FAW Circle - EULA

[ChiTown24]

So despite the website publishing an email address for support, and me sending numerous emails to this address, many of which have so far remained unanswered, I'm expected to use Facebook in order to get my support issues dealt with?

They read their emails, they're just ignoring them in my case, which is pretty poor customer service...they have no excuse, nor is there one, and you won't see Gavin or any representative from FAW appear in this thread again to attempt any kind of justification.

No one is expected to use Facebook to interact with a Business. I'm certainly not going to join Facebook or Twitter just so I can be ignored by FAW in another medium.

don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to impede on your god given right to moan on the internet... heaven forbid!

but you could spend the 5 minutes it takes to setup a new email {if you're dead-set against social media} and facebook {or twitter} account, and establish a line of communication that way. AND you could still moan about it!! The beauty of this scenario though, is that you'd actually further your case. You'd also be able to tell for absolute certain that they're ignoring you, if they're active on their facebook page but not replying to your messages written on the same page. You've highlighted that their forum is over-run with spam, it might stand to reason that their email server is too and some emails get lost in the noise. No way to know for certain. This issue doesn't exist on facebook. This might sound crazy, but maybe that's why they've elected to use facebook ? You don't even need a facebook account to visit & read their facebook page. Which, if you did, you'd see the activation issue is something they're working on and are close to a fix. Same applies to twitter for that matter. https://www.facebook.com/FutureAudioWorkshop
Then again, maybe you shouldn't be expected to have to even visit such a page...

but you've chosen to take the other route, ignoring my suggestion to use facebook over two and a half weeks ago, and now ignoring FAW themselves when they've suggested to do the same to another user. Even ignoring the fact their facebook account is active whilst their forum is, in your own words, a spam-filled ghost town.

Makes me wonder what your attitude towards problem-solving is like behind the scenes.

good luck finding a resolution to your problem... you'll definitely need it!

[mcnelson]

I bit the bullet and established a Twitter account. I have no intention of ever using Facebook - if I wanted to I would have signed up years ago, but I'm one of those people who just refuse to - you can debate the merits of such a decision at your own leisure.

I tweeted something anyway, I very much doubt my issue will be addressed. The activation issues, AFAIK, only affect Mac users, not windows. I would like to think that if they had an activation server issue, they would have told me back in September when I first raised my support case and I received two or three replies of "it should work".

Ultimately, you cannot argue the basic premise - they publish both general and support email addresses, actively encourage people to contact them on these addresses with any issues or comments, then ignore these in certain cases. I'm not the only person to report this.

Gavin @ Faw even posted in this thread three weeks ago:

We always try to be fair with our customers and have no problems transferring licenses, adding more activation slots etc. We're in this business for the long haul.

You cannot possibly expect me to believe that he remains unaware of my support case after posting in MY THREAD? But has he made any effort to resolve it or make contact? Has anyone at FAW responded to my support emails? Hell no. And I doubt they will.

I can only assume I'm being stonewalled, probably because of this thread.

I totally admit to moaning a lot in this thread, but I'm pretty sure many of you reading would too if you received this kind of (dis)service from a developer. I would hate to see someone else get screwed over the way FAW are screwing me.

[JoeCat]

My 2 cents (and thats about what it's worth):

It is a great little synth, but it's unusable to me also because of the OSx Mavericks activation issue. I can forgive that, and they've stated on FB (as recently as yesterday) that they are working on a fix. NP.

However...

Even though I use FB, I don't think anyone should have to use a social network for support, and it would be nice if an dev/fix update were posted on their site. I know lots of people have different opinions about the best forms of communication, however a company's website should be number one, and e-mail and/or a dedicated forum (outside of a social network infrastructure) should always be available to customers.

Interestingly, they do post a telephone # on their website.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[hueynym]

Just a quick update for those who use this thread to check for updates to Circle (like me).

This was just posted regarding the registration fix for Mavericks
Circle 1.1.3 Beta1

download from here:
http://www.futureaudioworkshop.com/betaforum

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[hueynym]

Do you know if the presets can be loaded now?

I believe that was also fixed. I know all 7 of my banks load up without a problem, so, at least for the moment, I'm a happy camper.

Hope this helps...

[tooneba]

and with captcha prior send,

I think it costs. The synth price will rise

[mcnelson]

Hmmm... one way around this would be if they set up web from contact with notification, and with captcha prior send, there will be no spam or mail lost then! Good idea? I prefer that to direct email as i always know my email gets there when i get the confirmation. Hopefully they are reading this topic and will think about it.

They use FogBugz to track issues. All emails and replies are there.

