Actually, this customer has some problems - Alastair_Houghton_882

If you read the contact details form, you'd have noticed that it asks existing customers (i.e., those that have previously purchased from us) to log-in.

If you ignore the instructions and try to fill it out anyway, it'll send you to the log-in screen by itself, but it needs to know your e-mail address before it can work out whether you're an existing customer or not. We would have hoped that you would know whether you had bought something from us in the past or not; it seems simple enough to us.

The reason we ask you to log-in is that if you didn't, we wouldn't be able to associate your new license with your existing account, and since we can't create two accounts with the same e-mail address (that's what we use as your log-in ID), this would cause a problem.

If you've forgotten your log-in details, please contact us and we'll tell you what they are.

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Tuesday, December 28 2004 @ 03:06 AM PST

This company has some big problems - poolmouse

with all due respect, the fact that anyone can make a mistake like this points to bad interface design. not a criticism, just an observation. i haven't tried idefrag yet...not interested in risking data until it's an established application. right now it's considered a dangerous "work in progress". looking forward to a usable version i can test out.

don, nyc

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Tuesday, December 28 2004 @ 09:37 AM PST

Update - Alastair_Houghton_882

We have made a couple of changes to our site to make it more obvious that the reason you are being asked to log in is that you have an existing account, since that seems to have been the source of confusion in this case.

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Tuesday, December 28 2004 @ 10:47 AM PST

This company has some big problems - Anubis IV

I think the problem he was having was NOT that he was being forced to log in in order to get help (which is perfectly reasonable), but rather that he could not figure out how to make an account even after being told that he had to log in (see his 4th step). He was being told that he needed an account to get help, but he needed help on figuring out how to get an account. That was what his problem was. It was a Catch-22.

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Tuesday, December 28 2004 @ 11:23 AM PST

This company has some big problems - Alastair_Houghton_882

  I think the problem he was having was NOT that he was being forced to log in in order to get help (which is perfectly reasonable), but rather that he could not figure out how to make an account even after being told that he had to log in (see his 4th step). He was being told that he needed an account to get help, but he needed help on figuring out how to get an account. That was what his problem was. It was a Catch-22.

You can think what you like, but we've spoken to him. The problem wasn't anything to do with being able to get help (or otherwise). Nor was it actually a chicken and egg problem. He already had an account, but he'd forgotten about it and became confused when asked to log-in during the purchase process. Anyway, as I've already said, we've updated the site to make it more obvious.

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Tuesday, December 28 2004 @ 11:44 AM PST

This company has some big problems - hEADcRASH

...but responding to them doesn't seem to be one of them. ;-) I've received helpful e-mails offline that explained the source of frustration, and it appears that they've been working to correct the confusing (web) interface/process. I had purchased iPartition in the past, yet haven't needed to use it (yet) (as I picked up a terabyte so I could do the HD shuffle) - I hadn't made the association of the (new) software with the company. And, since the password is generated instead of being chosen, the log in procedure became just that much more confounding. I do wish them luck with their refinement of iDefrag, and I'll keep my ear to the VT ground for updates.

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Tuesday, December 28 2004 @ 12:12 PM PST