Licensing process for new users: Now with 100% more obfuscation!

[reesmaxwell]

I love your software, have raved about it, and now just got my mother to purchase a copy for her new MacBook.  (Through MacZot.)  Here is what she had to go through to try to get it licensed (still isn't correctly licensed)... and remember, she is a new user to Macs.

1> She buys it through MacZot
2 >She gets an email from MacZot saying that her serial numbers are online, and to log in to her MacZot account.
3> She logs in, and finds a cryptic message saying the following:
Registration Instructions: Thank you for purchasing Yummy FTP through MacZOT! In order to get your Yummy FTP registration you must use the Yummy Software online store to register. You have therefore been given a Coupon Code which provides a 100% discount on the purchase of a single user license, which you must redeem to get your personalized registration. Please follow the steps below: 1. Start Yummy FTP 2. Select 'Purchase Online' from the Yummy FTP menu 3. When the online store is displayed, click the 'buy' button 4. Enter your Coupon Code into the box labeled Coupon: (your coupon code starts with CPN7091629220- followed by several letters and numbers) 5. Click the 'Checkout' button 6. Enter your registration details then click the 'Next' button 7. Click the 'Submit Order' button - note that the Grand Total is $0.00 Your registered Name and Serial Number will now be displayed with an option to Print if you require. When you close the window, Yummy FTP will read the registration details automatically and be come a fully registered copy. [Below in a box is an eight digit number followed by a dash and then another eight digit number.]
4> So she tries to follow along, launching YummyFTP, searching around for "Purchase Online" (remember, she's new to Macs), that opens a new window which she says startled her since she wasn't expecting it and doesn't really know what it is, then she enters the CPN709... number above and that doesn't do it, then she tries closing and starting again but now can't seem to get back to that area again.
5> She quits in frustration and calls her son (me).

I know some of this is probably due to MacZot ... but this is the user experience people have when buying your software ... so it reflects entirely on you.

And after all the talking up I did about your software, this is really terrible.  If you're gonna make someone jump through all of those hoops (which I've never seen any licensing system as obfuscated as this one), you could have at least made sure MacZot put the entire license in the license code area, instead of just the tail end, which was described as "several letters and numbers". 

In fact, I'm not even sure I understand, since I put into your esellerate window the coupon of the CPN number above with a dash, and then the XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX number that MacZot had as my personal serial number.  That didn't work.  I'll go hack around until I can figure out how to make this work ... but please, this is just a horrible way to sell your software, and I would really love to hear back from you about how you are going to clean this up so that future purchasers don't have to go through this.

Peace,
  Rees

[reesmaxwell]

Okay, so it turns out that only the XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX number that MacZot has in the serial number area is what is needed as the coupon code. The other number isn't.  So now her copy of YummyFTP is licensed.  But still, that's a lot of work!

Oh, and the eSellerate window wouldn't allow cut/paste into the coupon box, so one extra level of frustration.

...

[JD]

Hello Rees,

I'm sorry you had such a bad time with this that you needed to post here, but thank you for your purchase and now let me explain all this a little:

Let's be clear first of all that the activation procedure you have documented is a special one-off for the MacZOT $15 discount offer that was available the other day - normal purchases of Yummy FTP are completely straightforward, as I'm sure you can testify since you are an existing customer.

The main problem with the MacZOT offer, and similar promotions, is that Yummy FTP is registered with the user's Name as well as a Serial Number (in fact the name is also encoded into the serial number), so it is impossible to generate registrations in advance that can be distributed at purchase time by the promotion administrator (MacZOT in this case).

The only way to get a valid Name and Serial Number pair is to purchase Yummy FTP through the eSellerate online purchase system. So, for the first Yummy FTP MacZOT a few years ago I handled this manually - for each order notification that I received from MacZOT I had to make a fake purchase of Yummy FTP to get a Name and Serial Number that I could then send along to the customer. Let me be clear on this - it was a nightmare! MacZOT generates hundreds of sales and I was up until the early hours of the morning just making those fake purchases so I could send along the registration details, and of course this led to mistakes... I missed out some orders, misspelled some names, didn't copy & paste registrations properly, etc. all the usual human error stuff. Although the sales were nice, it wasn't good for my health and plenty of customers weren't happy with the way it was handled as a result.