NMG

[zimske]

You'd also be able to tell for absolute certain that they're ignoring you, if they're active on their facebook page but not replying to your messages written on the same page.

I did go exactly the way you're proposing here and it was of absolutely no use. They did not have any problems citing positive user feedback in the status at the same time, though.

[mcnelson]

I'm not 100% sure they're ignoring just me, but I don't know which is worse - ignoring customers on purpose, or just ignoring everyone?

I'm pretty sure this is now the longest Circle thread on KVR and it's all about poor customer service. If that doesn't shame them into action, I'm not sure anything will.

NMG

[ChiTown24]

You'd also be able to tell for absolute certain that they're ignoring you, if they're active on their facebook page but not replying to your messages written on the same page.

I did go exactly the way you're proposing here and it was of absolutely no use. They did not have any problems citing positive user feedback in the status at the same time, though.

I'm looking at their facebook page now, last update Nov 23 to announce the latest beta. One guy replied, stating its working, they replied to him 1 minute later. 6 hrs later {very late in Berlin I imagine} Another guy replied with positivity saying it's working on osx - no reply - and approx 13 hrs after that another guy replied right after him saying he's still getting crashes. - also no reply.

I'm not seeing how they're citing positive user feedback whilst ignoring 'negative' reports. can you specify the exact post ? What I'm seeing is the acknowledged one positive post, as it was made very shortly after they made the announcement, and they didn't reply to {or 'ignored' depending on your outlook} two other replies, both positive and negative.

So, from what I'm seeing, it's just not accurate to say they're ignoring negativity whilst simultaneously acknowledging the positive. Maybe I'm wrong, correct me if that's the case.
In fact, I can see that in their second last post there was some activity also on the 23rd around the time they made their last update, the beta announcement, and they directly replied to some what you might call 'negative' comment. that user then tried the beta, and posted back in a 'positive' and appreciative way. Unless that was staged, there was no way they could have known the 'negative' user would become positive... yet they still addressed him. Again, the timing of this exchange is all around the same time as their last update.

Still, I applaud you for making the effort to use the suggest medium to contact them... that's the kind of pro-active approach that deserves to yield results.

[ChiTown24]

I'm not 100% sure they're ignoring just me, but I don't know which is worse - ignoring customers on purpose, or just ignoring everyone?

I'm pretty sure this is now the longest Circle thread on KVR and it's all about poor customer service. If that doesn't shame them into action, I'm not sure anything will.

NMG

I'm not convinced zimske was right when he claimed people were being 'ignored' ... there's been no reply to either positive or negative comments after a certain point on the 23rd. So I don't think it's fair to say 'negative' feedback is ignored whilst 'positive' is acknowledged.

Personally, I'd say they're probably sick of being held to task on KVR... I've seen these kind of FAW threads on KVR a few times. Each time it's a tempest in a teacup, and Gavin comes in, the bugfix or beta is released, and all the rabid commentary is put to rest and 'thank yous' are issued. From my point of view, they're working on the app, they've stated there is activation issues, there's already positive reports coming in on the latest beta {osx first as far as I know, windows following}, so maybe they feel that they've done everything they can to put that info out there in the public domain for their end-users to see on the sites they've directed their users to. Sifting through spam to answer the same questions the same way probably isn't going to help them solve the problem any faster, is it ? I mean, it might placate a handful of users...but at what cost ? It's hard to say just how much resource they have to spare at FAW at the moment.


Anyway, I wasn't being sarcastic when I said I'm not trying to impede on your god given right to moan. It's not a great customer service experience. But the synth is very, very, cheap for what's offered...and perhaps this is the 'hidden' cost - 'enduring' the less-tha-direct communication foibles of a skeleton crew dev.

Personally, I can survive by keeping track of the social media sites they've asked me to. You'd be within your right to try selling your license. Maybe that's the best option for you...

[V'ger]

I'm amazed a thread criticizing a developer's operation has allowed to get 6 pages long at KVR.

[mcnelson]

Just to make things clear, the point about being "ignored" relates to a lack of communication from them for a support case, since 21st October. The last contact I received from them actually stated:

See how it goes and I will get back to you asap if you need more support.

Best regards,
Gavin.

I did indeed reply, and received nothing since in any channel - via email, this thread (which Gavin posted to on 1st November, but no response to me), PM on KVR (sent 1st November, still unread) and the tweet last Friday. This is what I mean by being ignored.

I won't go on, just read the thread through and make your own decisions. If FAW are a developer you're happy to support after reading it, then go happily support them, and I hope you have a better support experience with them than myself and others in the thread have reported.

NMG