Think twice before you buy at reFX

[Burillo]

One can argue about claiming not to buy from reFX. But one can not compare this claim to the barbaric intentions of the Nazis.

that was the point...

[Gamma-UT]

Although the OP might be a bit OTT, let's face it, reFX has form for being aggressive when it comes to matters of licensing or money and it's never helped them. Mention anything even vaguely connected to the p-word and Michael Hartmann loses his mind. This comes on top of what has to be the daftest license-recovery system possible for a dongle.

If Steinberg took responsibility for the hardware, you'd have the situation where you could send it to them to check that a dongle with a certain ID is indeed borked. Then they could check the database they have of licences and inform the vendors that they need to issue replacements to the customer for the affected dongle – all licence transactions have to go through Steinberg's eLicenser server so it's a bit mad they don't make this information available. Having to send the dongle to an individual software vendor is deeply unsatisfactory and really just exposes the core problem behind that particular business model. iLok has its faults but it's someway ahead in this regard.

[dermichl]

There isn't anything to excuse, so why would i do so? The OP is acting like an idiot, and so are you.

And posting Nazi propaganda was like ‚educated‘ behaviour?

[Hink]

There isn't anything to excuse, so why would i do so? The OP is acting like an idiot, and so are you.

you're missing the other part, whether you agree if it was appropriate or not at least two people found it offensive, it was off topic and would just derail the thread like you are doing right now...my part is to try not and turn this into that, not judge whether it was appropriate or not.

[chaosWyrM]

There isn't anything to excuse, so why would i do so? The OP is acting like an idiot, and so are you.

so, a company takes a customers money, and then makes it near impossible to correct an issue with their own byzantine, unnecessary, and ultimately useless cp scheme...and the customer is acting like an idiot? the customer? the one whos out both the money AND the thing they paid the money for?

wow dude. you sound like someone with stockholm syndrome.

[Kongru]

There isn't anything to excuse, so why would i do so? The OP is acting like an idiot, and so are you.

so, a company takes a customers money, and then makes it near impossible to correct an issue with their own byzantine, unnecessary, and ultimately useless cp scheme...and the customer is acting like an idiot? the customer? the one whos out both the money AND the thing they paid the money for?

wow dude. you sound like someone with stockholm syndrome.

How is posting a USB stick 'near impossible'? It takes a morning at most.

[AnX]

they sacked acidose too....

[chaosWyrM]

How is posting a USB stick 'near impossible'? It takes a morning at most.

are you serious?

"posting a usb stick" is just the first step. not to mention they want him to send his only proof of purchase through international mail to some rando po box somewhere, with no way to guarantee delivery AND pay for it himself. and then wait for them to decide if they are going to "help" him with the problem and have them send it back again through international mail...again with no guarantee of delivery.

all the while hes out the use of every other license on the thing and risks loosing ALL of them should something happen to it in transit. all that so they can burden their paying customers with a convoluted cp schemed that doesnt even work?

yeah...seems legit.

[Vertion]

I love buying from ReFX, the products I own from them have never let me down. I own Vanguard, Plasticz, Claw. Simply amazing plugins and reinstall so easily. I never bought Nexus though, what a waste of money. I can't wait for their next soft synthesizer to come out, lest ReFX soon fades out of existence.

[vreckan]

I love buying from ReFX, the products I own from them have never let me down. I own Vanguard, Plasticz, Claw. Simply amazing plugins and reinstall so easily. I never bought Nexus though, what a waste of money. I can't wait for their next soft synthesizer to come out, lest ReFX soon fades out of existence.

Well, you're probably a lucky guy. I guess you never were in the situation that your e-Licenser dies... For me, it was the first time... And the depressing part was and is, that I already had a backup key for exactly this rare situation and it doesn't help here...

One pointed out the most important question: Why isn't this just a licensing server topic? Why needs reFX to be involved here? The answer is simple and complicated at the same time: reFX is not involved in the eLicenser part. It's no big deal to copy licenses between eLicensers as long as they work. The problem here seems to be the signing of sample packs with the e-Licenser ID. This renders thos sample packs useless if the license is copied to another e-Licenser and due to a lack of functionality in the reFX backend, the user cannot simply fix this.

Evidence for this theory is, that the built-in factory sounds work perfectly after I've moved the license to a new e-Licenser. Only sample packs don't work. For me it is lost time (the most painful part as it hurst me now) and a few hundred bucks of money I've paid over the time - but the hostile and ridiculous behavior of reFX in this case leads to a lesson learned: Check vendors twice before you buy and avoid such shady companies at any price!

There's not always sunshine... There will be one time you need support - and maybe more than just reinstalling, fixing a preset or audio routing issues...

What, if reFX disappears or will be sold? Same game then? What if they decide to revoke certificates or invalidate them? Same game? What, if in 2, 5 or 10 years the next e-Licenser dies or if it will be subject to theft or loss? In any case you are crewed as a reFX customer. Even if you have evidence of purchases, they do not act customer friendly and you are with your back at the wall.

At the end of the day this falls back to Steinberg to some degree as they do not have something as part of their e-Licenser policies which protects users from such a behavior... But to be honest: They usually never had thought about such bad behavior...

So enjoy the time. You are lucky, because it seems you never had such and situation - and therefore you are still in Sunshine-Mode...

[Russell Grand]

It is really sad to read such things about good products.... companies need to be more user friendly and if not not being supported. Sadly their succrss is great it seems and i also bought their stuff....

+1

[Russell Grand]

Did you ever think that they don't list a physical address because of people like you?

This is a ridiculous comment. What are you implying?

Agreed, what a douchy comment.

[Russell Grand]

So I'm guessing you still haven't sent the eLicenser back?

Why should I?

...

To be honest: reFX is fully burned for me. This company showed hostile behavior.

I know, Here are always clowns blaming customers for hostile support behavior. I don't care.

Again my advice: Do not buy at reFX. Check for alternatives.

Please enlighten us on what this "hostile support behavior" was? Correct me if I'm wrong but you haven't given any examples yet.

Are you implying that the OP is lying about his experience? You must be relatively new to the scene if you aren't aware that ReFX has a history of negative behavior towards anyone that rubs them the wrong way, such as accusing someone outright of warez use (or at the very least strongly implying it.) when they have a problem with something on reFX's end. That's some sh*t customer service IMNSHO.

Perhaps I've misread your tone; after all, it is the internet. But if I'm reading you correctly, why the need to question the OP's legitimacy in such a way? Are you part of the dev team at reFX? Does the OP's post affect you personally?

If I were the OP I'd be just as upset and there's really no need to question whether he's being truthful about this when he's certainly not the only one to have to deal with this dev's bullsh*t...

[Subatomik]

I too had a very bad experience with the guy who runs Refx, Michael Hartmann. They have a company policy that if your eLicenser key breaks and you lose your authorization code, you have to send the key to Canada for them to verify you are not ripping off the company. When I complained and asked for his help, he was a massive jerk. This is what he said: "We have over 100,000 customers, I simply can’t deal with everyone personally because they have a stick up their a** about one thing or the other."
So I will not be spending my money with reFX again.

[freshalex]

My opinion:

Don't buy anything there ... they only want to grab your money.

I too have had incredibly bad experiences there.The sampler technology is ancient and finely reliable. I don't want to talk further about the derogations that you have to put up with from the service there.