What is up with Audio Damage? Entire product support / accounts system is a mess.

[pixie.army]

Anyone know what is up with Audio Damage? Seems their "support" page still has the year-old disclaimer that there was a server catastrophe, so old account database is on the old site, and you still have to have a new account on the new site.

I have products scattered over these two sites, under two different registrations. But some of those products are upgrades (i.E. Kombinat Tri update was purchased on the new site, whereas Kombinat DVA is on the old site.) So you have to go to the old site to get Kombinat DVA, and then to the new site for Kombinat Tri. The problem is, there is nowhere to download purchased products on the new site. It has a transaction record, but no download options for products. They also have no copy protection anymore, so I'm assuming they rely on customers to keep installers after purchase.

It's a total disaster. And it's been like this for at least a year. Here's the year-old disclamer page:

https://www.audiodamage.com/pages/support

Is this company going under? Seems like a pretty significant inconvenience for customers, and there doesn't seem to be any initiative to fix it. They are basically saying "our whole system is broken, oh well!" Weird.

[ATS]

Anyone know what is up with Audio Damage? Seems their "support" page still has the year-old disclaimer that there was a server catastrophe, so old account database is on the old site, and you still have to have a new account on the new site.

I have products scattered over these two sites, under two different registrations. But some of those products are upgrades (i.E. Kombinat Tri update was purchased on the new site, whereas Kombinat DVA is on the old site.) So you have to go to the old site to get Kombinat DVA, and then to the new site for Kombinat Tri. The problem is, there is nowhere to download purchased products on the new site. It has a transaction record, but no download options for products. They also have no copy protection anymore, so I'm assuming they rely on customers to keep installers after purchase.

It's a total disaster. And it's been like this for at least a year. Here's the year-old disclamer page:

https://www.audiodamage.com/pages/support

Is this company going under? Seems like a pretty significant inconvenience for customers, and there doesn't seem to be any initiative to fix it. They are basically saying "our whole system is broken, oh well!" Weird.

I wouldn't call it a TOTAL disaster. It's certainly not good but if the old site was lost why wouldn't they keep the disclaimer up forever? All the products still work for me. And why do you talk about having no copy protection like that is not an awesome thing for customers.

[mgw38]

They have been releasing new plugins on a regular basis over the last couple of months and seem pretty active to me.

[pixie.army]

I wouldn't call it a TOTAL disaster. It's certainly not good but if the old site was lost why wouldn't they keep the disclaimer up forever? All the products still work for me. And why do you talk about having no copy protection like that is not an awesome thing for customers.

Because it can be fixed? The old database still exists - you can access it. It seems they made a rush decision to just segregate the old database after a crash / hack, force users into having 2 accounts, and just left it as is. When I have 14 products scattered across 2 accounts, and some of those products are updates to the previous version on the old site - which for at least one case requires the early one to be installed - it's a completely inconsistent mess. There is 0 reason - other than perhaps total laziness - that they can't figure out a way to consolidate accounts.

Also - the no copy protection is fine...if there was any semblance of a download / update system. At the moment, the products I have bought on the new site have no indication of version numbers / or even info on whether these products have been updated. There is also no download option. There's literally nothing but a transaction invoice that tells me I own the product - but nothing else.

This all makes me think they don't use copy protection because the whole system is broken. I mean, can anyone cite any other company they've dealt with that would leave this kind of mess the way it is?

[mgw38]

...and some of those products are updates to the previous version on the old site - which for at least one case requires the early one to be installed...

Actually, because the sites are seperated there is no way for them to validate that. You are required to have the old version if you buy an upgrade but neither the site nor the plugins check anything (because they can‘t).

[ATS]

I wouldn't call it a TOTAL disaster. It's certainly not good but if the old site was lost why wouldn't they keep the disclaimer up forever? All the products still work for me. And why do you talk about having no copy protection like that is not an awesome thing for customers.

Because it can be fixed? The old database still exists - you can access it. It seems they made a rush decision to just segregate the old database after a crash / hack, force users into having 2 accounts, and just left it as is. When I have 14 products scattered across 2 accounts, and some of those products are updates to the previous version on the old site - which for at least one case requires the early one to be installed - it's a completely inconsistent mess. There is 0 reason - other than perhaps total laziness - that they can't figure out a way to consolidate accounts.

Also - the no copy protection is fine...if there was any semblance of a download / update system. At the moment, the products I have bought on the new site have no indication of version numbers / or even info on whether these products have been updated. There is also no download option. There's literally nothing but a transaction invoice that tells me I own the product - but nothing else.

This all makes me think they don't use copy protection because the whole system is broken. I mean, can anyone cite any other company they've dealt with that would leave this kind of mess the way it is?

You are wrong about not having access to downloads for the new purchases. You were sent links when you bought them. You can access the downloads with these at any time you wish.

What you think about the reason for no copy protection is wrong as well. They stated in the past; the reason they don't use copy protection is because it is a pain for paying customers. And does very little or nothing to stop people from stealing. It's a shame others don't do this as well.

[airon]

I was just checking for new versions and did not remember getting those download links via email. Then someone told me about them, I checked and presto the new versions could be downloaded.

A bad system IMHO. These download links really should sit on the account page.

And I am saying this while profoundly enjoying the use of Audiodamage plugins. Zero issues for me, so I rarely even look for updates on their stuff. Great! So this is just a small flaw IMHO.

[Russell Grand]

My question, OP, is why didn't you initially contact Audio Damage support about this? Or did you and you just didn't mention it here?

[Forgotten]

OP posted 2 years ago - this is just an old thread brought back from the dead

[Russell Grand]

Oops I should've checked on that. Thanks, Forgotten.

[e@rs]

What's the address of their old site? Can it still be accessed?

[plexuss]

What's the address of their old site? Can it still be accessed?

AD had a link to the "old" user area via an http IP address (http://67.18.246.163/) however on their latest support page they took that down and said contact them. The IP address appears to no longer work.

[e@rs]

Thank you very much for you reply, plexuss!

[krixa]

I bought Kombinat Dva and Eos back in 2012. Didn't use them in a long time and obviously there was a server crash at 2016 as the support page tells.

I emailed the support and asked if it's possible to buy upgrades to these old plugins, haven't got an answer in five days.

Was it possible to buy upgrades before? How much where they? I don't feel like paying full price for Kombinat Tri when I got the old version several years ago.

[gaggle of hermits]

i've bought the upgrades in the past but it seems they've changed it. there used to be an option for upgrades in the new shop but that seems to have disappeared now.