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  • lost elicenser key and VSL will not respond to my emails

    Has anyone else come across this problem?

     

    I lost my elicenser key, and VSL initially said that I might be able to buy back my licenses at a slight discount.

    However since then, they have stopped responding to my emails - I have been trying to contact them for three months with no reply.

    Has anyone else had this problem. I am actually furious now about how I am being treated. For one thing, no matter what the stated policy is, there is no reason at all for VSL not to issue a new license to me, like every other similar company would do.

    I have spent over £1400 pounds on VSL products, which is by my standards a huge investment, and what I was paying for was the right to use the samples - not an elicenser key. I feel like I am being ripped off by VSL.

    And added to this the fact that they will not respond to my emails, have no phone number that I can find, and no social media contacts, this is the only way I can think to get a response.

    Feeling really angry!

     

    Anyone else had a simlar experience?


  • Hello Nicholas, 

    Sorry to hear that you didn´t receive my many reply emails (I was writing to you several times in may 2016....). 

    Did you check your SPAM folder? Could you use a different email address (I was contacting you on your registered email address)?

    Best,
    Paul


    Paul Kopf Product Manager VSL
  • Hi Paul,

    No I defnately did nto receive any replies from you, and yes I checked my spam folders as well. I'm happy to keep the conversation going on here as I'd prefer not to make another email address public. 


  • Hello Nicholas, 

    As this is a specific request, it makes more sense to handle this request via support@vsl.co.at, maybe you can simply contact me from another email address. 

    Best, 
    Paul


    Paul Kopf Product Manager VSL
  • Hi Nick, 

    I have replied to your email, which you sent from another email address. Hope you received it (didn´t hear back from you). 

    Best, 
    Paul


    Paul Kopf Product Manager VSL
  • Hi Nick, 

    Just another check whether you have received my reply....

    Best, 
    Paul


    Paul Kopf Product Manager VSL
  • Hi Paul,

    Yes thanks I did receive your reply. Im just deciding wether I can afford to pay 50% of the original price again, to use the samples which I have already paid for the right to use, simply because of a lost elinceser USB.

    I really think this should be more widely advertised, because I think its a major flaw in what is otherwise a great product. 

    I had a hardrive die recently, and I had to ask other sample companies to resend links to my purchases. Every other company sent me the download links instantly, at no cost. VSl is the only company that tries to take more money from its cutomers in this way, and seem totally unwilling even to engage in a debate about it, other than to state that its their policy. 


  • I completely understand your frustration and I think that the whole dongle-thing could be implemented in a different way - more satisfying/with more security for the customer and with the same effect for the companies (and this counts for all companies using dongles with their products). I want to stress that I haven't run into problems myself so far, though. (Horror stories concerning iLok among other things caused me to turn away from EastWest and to eventually land here, actually.)

    Without knowing the exact situation of yours and without judging whether VSL is treating you right in this case, I feel like pointing out (and I'm not happy about it) that losing the licenser (containing a license) is quite a different case to losing the files only (hardcrash) while still owning the license or having the licenser damaged etc.

    Not judging. And I'm outta here! Peace.

    PS.: Mods, feel free to delete this, if it stirs any fights - this would definitely not have been my intention.


  • Hello,

    Thanks for this warning. I am interested in VEP.

    I own elicenser and Cubase Pro. And I am happy, that Steinberg will replace my licenses, when the dongle gets lost, stolen or broken. They register the dongle key and the software license. So when you lose the key, there will be only cancelled the elicencer and you get a new activation code for your software that you can register to a new dongle.

    The zero downtime is only a extra benefit. More important is, you do not have to buy the same license twice, if you lose it or it get be stolen. As long as I risk to pay twice in accident case, I guess I will not buy the software.

    When Steinberg can do, why can't Vienna ?


  • Because we're customers of Steinberg ourselves and have to pay for each license as well. Best, Michael Hula, Sales Support

  • I see...

    thanks for this honest reply.


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    @SigiZ58 said:

    I own elicenser and Cubase Pro. And I am happy, that Steinberg will replace my licenses, when the dongle gets lost, stolen or broken. They register the dongle key and the software license. So when you lose the key, there will be only cancelled the elicencer and you get a new activation code for your software that you can register to a new dongle.