When the second MacZOT day came up, I knew there had to be a better way. I spoke with eSellerate, a very big name in online purchasing that is owned by Digital River and used by plenty of other Mac software vendors (for example Fetch : NO LINKS ALLOWEDfetchsoftworksNO LINKS ALLOWED), and that's how the Coupon concept came about. A coupon is a code which you can enter while placing an order to get a discount, even a 100% discount. The idea was that I could pre-generate as many 100% discount coupons as I wanted and send them to the promotion administrator, who could automate their purchase system to distribute a coupon for each purchase - the end user could then use the 100% discount coupon in the purchase system to get a personalized registration (Name and Serial Number) without having to pay or enter credit card details and the best thing of all.... not a single typo, missed order or any other human error. The second MacZOT used this exact technique and was a resounding success.

So, the third MacZOT came along and I used the exact same technique, expecting all to go well ...

Unfortunately, I think the main root of confusion is that the MacZOT correspondence referred to the coupons as Serial Numbers, which of course they weren't. I did provide the comprehensive step by step 'how to use the coupon' text for MacZOT to include in the email to customers, however it seems that the text from the second MacZOT was used by mistake so it was referring to the old coupons. All the coupons from the third MacZOT started with MACZOT08. I didn't think the step by step was cryptic though - I tried to make it as clear and simple as possible - but certainly, if it was delivered to you in one big lump of text like that then I can understand being fazed... Below are the instructions again as I provided them. I hope with the background I have explained above that it is all clear now.

Registration Instructions:
Thank you for purchasing Yummy FTP through MacZOT!

In order to get your Yummy FTP registration you must use the Yummy Software online store to register. You have therefore been given a Coupon Code which provides a 100% discount on the purchase of a single user license, which you must redeem to get your personalized registration.

Please follow the steps below:

1. Start Yummy FTP
2. Select 'Purchase Online' from the Yummy FTP menu
3. When the online store is displayed, click the 'buy' button
4. Enter your Coupon Code into the box labeled Coupon: (your coupon code starts with MACZOT08- followed by several letters and numbers)
5. Click the 'Checkout' button
6. Enter your registration details then click the 'Next' button
7. Click the 'Submit Order' button - note that the Grand Total is $0.00

Your registered Name and Serial Number will now be displayed with an option to Print if you require. When you close the window, Yummy FTP will read the registration details automatically and be come a fully registered copy.

[reesmaxwell]

Ahh, I see.

If the correct set of instructions had been used, then I can see that it would have made a bit more sense.  These three things would have made it easier for my mother:

1> If the correct instructions had been used that indicated "coupon code starts with MACZOT08"
2> If the set of instructions had been formatted with line breaks. (I actually think this would have made it much easier to follow and much less intimidating.)
3> If MacZot had not used the term Serial Numbers. (But that seems hardcoded and so maybe not possible to alter for this.)
4> If eSellerate would allow cut/paste into the coupon code box.

Of those four items, you may not have been responsible for any.  However, please consider these issues and track them when you next use MacZot or some other site outside of your own to sell through.

And JD, thanks so much for taking all the trouble to write out all the details in the issue.  You didn't have to go into such detail, and that you did once again speaks volumes related to how you treat your customers.

All the best,
  Rees

[JD]

Yes, sorry about the huge post there but at least I made it all clear 

You're right on all counts about how this could be improved for next time. I've also done some digging and found how to enable the Edit menu items for the eSellerate cut/paste, so now it works from the menu - for some reason the keyboard shortcuts don't work, but I'll take that up with eSellerate support

[jbsound]

So, here is my problem:

I also purchased YummyFTP through a Maczot promotion, got the coupon code, which all worked just fine.

The problem I'm running into now is that I am transitioning to a new computer and of course would like to continue using YummyFTP. Since I don't have a serial number, going through the same registration process as originally now fails, because that coupon code has already been used.

So, question is, how I remedy the situation. Is that serial number documented somewhere I can easily retrieve it?

Thanks,

JB

[JD]

You should have received an order confirmation email which will contain your registration information.

If you can't find your order email, try visiting the following url, where you can look up your order history and then each order you have made:

NO LINKS ALLOWEDstore.esellerateNO LINKS ALLOWED/support

If you still have problems, of course you can always email me

support at yummysoftware dot com

[jbsound]

Thanks, JD.

After looking for 'esellerate' in my archived emails I was able to find the order details. Didn't make that connection between Yummy Software and eSellerate there.

I appreciate it.

JB