After that, only nonsense - as usual.

[DigiTechSupt]

Originally Posted by tombliss

I've finally had a reply to my email.

The guy claims the credit card company declined payment - which is deeply suspicious because there is £8000+ in that account, and the bill was only £15.

But even so, the website should have told me what had happened.

Agreed. I don't think this happens very often, otherwise we'd hear about it. There are several things that could have contributed to the problem, including browser issues, which would not be under our control.

"Celemony Melodyne Essential is a pitch correction plug-in" then why the hell does it not say so somewhere?

There were I think three apps in my 'products not yet downloaded' folder, all with silly names. I say 'in' sometimes when I look they are there, and sometimes they are not (again, useless web-programming). I have no idea what any of them do, because there is just a blue link to download, and NO DESCRIPTION (basic customer info is a LEGAL REQUIREMENT guys). I have NOT asked for, nor paid for any of this rubbish - so why is it cluttering up my Products folder? Even when downloaded there was NOTHING to tell me what it actually does . Go head, try it yourself and see.

Information on Melodyne is included in your boxed product and is a 'bundled' plug-in from a 3rd party manufacturer, which is why there's no specific explanation next to the download about what it does. It should be simple enough to go to the Celmony site or do a Google search for 'Melodyne' - the first hit is the Melodyne site, or go to the plug-ins page on our website, which also has info on the plug-in.

I repeat, I searched the Avid site for 'MP3' and got a page marked MP3 Option. After that, only nonsense - as usual.

Nonsense? The search shows the MP3 Option PDF as the first search hit and it contains information on installation and usage of the plug-in. Your issue seems to be a store website or browser glitch, which would typically be handled on a case by case basis as we wouldn't have any way of predicting what failures may occur with the website or browser during a purchase.

[tombliss]

Hello DTS

First of all thank you for your replies - if only Avid were as quick to respond when I and other people are drowning in a sea of errors.

"There are several things that could have contributed to the problem, including browser issues, which would not be under our control"

That is true, but there are two parties in this technology, the browser and the website. Well-written websites have fewer browser issues. I'm using the latest Firefox, on a very new machine. For the payment to fail twice is suspicious. If I did not have the very lowest opinion of the huge, confused and lumbering behemoth that is the Avid website I would be more likely to give it the benefit of the doubt.

"Information on Melodyne is included in your boxed product and is a 'bundled' plug-in from a 3rd party manufacturer, which is why there's no specific explanation next to the download about what it does. It should be simple enough to go to the Celmony site or do a Google search for 'Melodyne' - the first hit is the Melodyne site, or go to the plug-ins page on our website, which also has info on the plug-in. "

Now here you are making a fundamental error, and exhibiting exactly what is wrong with the Avid customer-facing philosophy.

To be sucessful, specially with a complex program like ProTool, information needs to contextual and timely. If you expect users to wade through mile after mile after mile of manuals, FAQs, Forum posts, Google hits etc, when they are merely trying to buy a little plug-in that really should be included in the program you are missing THE crucial point about customer satisfaction. We are not all computer science graduates with a music technology MA, and all the time in the world to engage with the minutiae of areas of the program we never intend to use because we love all that tekkie detail.

Some of us are 'mere' musicians or producers (rather than engineers) who bought a piece of software which we expect to do what it says on the tin. Protools frequently doesn't - (which, in such a complex area as DAWs is perhaps understandable), but when that happens we need speedy access to resilient solutions.

All you need to do is put a two line descriptor against each link - it's not hard. The word beginning with 'h' that does apply is HELPFUL. Look, if you're going to offer these plug-ins or whatever they are at random, in the customer's personal download box, in the middle of a flawed/failed purchase for a totally different transaction, that would only be best practice for AVID - never mind the customer. Just EXPLAIN PROPERLY WHAT IS GOING ON on every page, and DON'T keep taking the customer back to where he was five minutes ago - which happens all the time on the Avid website.

