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Dongles……..
My embroidery softeware`s dongles playing up. It won`t let you in the software. Takes about 20 trys before it gives in and lets you do any work.
Phoned Y.E.S. (your embroidery services, supplier of the software, which is pulse) up. Told them what the “crack” was. (get it, get it).
Looks like your dongles just about to pack up, came the answer. It`ll cost you £250 to get another……..
Hang on, I pay £3k+ for software. Then when a product they supplied with it gets a fault, I have to pay another £250 quid, so I can carry on using the product I`ve already paid for… That takes the piss..
I might as well buy the cracked version. No dongle to go wrong….
I`m sorry but I can`t see the sence in charging that sort of money for something that cost £10 to make. I don`t mind pay a small fee for a replacment. But I really think they`ve got it wrong.
If I continue to get good service from the software, I`ll up grade, giving them more money than the cost of a dongle.. So they`ll gain. But to put silly obstacles in your way, will only make you go out and buy a crack copy or change over to a competitors software..
just venting….
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24 Replies
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Not related to Cad Link by any chance are they :lol1:
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Seems a bit of a Piss take. No, actually seems a lot of a piss take.
How much of a warranty, if any, came with your software/dongle? The reason I ask is that it isn’t necessarily an open and shut case if a product fails shortly after a warranty expires. A product is supposed to have a reasonable operating life. Of course, you’d have to go to trading standards to follow something like this up.
I’ve heard of software companies charging for replacement dongles, but 250 squids seems extreme.
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I had my workshop broken into a few weeks ago, and had my computer stolen with the dongle from Engravelab stuck in the back. I hadn’t had it a week when it was stolen. The program cost me £1750 and one week later I had to buy another dongle to replace the first one at a price of £1050 as it was classed as a second site user. Someone is making a mint for nothing out there!!!! (:) (chat.) (hot) 🙄 👿
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I believe there’s a case for arguing that software that relies on a dongle to work is illegal.
With new software the general advice is to create a “backup” should the original fail. You can’t create a back-up dongle though 🙄
The problem with dongles is they do fail – I’ve had two dongles pack up on me – and the time it takes to obtain a replacement (not just the cost) means lost production and unsatisfied customers.
With most software, you are able to obtain a fix by re-installing the original program. However, if the dongle fails you are at the mercy of the software developer who may decide to stop supporting older programs forcing you to buy an upgrade or switch to an entirely new product before a “fix” can be obtained.
In a similar vein, the so called 🙄 “Millenium Bug” was a massive confidence trick that succeeded in selling huge amounts of software to companies that were forced to upgrade “crippled” software in order to continue running their businesses.
In my case I had bought Sage Instant accounting in 1996. This version was engineered to fail (by not recognising the year 2000) which forced me to buy an upgrade in order to avoid a complete collapse in my accounting system.
Our own government was complicit in this huge scam (probably unwittingly as they rely on “advisors to brief them – and never bother to verify any facts presented to them).
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quote Mike Grant:I had my workshop broken into a few weeks ago, and had my computer stolen with the dongle from Engravelab stuck in the back. I hadn’t had it a week when it was stolen. The program cost me £1750 and one week later I had to buy another dongle to replace the first one at a price of £1050 as it was classed as a second site user. Someone is making a mint for nothing out there!!!! (:) (chat.) (hot) 🙄 👿That stinks! First you have the insult of being broken into, then they add injury to insult!
I understand why the software manufacturers have dongles, but to be honest, if you really want to hack/crack a program, a dongle isn’t really that big an obsticle. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t know a bit from a byte, honest, but for those in the know, its only a matter of hours before the determined can dedonglefy any software.
One of the main reasons for dongles is piracy, and no doubt its the hope of the software manufacturer to use the dongle to ensure their software isn’t copied. Considering I’ve seen copies of SignLab at a car boot sale with very dodgy looking covers (you can kind of tell they’re copies by the fact that the Britney Spears mpeg is on the same CD), it goes to show that dongle just doesn’t work.
No idea what the answer is, as the software developers fear of software piracy will make them do bizarre things, but there must be an answer.
And I agree Phill, the Millenium Bug was a classic act of salesmanship, if I’d been a programmer in the 1980’s / 90’s you can bet I would have added in the old 1981 clause 😀
Cheers, Dewi
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It makes me laugh really, the rules are made up as they go along. If you’re paying £1000’s for software you’re paying for the right to use the software, not the disks or dongles. Yet when a new dongle is needed the proprtion of the price for the dongle suddenly shoots up. I always thought you had the right to make backups of software in case of fire, flood, nuclear catastrophe etc. but they would be useless. I get the feeling some laws are being bent somewhere. Blimey, if I damaged my Sky viewing card, they’d send me a new one no problem. What’s the difference? Man, I hate people.
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Mike, can you not claim on your insurance? I know they won’t cover software but surely a dongle is hardware worth arguing the point. As Cadlinks name cropped up I thought they charge about £70.00 for a usb dongle but that may have changed, be interested to know what the sign programme people do charge for replacement dongles that develop a fault.
