Bargain Center: discussion, gossip, etc.

[alacantec]

Wonder if kitty is still runnIng her concierge service...

+1

MF is running a couple of interesting deals for email delivery...

[pekadan]

Spring sale @ Samplephonics (http://www.samplephonics.com) announced. Very tempted to get Nevo. Has anyone seen for how long this sale is on??

[LoopyFruit]

Hi Gang

Anyone in UK purchased Sample Logic Fanfare and Rumble from Musicians Friend?

Any problems

Cheers.

[jiten]

Hi, so I guess now would be the perfect time to post an update on this.

I bought Fanfare and Rumble and both boxes arrived today.

Rumble installed and registered fine. Fanfare installed fine but did not register. Said the serial was already registered to another user's account, which was puzzling since the box was completely sealed/shrink-wrapped.

I contacted Musician's Friend and was told to contact Sample Logic. The guys at Sample Logic got back to me very quickly via email support and said I'd have to resolve this through Musician's Friend. They said that they no longer sell to Musician's Friend or Guitar Center and no longer support that these retailers sell their products. The email also stated that someone within the retail stores was opening Fanfare boxes and reselling serials which is why I am running into this issue. This seems consistent with what was said earlier on the forum regarding Fanfare.

Anyways, I contacted Musician's Friend again and this time was put in touch with one of the managers there who said he would try to reach out to Sample Logic. It seems like Musician's Friend may end up sending me a replacement, but at this point I'm not sure (still waiting to hear back).

I kind of went into the purchase knowing at the back of my head that something like this could have happened (based on earlier posts here) but took the gamble anyways. As long as I either get my money back or a working product, I'll be good.

So if you live internationally like the UK I could only suggest that you NOT buy Fanfare unless you can get some assurance that if they need to ship you another copy, they would do that at their own cost and not yours. Everything was fine with Rumble.

[audientronic]

Hi, so I guess now would be the perfect time to post an update on this.

I bought Fanfare and Rumble and both boxes arrived today.

Rumble installed and registered fine. Fanfare installed fine but did not register. Said the serial was already registered to another user's account, which was puzzling since the box was completely sealed/shrink-wrapped.

I contacted Musician's Friend and was told to contact Sample Logic. The guys at Sample Logic got back to me very quickly via email support and said I'd have to resolve this through Musician's Friend. They said that they no longer sell to Musician's Friend or Guitar Center and no longer support that these retailers sell their products. The email also stated that someone within the retail stores was opening Fanfare boxes and reselling serials which is why I am running into this issue. This seems consistent with what was said earlier on the forum regarding Fanfare.

Anyways, I contacted Musician's Friend again and this time was put in touch with one of the managers there who said he would try to reach out to Sample Logic. It seems like Musician's Friend may end up sending me a replacement, but at this point I'm not sure (still waiting to hear back).

I kind of went into the purchase knowing at the back of my head that something like this could have happened (based on earlier posts here) but took the gamble anyways. As long as I either get my money back or a working product, I'll be good.

So if you live internationally like the UK I could only suggest that you NOT buy Fanfare unless you can get some assurance that if they need to ship you another copy, they would do that at their own cost and not yours. Everything was fine with Rumble.

Thanks for the update. Just curious, where was the origin of your shipment when you track it on UPS? I wonder if they are all coming from the same place, or if the alleged stolen ones are all coming from the same place.

Mine seem to be coming from Kansas City. Won't get here till Monday.

[audientronic]

Hi, so I guess now would be the perfect time to post an update on this.

I bought Fanfare and Rumble and both boxes arrived today.

Rumble installed and registered fine. Fanfare installed fine but did not register. Said the serial was already registered to another user's account, which was puzzling since the box was completely sealed/shrink-wrapped.

...The guys at Sample Logic got back to me very quickly ...

... The email also stated that someone within the retail stores was opening Fanfare boxes and reselling serials which is why I am running into this issue. This seems consistent with what was said earlier on the forum regarding Fanfare...

...

Something doesn't add up here. If your serial is truly registered to another user, then when you reported it to sample logic along with proof of purchase, why would they not deactivate that user's serial? Aren't they being ripped off more by the stolen serial than by the clearance item?

[jiten]

Something doesn't add up here. If your serial is truly registered to another user, then when you reported it to sample logic along with proof of purchase, why would they not deactivate that user's serial? Aren't they being ripped off more by the stolen serial than by the clearance item?

