After playing E-mail tag with Stein the past couple of days without any success I am losing my patience.

I am a paying customer to swath.... Swath's license allows me updates.
Swath's own copy-protection won't let me use the latest version and Stein can't seem to understand why.

I have a record of the email "support" and I use that term lightly that the fine authors of SWATH have
tried to help me. But in their infinite wisdom they bought a third party copy-protection scheme that is now locking
out authorized users.

So here it is in black and white..... Swath uses a copy-protection scheme that might not allow you to use what you paid for.

I can't stress enough how bad this is going to be for any future business for swath....
(course swath probably has all the customers it is capable of getting so they aren't worried about any more business)

There is nothing I can do beside whine and not recommend SWATH and anything else related to FAM-Ent or whatever the other company that
Stein and Maccan are hiding behind.

How can someone look at themselves in the mirror knowing that they've taken $ for something that treats their customers as criminals and won't let them use what they paid for is beyond me.

Thanks for allowing me to vent

I thought Microsoft was the only company that treats their customers as criminals.

As you say, Maniac, SWATH's license allows you updates for FREE.
How many other commercial software programs out there gives you the same fine deal?
And all this for only $26...

So, just because you found a bug, making the latest version of SWATH not work on your particular hardware,
we are an evil company, blood suckers, daemons from hell, just here to mess with users like yourself.

You seem to think that we use a software protection to piss people off.
I explained in an answer to your previous post, that SWATH was hacked back in the days.
That made us use a better and more professional software protection.

The first one we used had many support issues and was often causing trouble.
The new one, introduced with SWATH 1.9 has worked much better.
Almost no problems, except for you and your situation.

You can still use SWATH 1.8.3, but have problems upgrading to 1.9.4 (which is as we said earlier FREE).
Is it too much to ask from you to allow us time to find a solution to your problem before you
jump to the closest forum you can find and spew your guts?

As someone who does websites on the side, I too deal with customers who want me to jump at their every question and request, even when I have already fulfilled my end of the bargain by providing a one time service for a set amount ( Like Stein, I still do my best to respond as quickly as I can, because I do actually care).

Maniac, paying Stein a one-time fee of $26 for a certain version of a product (which you apparently have already gotten a lot of use out of) in no way gives you the right to treat them as your personal coding slaves. Back off and let the man have some time to investigate and solve.

Do you guys even have a license agreement? I couldn't find one.

License agreements for most registration-type software like Swath do include updates, especially for minor versions. The updates aren't free, but are typically included in the original cost.

When I purchased Swath, I looked for this information but couldn't find it. I bought it anyway, but I am under the impression that future updates are included at no extra cost.

Maniac didn't provide all the details, and I'm not saying I agree with him or anything, but he has every right to post his opinion.

And this wouldn't be much an issue if you had something that specified what precisely we are getting for our $26. If there IS a license agreement, and it does in fact say that the purchase cost includes future updates, then the tone of your reply is inappropriate.

You are right Hotblack, it is not in the license text. It was just me being nice all these years.
(And what do you get for that?)

Personally it is worth more than I paid, keep up the good work!

Why are you getting upset at your customers ... you're the one who doesn't have a license agreement. Besides, when there is no explicit text, certain things are implicit. A case could be made that the registration fee includes updates implicitly.

Don't give me this crap about being nice... you're running a business. It would be 'nice' if you didn't treat your customers with disrespect.

I'm inclined to agree with you, but I'd be annoyed too if my registration stopped working after downloading what I thought was a 'free update'.

This is headed for smack.

Most people would just say thanks for doing a great job, and here is a way you could make it better. Others tend just nip at the heels of those that are providing a service until they run them off. Then we really start complaining!!

Certainly not because of me... if any of this is smack, then it was smack after the first one or two posts.



This would certainly be true if the service was free, but everything changes as soon as they start charging. Paying customers have every right to complain. What other company would respond as Stein has? In my opinion his behavior is unprofessional and inappropriate.

It was smack pretty much from the get go in my opinion. If not I am sure it will be by the end of the day. Everyone has the write voice opinion, but I know from experience upset a programmer and progress comes to a screeching halt.

I like the program and when I have found issues I send them in and have no expectation that it will be resolved in a timely manner. But I still send them in cause without feedback the program with stall forever. And I can bet the amount of money they have made off this program is peanuts compared to using their talents on more profitable items.

For that alone.... Thank You!

I think I will jump in here to voice my opinion

Warning EVERYTHING I type in here is my opinion EXCEPT for the facts.

Opinion: Swath is a really great program that has served me well in the past. Thank you.

Fact: I try and upgrade to the latest version and it won't install.
Fact: You and I have been playing E-Mail Tag for the past few days and we are no closer to getting this solved than we
were 3 days ago.
Fact: I appreciate your help and understand frustration is going to get involved and people are going to have an opinion.

Fact: I am a paying customer and am entitled to what I paid for. I can complain about Swath because hey I PAID for it.

Opinion :
I have asked NUMEROUS times where Swath writes to my registry and or hard drive so I can do a clean install and see if that
would help our problem. (Notice how I said OUR problem) but you have avoided answering or don't have any clue what your
super-duper copy protection scheme that you OVERPAID for is doing.

Opinion:
I was under the understanding that when all else fails wipe the drive and start over.... Well I don't want to wipe my drive
I want to know where Swath writes everything so I can wipe that part of it. But I guess that was too much to ask.

My original OPINION of Swath still stands and my opinion of you as programmer/help-desk jockey/business is not very good but my
opinion of you as a person is not affected by this problem.

As of our latest E-Mail exchange

THE PROBLEM IS NOT WITH SWATH , the problem is with your choice of copy-protection and for that choice I can take issue with it.

Document this problem you might have recourse from the makers of the copy-protection, as you are a PAYING customer.

OOPS I don't know if that last statement was fact or opinion.
Hmmm can someone help me out?

Fact: Your subject for this post = Swath Sux

Maybe you can get a moderator to change that then.

He should be able to change it himself I think by editing the original post.