Alan -
Sussed this one from the start when we first bought flexi sign pro. Declare the dongle to your insurance company as an asset and explain what it is and you are covered
f the dongle fails im not sure insurance would cover but this is an integral part of the product that you bought and if it fails you would have recourse under the sale of goods act as unfit for the sales description as software does not have a lifespan unless contracted so, trading standards would try to enforce. ( if you buy software from microsoft (big bad ba##ards) and the disk goes faulty you can return the original disk for a repalcment for a very nominal fee
Regards Adrian
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I am claiming the cost of the dongle on the insurance as it WAS stolen at the same time as the computer and therefore in my eyes is there to be claimed back. I am not trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the insurers by saying it was stolen when it was in my back pocket, because I am not that kind of guy (I’ll never get rich as I am too honest!) Needless to say it does go everywhere with me now after the event, this simple theft of the computer has caused so much hassle for me I am also claiming for 5 days loss of work (chat.)
As for the power of that little bit of metal & plastic to make someone rich….. (:) (:) (:) (hot) :nag4: :headbang2: :shake:
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If I had to pay for a new dongle cos of theft or so (a case no or a docket should convince the program writers of the validity of the theft) I would be REALLY pi–d off.
Surely no one would go to such lengths to “defraud” them when you can EASILY buy cracked copies of the package. If I were going to pirate , I would certainly not do it by trying to get my hands on another dongle (albeit one could probably sell a dongled version for much more than a cracked one)
I often get mails with 1000’s of cracked packages offered to me , even arcane stuff
Dongles are really a bad way to protect packages , they often fail or interfere with other devices. I will ALWAYS pay for a package that I use to make money with , but if I can get my hands on an undongled version , would rather use that than attach a dongle.
Often you need multiple dongles if you run a few packages that are dongle protected and this can lead to INCREDIBLE problems and interference. There are far better protection methods. -
I have had some experiecne with this with embroidery dongles, the answer is very simple – you send them the dongle and they replace with a new dongle – job done. They cannot argue with this! (I know as I’ve had to do it with 2 software packages we own – must be a thing with embroidery software)
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john.
who did you deal with?Any particluar line of attack.
If I could quote already cases, then that would make my cas estronger.
kev
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Hi Kev
How old is the software? Did you buy it from them from new? How did you buy it (credit card or lease)?
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bought it approx 4 years ago.
cross graded from wings to pulse.
New software.
paid via cheque -
Shame you didnt pay by credit card as you could claim against the credit card number under acticle 75 of the consumer credit act.
We had had our softyware for over 12 months and we demmanded that they replace the dongle for us – in our case the software was £5,500 (melco) but yours is still in the same league. The law actually states that a supplier is liable for 6 years for the goods they supply, and to be quite frank, you would expect a dongle to have a life span of more than 4 years.
Have you tried contacting Pulse directly ?
YES like to be the supplier who say yes (from all there marketing rubbsish they bombard us with), perhaps they should be saying YES to a replacement to which they should be dealing with without trying to charge!
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Becky, I think wings is connected to Corel in some way but out of interest what made you change to pulse?
Alan -
wings is a product by gunold. You are thinking about the new program that gunold have created for corel (drawings)
We were advised to chage over, because of an internal problem in the gunold corp. 2 brother fell out.
Y.E.S. said that because of the internal argruements, they felt software back up might be affected or with drawn. So advised us to swap…Thats approx 31/2 years ago.
So how much guarantee does a dongle have??????
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We got our dongle after 16 months as it failed.
I dont know what dongle you have, I expect it will be a rainbow parallel dongle, which is not that most reliable unit.
What has YES’s comments been about replacing the dongle, as they supplied it to you in the first place. All your suggesting is sending your faulty dongle back for a replacement. The material costs of these dongles is about $53 and thats buying 1.
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YES will replace it, but at a cost of £250….
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Have you tried to contact Pulse Microsystems direct for a cost?
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no, but will do.
Just on the same note.
I can see where the company is coming from asking £250 for a replacment dongle, as its 3 years old.
But what happens when/if my signlab dongle goes @rse up.
I`ve just upgraded from 6 to 7. I didn`t get a new dongle. I have to use my old one. Which is 18months old… -
We had a similar problem. We fought and fought for nothing in the end, until I spoke to my own house insurance company.
They didnt have a problem paying to replace the dongle that I used in the house, all they wanted was the dongle, which they let me hold on to until the replacement arrived.
Subsequently I have changed the company insurance over to them as well!
Just as a matter of interest, which version of pulse are you using?
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Becky if your dongle goes wrong it costs £75+vat to replace it with a new usb one regardless of how old it is..
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two things that may be worth a try.
1/ set up your software on a different machine and see if the dongle works.
2/ check the contacts and/or place in a different port.
sometimes other software interferes with ports.eric
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If you can find a path with no obstacles it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.
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