    If you purchase a new dongle every two years and transfer your licenses to the new dongle then malfunctions should be covered.  Just send the bad dongle in and ask for some demo licenses to keep you going until they can get things sorted out.  Only malfunctions will be covered, not lost or stolen, and you better believe that they are going to scrutinize that bad dongle to be sure that it didn't malfunction due to negligence on your part i.e. you used it to scrape ice off your car windshield on a cold morning, chew toy for the puppies, etc.

    All the veteran forumites know that this is a real sore subject around here (search the forum for more details).  So the best way to keep yourself covered is to buy a new dongle every two years and transfer the licenses then think about getting some insurance (again, search the forum for more details) depending on how much you have invested in this.  Nuff said!


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    @jasensmith said:

    If you purchase a new dongle every two years and transfer your licenses to the new dongle then malfunctions should be covered.  Just send the bad dongle in and ask for some demo licenses to keep you going until they can get things sorted out.  Only malfunctions will be covered, not lost or stolen, and you better believe that they are going to scrutinize that bad dongle to be sure that it didn't malfunction due to negligence on your part i.e. you used it to scrape ice off your car windshield on a cold morning, chew toy for the puppies, etc.

    All the veteran forumites know that this is a real sore subject around here (search the forum for more details).  So the best way to keep yourself covered is to buy a new dongle every two years and transfer the licenses then think about getting some insurance (again, search the forum for more details) depending on how much you have invested in this.  Nuff said!

    Hi,

     do not know, where you live, but in Europe here (Germany, Switzerland) such insurances do not exist. Not for software licenses. But I would not do that, in any case. 

     Of course I have always several spare e-licensers 😊 I am a bit on the careful side, even I never had any problems until now -knock-knock-knock-,

    Independent from that, Steinberg in Europe replaces licenses on broken, stolen or lost e-licencers.

    Have a look here if you do not believe.:

    http://www.steinberg.net/de/support/steinbergzerodowntime.html

    Requirement is only that you have to register your elicensere there. And of course, this should not happen too frequently. But it is simple.  First you get temporary licenses, then they blacklist the broken/stolen/lost elicenser, finally you get new activation keys for your licenses and voila.

    Have a nice day.


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    @jasensmith said:

    If you purchase a new dongle every two years and transfer your licenses to the new dongle then malfunctions should be covered.  Just send the bad dongle in and ask for some demo licenses to keep you going until they can get things sorted out.  Only malfunctions will be covered, not lost or stolen, and you better believe that they are going to scrutinize that bad dongle to be sure that it didn't malfunction due to negligence on your part i.e. you used it to scrape ice off your car windshield on a cold morning, chew toy for the puppies, etc.

    All the veteran forumites know that this is a real sore subject around here (search the forum for more details).  So the best way to keep yourself covered is to buy a new dongle every two years and transfer the licenses then think about getting some insurance (again, search the forum for more details) depending on how much you have invested in this.  Nuff said!

    Hi,

     do not know, where you live, but in Europe here (Germany, Switzerland) such insurances do not exist. Not for software licenses. But I would not do that, in any case. 

     Of course I have always several spare e-licensers 😊 I am a bit on the careful side, even I never had any problems until now -knock-knock-knock-,

    Independent from that, Steinberg in Europe replaces licenses on broken, stolen or lost e-licencers.

    Have a look here if you do not believe.:

    http://www.steinberg.net/de/support/steinbergzerodowntime.html

    Requirement is only that you have to register your elicensere there. And of course, this should not happen too frequently. But it is simple.  First you get temporary licenses, then they blacklist the broken/stolen/lost elicenser, finally you get new activation keys for your licenses and voila.

    Have a nice day.

     

    I have read through and it looks like Steinberg will only replace their own licences, not other companies'.

    "Replacements for licenses from other companies that were also stored on the defective/lost/stolen USB-eLicenser are provided directly from the corresponding manufacturer."

    Which I interpret as meaning you would still have to pay 50% of all the licences you owned already.

    The whole thing stinks to be honest and if this happened/happens to me, I will leave VSL behind and opt for EW composer cloud, Orchestral Tools or Spitfire.

    That is coming from someone who owns about 90% of VSL's products.

    Most of the other prominent sample devs don't hinge composers' livelyhoods on a tiny piece of plastic. Maybe VSL should wake up to 2016.


  • Hello VSL

    Is it possible that you send us a warning when we are approaching the 2 year delay.

    Can you improve the License transfer for one dongle to another ? so we lauch it and it does it automaticaly.