Also came from Kansas City.

And yea, that's what I would have thought. I know in the past I've contacted developers and they were able to wipe out all the registrations for me when I had things registered to older computers, so it is possible I would think.

From the email I got, it seems like they think the responsibility should be on Musician's Friend/Guitar Center (since apparently someone re-distributed the serials from within) and they just don't want anything to do with it. I don't care to speculate on who is in the blame here without knowing the full story, but hopefully it gets resolved one way or another...

[thenumber23]

Something doesn't add up here. If your serial is truly registered to another user, then when you reported it to sample logic along with proof of purchase, why would they not deactivate that user's serial? Aren't they being ripped off more by the stolen serial than by the clearance item?

Sample Logic can't do that, since they can't know which user is the legitimate one. The proof of purchase does not contain the serial number on it (and a proof of purchase can be faked), so there is no way to ensure the first person who registered it is not legitimate.

[thenumber23]

I bought Fanfare from Music123 via Amazon. When it arrives, if my Fanfare has the same problem, and assuming Music123 is not related to Musician's Friend, then this would make me believe the alleged stolen serials occurred through the distributor, and not from an MF employee.

[Uncle E]

assuming Music123 is not related to Musician's Friend

They're the same company. Guitar Center owns both of them.

[tq]

Hm, what puzzles me about this MF/Sample Logic issue is that the Fanfare boxes came fully shrink-wrapped and sealed according to the buyers. Who steals serials directly a store, without anybody noticing it, and then shrink-wraps and seals the opened items again in a professional manner, after selling the serials illegally to somebody else? And why would that professional thief just steal one product from one company, and not any other products from any other company with the same copy protection scheme, if that thief has access to many different boxes at a store? And why not Rumble?

Really, to me it sounds a bit more likely that the theft happened during production already, before the products were shrink-wrapped, if this just affects factory-sealed Fanfare boxes, and nothing else from MF. (By the way: How does SL know that the serials were stolen in the MF stores? If MF would know this, why would they continue to sell the products?)

Now the interesting question is: Who honors the purchase of the customer, then? Basically, it seems as if the MF customers bought legit products with legit serials - that were copied and stolen somewhere in the process. Hopefully, MF and SL do not play a ping-pong blame-game without taking responsibility here.

Well, I might be affected as well, btw, so that's why I am speculating. I ordered Fanfare and Rumble two days ago - and I will be traveling for two weeks without the possibility to install them. I was really looking forward to this, but now I fear there might be a bad surprise waiting for me when home.

[stixman]

Oh dear! I only just come across this after ordering Fanfare!
I'm in London!
Is this a small amount of stolen serials or a massive amount?
Have some people managed to register Fanfare?

[Mikelo]

Oh dear! I only just come across this after ordering Fanfare!
I'm in London!
Is this a small amount of stolen serials or a massive amount?
Have some people managed to register Fanfare?

Im in the same boat as you. I live in Southampton, UK and I ordered both Fanfare and Rumble three days ago.

[stixman]

I've sent Musician's Friend an email asking if they can confirm replacement if serial is duplicate!
Fingers crossed!

Oh dear! I only just come across this after ordering Fanfare!
I'm in London!
Is this a small amount of stolen serials or a massive amount?
Have some people managed to register Fanfare?

Im in the same boat as you. I live in Southampton, UK and I ordered both Fanfare and Rumble three days ago.

[Gamma-UT]

Hm, what puzzles me about this MF/Sample Logic issue is that the Fanfare boxes came fully shrink-wrapped and sealed according to the buyers. Who steals serials directly a store, without anybody noticing it, and then shrink-wraps and seals the opened items again in a professional manner, after selling the serials illegally to somebody else? And why would that professional thief just steal one product from one company, and not any other products from any other company with the same copy protection scheme, if that thief has access to many different boxes at a store? And why not Rumble?

It reeks of SNAFU more than theft to me - someone messed up when packing the serials in the boxes in the first place.

Someone at MF might well have access to the shrink wrapping gear and they might have gone after slow-shipping products on the basis that they'd take longer to get caught. But if someone had an off day and managed to pack a dupe set of serials the batch they shipped to MF, you'd get the same symptoms - with no evidence of tampering