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At our company, registering your software does the following for you:
1. You qualify for technical support. We don't supply it to anyone who isn't registered.
2. If you lose your serial number, I can look you up by name and give it to you.
3. You get notified when an update is released. Sometimes that update is free and you will WANT to know about it.
4. You are able to purchase new releases at the update price, which is less than half the price of a new license.
By far the most important reason is number 2. If you call us for reasons 1 or 4 and you haven't registered, we'll just get you registered and you're all set. Reason 3 isn't a big deal. You can always find out about new releases from other sources.
But, if you call us for reason 2 and you haven't registered, it's too late. There's really nothing we can do for you.
Today I had the following tragic conversation:
Caller: I bought your software in 2000 and lost all my disks.
Me: Do you know your license number?
Caller: No.
Me: Is it currently installed on a computer?
Caller: Um. It was, but it crashed. That's why I'm calling. I lost my disks when I moved six months ago and my computer just crashed. Now I can't re-install.
Me: [Then why the heck didn't you call us six months ago? You could have taken you serial number from Help/About] If you registered your software I can look you up in our database. Do you know if you registered?
Caller: I don't think I did.
Me: Well. I'll give it a try anyway. Can I have your name?
Caller: [name]
Me: OK. I'm afraid I didn't find any licenses registered to [name]. Do you remember who you bought it from?
Caller: [reseller]
Me: Your best bet is to give them a call and see if they kept a record of the serial number they sold you. If you can get that from them, give us another call with the number and we can get you registered. Since you say you bought it in 2000, you will probably have to buy an update, but it is much cheaper than buying another license.
Caller: You can't just replace it?
Me: I'm afraid we don't replace software that far out-of-date. The latest version is $300 if you can give me your license number. If you can't locate your license number, a new license is $600. Hopefully, your dealer kept a record of the license he sold you.
Caller: [sounding very disappointed] Okay.
Now this one didn't get too sucky on me. Believe me, some of them do. I feel bad, but really, what the hell do they expect? That we just give software away to any random person who calls us with a sob story about losing their disks? That their say-so is a substitute for proof of ownership?
It's frustrating, because I LIKE helping people. But I can't help people who won't do the bare minimum to take care of their stuff. You'd think people would take better care of stuff that costs $600.
1. You qualify for technical support. We don't supply it to anyone who isn't registered.
2. If you lose your serial number, I can look you up by name and give it to you.
3. You get notified when an update is released. Sometimes that update is free and you will WANT to know about it.
4. You are able to purchase new releases at the update price, which is less than half the price of a new license.
By far the most important reason is number 2. If you call us for reasons 1 or 4 and you haven't registered, we'll just get you registered and you're all set. Reason 3 isn't a big deal. You can always find out about new releases from other sources.
But, if you call us for reason 2 and you haven't registered, it's too late. There's really nothing we can do for you.
Today I had the following tragic conversation:
Caller: I bought your software in 2000 and lost all my disks.
Me: Do you know your license number?
Caller: No.
Me: Is it currently installed on a computer?
Caller: Um. It was, but it crashed. That's why I'm calling. I lost my disks when I moved six months ago and my computer just crashed. Now I can't re-install.
Me: [Then why the heck didn't you call us six months ago? You could have taken you serial number from Help/About] If you registered your software I can look you up in our database. Do you know if you registered?
Caller: I don't think I did.
Me: Well. I'll give it a try anyway. Can I have your name?
Caller: [name]
Me: OK. I'm afraid I didn't find any licenses registered to [name]. Do you remember who you bought it from?
Caller: [reseller]
Me: Your best bet is to give them a call and see if they kept a record of the serial number they sold you. If you can get that from them, give us another call with the number and we can get you registered. Since you say you bought it in 2000, you will probably have to buy an update, but it is much cheaper than buying another license.
Caller: You can't just replace it?
Me: I'm afraid we don't replace software that far out-of-date. The latest version is $300 if you can give me your license number. If you can't locate your license number, a new license is $600. Hopefully, your dealer kept a record of the license he sold you.
Caller: [sounding very disappointed] Okay.
Now this one didn't get too sucky on me. Believe me, some of them do. I feel bad, but really, what the hell do they expect? That we just give software away to any random person who calls us with a sob story about losing their disks? That their say-so is a substitute for proof of ownership?
It's frustrating, because I LIKE helping people. But I can't help people who won't do the bare minimum to take care of their stuff. You'd think people would take better care of stuff that costs $600.
I'm 30 now!!) And I tried registering it with Activision. Theyr system ALMOST forced me to load vmware to use IE, and after all that, they don't recognize the friggin UPC code as a valid product!!! I want to throtle them bad.
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