"Your issue seems to be a store website"

Err, sorry - a Store Website? Cardinal error number two. Yes, I am aware (only because of the complete fiasco that took place when I last bought something from the Avid website) that I am actually purchasing from a supplier, not Avid. But, and this is a MASSIVE but, and one which should be hammered into everyone who claims to be customer facing at Avid, the website has AVID on the top. I am buying an AVID product. As far as I'm concerned AVID is taking my money. THERE IS NO STORE WEBSITE. You have to take ownership of the transaction, and any problems therewith. If a 'Store Website' is not fit for purpose, then GET IT FIXED. Don't blame the customer, ok?

Also,

When I originally tried to log into the Avid website it - as usual rejected my stored password. And when I did the forgotten password thing I got this email:

"We recommend you change your password the next time you login to your avid account.Please note, your password has been reset on all of the following sites:
account.avid.com (which now also refers to anyone with a former “MyDigi” account)
store.avid.com
esd.avid.com (the Download Center)
community.avid.com (the Avid Video Community)
Thanks, Avid."

That's symptomatic of the problem. You need one log-in, to one properly designed website, that you can find your way around without going into badly signposted loops. A website that actually WORKS.

[tombliss]

More Naffness.

1) Goggle search for MP3 ProTools brings up this dedicated MP3 page:

http://archive.digidesign.com/download/mp3/

The first sentence on that says: The MP3 Option software is a paid option, and is only available online at the DigiStore:
http://store.digidesign.com

See? Naff. Clicking that link takes you to the front page, NOT the MP3 Option page. You have to search again. This is just bad design.

Just put the MP3 download page link on the MP3 info page.

It's not rocket science.


2) I tried again, using Chrome.

This time it accepted my credit card, and I got a page warning me:

In addition to saving your receipt, be sure you also print it as well, or write down your authorization code that begins with "CUBS..." somewhere you can keep it for future use."

THERE IS NO AUTHORISATION CODE ON THAT PAGE BEGINNING WITH "CUBS." NOR IS THERE IN THE CONFIRMING EMAIL.

And then, God help us, it goes on to say all this:

Common Problems:

1. When authorizing your MP3 option make sure the demo is uninstalled. To uninstall the demo run the installer, click modify, and uncheck MP3 from the program list.

2. You may have to delete ALL files from your Codecs/MP3 folder, then run the installer again. The MP3demo.dll file and the MP3.dll file cannot both be in the Codecs/MP3 folder.

3. You may also need to update to the latest version of the PACE InterLok drivers:
http://www.paceap.com/dldrvr.html

These same installation instructions and additional troubleshooting help can be found in the Support/Downloads section on the MP3 Option page of our website: http://www.digidesign.com/download/mp3/
If you run into installation problems, please try the suggestions listed there. If you still are not able to install, you will need to visit Avid Support: http://www.avid.com/us/support/digidesign.aspx

Detailed information about iLok can be found here.
Further support information and assistance can be found under General Help

So. This CUBS number. Where is it? Will I see it after I click download? I doubt that. It should be there, nice and clear, in big numbers at the top of my confirming email, where the Order ID is. (no CUBS there).

And why is the MP3 installation so fraught?

When you're spending £100s on Protools, £15 for MP3 bounce should be included AND WORKING out of the box.

Yet Avid think it's perfectly ok to expect us to jump through hoop after hoop after hoop, and around loop after loop after loop till we are dizzy and sick to death.

I'm now very dubious about installing this thing I've just spent 16 quid on. I'd really rather have my money back.

C'mon Avid. Get your act together

[tombliss]

Where are you two Avid support guys based?

Are you in the US, and so physically asleep when we're all working in the UK - is that the problem?

[AvidCS]

You order shows you bought the iLok License version.

1. Log in to account.avid.com
2. Click Products Not Yet Downloaded
3. Click Download Now (to the right of MP3 Option)
4. Complete the fields (including your iLok ID) and click Continue
5. Sync your iLok at ilok.com and download the MP3 Option license to your iLok
6. Install MP3 Option from your Pro Tools 8 DVD or using the installer from kb357165