I’m moving all of my data and applications to a new computer and, so far, most of this has gone swimmingly.  I have one application, though, that won’t work on the new computer because “Only one machine can be activated with each serial number”–so the web site informed me when I attempted to activate the license. So I e-mailed the company’s tech support to see what could be done. The transcript of the e-mail correspondence between me and the tech support rep at the company follows. The names have been changed to protect the, well, you know.

MG: I received an activation code (xxx***###) on April 23, 2009, for XYZSoftware and I’m trying to move the license from an old computer to a new one. My user account and XYZSoftware will be deleted from the old computer. Please send me a new activation code for use on my new computer.

Tech Support Person: XYZSoftware is a single machine license. Installation on multiple machines will not work. To install on a second system, you will need to purchase another license.

MG: Thanks for the response, Tech Support Person. I’m not attempting to install the software on two machines–I want to remove it from a computer I’m no longer using and transfer it to a new computer. How can I do this?

TSP: It cannot be done. The license only works once (The activation system was set up to stop people from installing their single copy on all 500 computers at work). If you want to put it on another computer, you will have to get another license.

MG: So there’s no way that I can deactivate the XYZSoftware license on one computer in order to transfer it to a different computer? I just did this with all of my Adobe CS3 software and it worked seamlessly. I’d prefer not to spend $40 for an additional XYZSoftware license when I already have one.

TSP: No one is making you do this. The program is working fine. If you are selling the old computer, add $40 to the price and use that to buy another license. If you are not selling it, leave it where it is.

MG: Thank you for the suggestions.

At this point, I figured we were done. Several minutes later, though, the correspondence resumed with this:

TSP: Just for my curiosity, when did you buy XYZSoftware? Our sales records show no sales to anyone with last name Gowin as far as they are online, back to 2002.

MG: I purchased two Things from SomeOnlineRetailer.com on April 14, 2009 (see attached) [I attached a copy of my purchase receipt]; the packaging had an offer to receive a free XYZSoftware license. I believe I used the product serial number from one of the Things [serial number included] to activate the license but, unfortunately, I no longer have the packages in which the Things were shipped. The serial numbers were on the packages (which I no longer have), not the Things (which I do have). Otherwise I’d have attempted to activate the XYZSoftware license with the unused Thing serial number.

TSP: There’s your answer. You bought two devices from Things Producer that each came with a license for our program XYZSoftware. You used one license and lost another. If you need another license, you can buy one from us, or you can go buy another device from Things Producer that comes with XYZSoftware.

MG: It’s an answer, yes, but not really a solution to my problem Thanks anyway.

TSP: No, sir, it’s not. You got two “free” licenses and want a third one, for a program we want to be paid for. We will support your licenses wherever you got them, but we are not going to give you another one without being paid for it.

MG: Actually, Tech Support Person, I’m not asking you to give me a third license for free.  My original question was about deactivating a license on one computer and moving that same license to a new computer.  Your company makes a good product and you should be paid for it.  It appears, though, that you have no way to verify that a user has deactivated a license on one machine in order to move it to another.  Since I successfully moved all of my other applications from my old computer to the new one, I thought there would be a process to do the same with XYZSoftware.  Regrettably, that doesn’t seem to be the case.  Thank you for letting me know.

So, yes, I should have saved the package with the serial number and then I wouldn’t be in this situation.  That said, I wasn’t trying to do anything that would cost this company a sale–I simply wanted to move a license from one computer to another.  I was not asking for a third license; I asked how I could deactivate a license on an old computer and then re-activate the same license on another computer.  Evidently, however, technology and policy were two insurmountable obstacles.  Lesson learned.

Observations for XYZSoftware Company:

• How hard would it have been, though, for TSP to simply say, “We don’t normally do this, but I can see that you’ve paid for your Things and here’s a license code you can use to install XYZSoftware on your new computer.  Have a nice day!”  Instead, they’ve created bad-will for a customer.
• If your tech support personnel have the potential to get snarky with customers (as happened in this case), keep them off the front lines.  I know that tone is difficult to read in e-mail and online mediums, but I kept an even, unemotional tone throughout this correspondence; it’s not clear that TSP did the same.
• You never know when your customers or potential customers might take a customer service exchange public–and I’ve been kind to protect the identity of XYZSoftware here.  Others may not be so gracious.  This is called accountability and the social web makes it possible.

What are you waiting for?

Props to Beyond Relevance with a hat tip to MTS.

Those of us who were lit majors have known it all along: The novel works better than academic literature to explain global problems. But now some economists are validating that notion.

“Despite the regular flow of academic studies, expert reports, and policy position papers, it is arguably novelists who do as good a job – if not a better one – of representing and communicating the realities of international development,”  says Dr. Dennis Rodgers from England’s Manchester University’s Brooks World Poverty Institute.

Stories sell ideas.

Seth has also created a presentation to accompany the book, and it’s available on SlideShare.

If you’re not familiar with Seth, try the article as a start and then subscribe to the blog.  If you’re a really rabid fan, you’ll probably want the action figure.  I’m hoping to get one for Christmas.  Or something.

If you haven’t seen this yet, you might be wondering what in the world this is supposed to represent.  Here’s what the official London 2012 site has to say:

London 2012’s ambition is to create a Games for everyone, where everyone is invited to take part, join in and enjoy the most exciting event in the world…

Our emblem is simple, distinct, bold and buzzing with energy. Its form is inclusive yet consistent and has incredible flexibility to encourage access and participation. It can communicate with anyone from commercial organisations to kids playing sport. 

It feels young in spirit. Full of confidence, certainty and opportunity. Not afraid to shake things up, to challenge the accepted. To change things. 

Que?

I’m not the only one.  Seth Godin, in a post entitled, “Actually, it’s just a jaggy picture,” said:

If you are paying money to someone who talks like this, may I suggest you stop? And if you work for someone who talks like this, time to look for a new gig.

We’re all familiar with the ubiquitous “Get a Mac” ads in which the uber-cool Mac (Justin Long) trades barbs with the hapless and frumpy PC (John Hodgman).  In its June 2008 issue, FastCompany reported that Microsoft was working with ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky to help bolster the company’s image.  Now FoxNews indicates that Microsoft has spent $300 million on a campaign that will feature Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates together:

The new ad effort is expected to use some variation of the slogan “Windows, Not Walls,” according to several people familiar with the matter. Those people say the point is to stress breaking down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting. The campaign, said to debut Sept. 4, is one of the largest in the company’s history…

Microsoft’s immediate goal is to reverse the negative public perception of Windows Vista, the latest version of the company’s personal-computer operating system. 

Perception is manageable if the underlying product/company is sound; however, when an industry leading publication like PC Magazine publishes an article entitled “How to Downgrade from Vista,” and commentator John Dvorak writes a piece called “Vista’s 11 Pillars of Failure,” and WSJ tech writer Walt Mossberg calls Vista “worthy” but “unexciting,” the issues may be more than just skin deep.  Users will be better served if Microsoft can engineer its next operating system to be better than Apple’s Mac OS.  Giving Steve Jobs a reason to lose sleep at night (and he’s probably not losing sleep over Vista or the forthcoming ad campaign) would motivate Apple to bolster its OS development efforts.  In that scenario, everybody wins.

Hat tip to Seth.