    It will be great if you could add the possibility to have a tour or a holiday license that we can put on a second dongle. 
    A user will go on your site, define the tour or holiday period and update the “tour” dongle. When in holiday or on tour the Master dongle cannot be used

     

    Thanks in advance

    Best

     

    Cyril


    MacBook Pro M3 MAX 128 GB 8TB - 2 x 48" screen --- Logic Pro --- Mir Pro 3D --- Most of the VI libs, a few Synch... libs --- Quite a few Kontakt libs --- CS80 fanatic
  • So I went shopping around for insurance options for my eLicencer and VSL software. So far I have been turned away from 2 insurance companies.

    Seriously.


  • I have contact more than a dozen of companies in France, in Germany and in England same result they only insure the value of the dongle not VSL licenses

    Who has a name ?

    I wanted to take my VSL lib on holiday to work on a few pieces, after thinking a little bit I renounce. Imagine if my dongle is stolen !

    So I have prepare the orchestration using EXS24 ! :(


    MacBook Pro M3 MAX 128 GB 8TB - 2 x 48" screen --- Logic Pro --- Mir Pro 3D --- Most of the VI libs, a few Synch... libs --- Quite a few Kontakt libs --- CS80 fanatic
  • I am another user who lost his dongle. I want to say that ALL the other companies I use were sympathetic and I have my licences restored. I also wrote in and then was  told I was to be charged 50% to cover 'costs', I do not think this is acceptable that such an innovative company should behave this way. When I objected Vienna simply dropped communication with me.  For some reason, when changing motherbards I have East West licences disappear too. They performed a few checks on me and replaced without a grumble. On another occassion Native Instruments licence for part of Kontakt disappeared - one phone call sorted this out. Spectrasonics licences also disappeared during a rebuild - they were also restored.

    I want Vienna to know that your products are very good but also very expensive (overpriced  IMO) you leave a very nasty taste in your customers mouth when you behave in this way. Although I do like the quality of your products, would it not be better to spend my money on HollyWood or any other library of which there are now many, if I had the money to spend on 'restoring' my licence?

    I just bought a lot of orchestral packages and my main reason for not buying VSL was because opf their customer service on this matter. Many professionals work in environments where a dongle can be stolen or fo missing. Other substaintial companies don't use them - Spectrasonics, Native Instruments, Spitfire and more. 

    This way if I lost my dongle again, it would not be a show stopper. Basically this is a shameful way to act VSL. There ARE solutions other companies use them. 

    Meanwhile I cannot use my product that I  legitimately paid for

    Sadly I expect to be ignored on this view no way to treat your legitimate customers

    Z


  • To make matters worse, from what I can tell the 50% is purely arbitrary and seems like VSL aiming to profit off their existing customer's misfortune. I can understand if there is a fee for transferring the licence but 50%? Nope.

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    @jasensmith said:

    So the best way to keep yourself covered is to buy a new dongle every two years and transfer the licenses then think about getting some insurance (again, search the forum for more details) depending on how much you have invested in this.  Nuff said!

    Okay, I guess not😔

    As Mr. Hula said, VSL has to pay for those licenses too.  I don't know how much they have to pay but evidently they have to pay enough to charge you 50%.  Yes! it sucks.  But it sucks for everybody.  If you loose your key why should VSL have to pay for all those licenses and if they pay for yours then they have to pay for everybody else too.

    Why the other players in this game like Eastwest have more generous terms with these licensing companies I don't know that either. 

    Could VSL do more to warn their customers about the consequences of losing a Vienna key?  Maybe so.  I think at least a bright red warning sticker on the box that the key comes in might help.  Admittedly I didn't realize how important that key was until somebody asked about it on the forum one day but I had never dealt with dongles before.

    As for insurance, I think the question the insurance companies would ask is are you a professional composer who needs these software products as part of your livelyhood or are you just a hobbyist, a weekend warrior?  If you're a hobbyist then you're a greater risk and I imagine you would have a hard time finding insurance.  But if you run a studio and you need this software to operate your business you might have better luck because you're more likely to take care of it.

    As for me, I have a small business and works out of my home so my licenses are semi-insured through my homeowners insurance.  As long as it doesn't leave my home or my studio I'm covered.  If my home is burglarized or the key is lost due to a disaster (fire, flood, etc.) I'm covered.  It went throught the washer and dryer because I left it in my pants pocket, I'm screwed.  I lost it while on vacation, I'm screwed.