MOTU and ilok key problems and poor MOTU after sales support

[loop-guru]

Here is a reply message to a MOTU support staff who told me my Ethno can't be manually authorized even though the authorize screen tells me it is possible. The support ticket is currently open as of 05/07/12. According to MOTU if my ilok key fails I have to pay ilok to get MOTU to re-issue an authorization code and buy a new ilok key if I don't already own a spare but the software prompt upon loading tells me I can email MOTU for a license file which I can use to manually authorize Ethno 1. But MOTU tells me the message is not so...see below

Hello Dave,

This is a much better response which actually helps. However, please take a look at the attached file (word doc) which is the authorize screen for Ethno for persons whose ilok key isn't responding or synchronizing.

Forgive me for sounding stupid but it seems that your programmers have placed a user prompt to say that it is possible to get you (MOTU) to send me a manual authorization file (of sorts) which will make my Ethno work on this PC alone.

However, your response seems to contradict this clearly stated set of instructions...

As a software engineer and former programmer (assembly and C++) I never worked on a program where I told the user via a prompt something that wasn't truthful.

I am currently a software tester and my team would never get away with missing such a crucial prompt.

Furthermore, it seems like you guys haven't read my ticket properly. According to ilok, I must purchase an RMA for US$45 which will render the useless ilok key non-functional and then issue me with a new authorization after MOTU agrees to issue one. This new authorization can then be downloaded to my existing working ilok keys of which I already own 1 ilok 2 (with Protools 10 and MOTU BPM 1) and 1 empty working ilok 1. But then I have to send ilok my non-functioning key to them in the USA for destruction at my own expense.

So, because I already own an ilok 1 and 2 key I don't need to buy another one. But instead I have to pay at least US$45 to have an authorization code reinstated when clearly I own a code already but is being stopped from using it due to a fault with a third party hardware who you have partnered with!

Is is no wonder people crack, pirate and sell illegal copies of software?

A simple procedure like Cakewalk would make so much more sense than a convoluted money grabbing security scheme which is intertwined with another company...

I'm in utter frustration and disappointment having to be forced to pay for a code which I already have been issued.

I'm sure in your EULA there might be a tiny printed statement which you can point to to render my complaint my own fault but that's just poor customer service.

NI, Cubase, Sony, Cakewalk, Ableton, Logic, Cakewalk, and others have never given me this problem before. Within hours of a fault logged I get an appropriate work around at no EXTRA cost to me!

I guess UK customers were not catered for by ilok and MOTU in their business agreements. God-forbid I'm not in a 3rd world country then...you would have treated me like a piece of shit?....Oh wait...I think I'm mistaken...I am already getting that treatment!!!

I'm posting this response on KVR forum and local UK music production forums as I really find your company's aftersales care poor and uneventful.

Is seems forum ranting is my only solution now to feel at peace with this unfortunate saga.

Sorry, Dave you might only be doing your job and only capable of this level of assistance but it's simply not good enough to ask me to pay for another code to download to a working key which already has MOTU BPM 1 and Protools 10 to another company (ilok) when it's your software I wish to authorize which I bought legally and is the original purchaser; with a user prompt telling me to request such assistance from you in the first place!