[Krases]

Hello, I bought a copy of maxwell for sketchup and when I tried to download it from the download area, it registers as a free license. I cannot find information on this forum that fixes my problem. What can I do to fix this?

[JDHill]

Please let me know (along with which operating system & version you are using) what happens when you follow through the instructions on this page. Also note, at the bottom of the page, there is a troubleshooting section that describes how to find a licensing.log file written by the plugin, as it attempts to obtain a license during startup; this may hold some valuable clues.

[Krases]

Ah ok, I did not know the license wasn't automatically activated. I tried to activate it, but I was never issued an activation code, only sent an invoice. Where do I find the activation code?

[JDHill]

As far as I know, it should have been emailed to you, so you may want to check your spam folder. Otherwise, you should be able to log into your account at https://portal.nextlimit.com and access your license key there.

[Krases]

Checked my spam folder, did not receive and email, only an invoice for $99. I also look at the portal and cannot see any license key, only that I have one unit of Maxwell Render V3 for sketchup available. There is no other links or anything that lets me see my activation key.

[JDHill]

Hmm, when I log in there, I have an item on the left, View Licenses, with a sub-item Download Maxwell Licenses; when I click on that, I have a list (I have lots of different licenses for use in development) of my licenses on the right, with the keys, and download links. But, that's about all I can tell you, being on the code side of things, and not the web/sales/licensing one. Could it be that you just made the transaction very recently, and the server needs to get updated? Just a guess... seems plausible that there is some processing happening, and that you'll get your email, and have your license info show up at the same time. As I say though, just a guess.

[Krases]

Here is what it looks like for me. I purchased this two days ago and was hoping to use it by this weekend. Two days is an awfully long time for a server to update. I would like a download link re-emailed to me.

[JDHill]

Like I said, that was just a guess. I would like to help you, but again, I write code, and don't have knowledge of/access to sales/web/licensing types of things. I would suggest trying another browser, on the off-chance that the page is not rendering correctly (and thus hiding the Download Maxwell Licenses item), but I tried it in firefox, IE, and chrome, and it is working fine for me here with all of them. And unfortunately, the office is in Madrid, where it is currently about 4 in the morning on Saturday. I would suggest logging into the customer portal and using the Sales Contact form to let them know that you have not yet received your license; I am not sure if anyone monitors sales tickets on the weekend, but it's possible.

[Krases]

That is just ridiculous. I pay 100$ and do not get the product that I have purchased? They need to be on top of this, my money has been taken and I have not been provided with the service I have paid for.

Thanks for the help, but if this isn't resolved soon I am going to need to file a complaint with econsumer.gov.

[JDHill]

File a complaint if you like, but where you apparently see a problem worthy of reporting, others may see a company responding to you within 7 minutes of having been made aware of a problem, which itself consists entirely of your not having received an email that you should have, and attempting to help you with that problem til around 9 p.m. (my time) on a Friday night. Assuming you are accurate in your report, and even ignoring that any valid complaint process will afford an opportunity for the defendant to respond, which side do you think likely to appear the more reasonable? So by all means, lodge a complaint -- the marketing people will surely thank you for it.

Nevermind that rather than writing this right now, I could be emailing somebody at home, and conceivably get this fixed up for you even though it's the weekend. Normally, I'd have already done so; the only thing stopping me in this case, is that it would be bad policy to respond positively to threats.

What I will do, though, is ask the web people about why license keys are shown in the customer portal in some cases, but not others (I checked with another account of mine, and it appears the same in that case, as in your screenshot); because if they were always shown, we wouldn't be having this discussion, unless there was an issue with a credit card approval going through, or something of that nature (problems which, themselves, could also be indicated in the portal).

So have a nice weekend, and I hope the problem is sorted quickly, come Monday.

[Krases]

Here is a picture from my credit card account stating when I was charged (Wednesday). And I had been filing complaints with on the customer care portal with no response since Thursday. So I am not complaining "7 minutes" after not receiving my product. It would just be better practice to send me an email copy of my activation key, as the web portal system clearly is not working correctly.



Not providing a service that has been paid for is a serious issue and it is on next limit technologies to sort this out. McNeel North America has a series of hotline numbers I could have called to sort this out.

[JDHill]

It is supposed to work as you say -- you are supposed to receive an email with the key, and I have received many such emails over the course of time (checking, they have come from maxwelldesk@nextlimit.com, or more recently from mailing@nextlimit.com). Now you say, additionally, that you are not receiving response to queries sent via the customer portal, which together with the fact that you also did not receive your license email, tends to suggest some sort of problem tied to your email address (you say you received an invoice, but this is likely to have been sent from a third-party payments provider). Please private-message me the email address you are using, so that I can test sending you an email from my own @nextlimit.com account, and also then to directly have someone look into why you're not receiving emails from the system.

On your last point, while I agree that of course Next Limit must get this resolved, the fact is that the company is not nearly the size of McNeel & Associates. It has one physical office, in Madrid, which is open during normal business hours.

[Krases]

Alright, I got it all figured out. Gmail did in fact eat it, not as spam but it filed it away in a different tab, then within a folder within that tab.

I want my hair back.

[JDHill]

Good deal -- but nevertheless, there are a couple of things that can be improved in the email/support system, so I'll still follow up with sales/IT.