Concept2 Forum

...if RowPro weren't so bloody RUDE about it.

1. Purchase 2.0 license. Get receipt. Print reciept. CONFIRM in Customer Center that I HAVE the license. Click on the license to look at it again.
2. Deactivate old RowPro.
3. Install new RowPro.
4. Fingers crossed and eyes rolled heavenward, hope that this one time, perhaps, the activation process will simply work right the first time, try "online activation."
5. Get informed, in 24-point giant red letters, that I don't have a license. Not "we seem to have a problem with your license key," or "there's a problem with your registration," but YOU NEED TO PURCHASE A LICENSE, with the subtle undertone of you thieving scum hidden there between the giant red letters.
6. Sighing heavily, confirm license again on the digitalrowing site. Yes, there it is. Big as life.
7. Try, with a feeling of despondent certainty, the "manual" activation.
8. Laboriously type the entire serial number into the Web browser, because in their infinite wisdom digitalrowing has decided not to allow the computer to select, copy and paste it. That would be convienient.
9. "Get activation key."
10. YOU NEED TO PURCHASE A LICENSE. You thieving scum. Again, no assumption that I HAVE purchased a license and some bloody incompetent tool at DigitalRowing can't program an activation sequence to save his life. No, YOU NEED TO PURCHASE A LICENSE! Really. Thanks. Hadn't occured to me, while typing in this bloody great serial number, that a license might be required. I'll pop down to the pharmacy and pick one up, then. Cheers.
11. Check the customer center once again to make sure I really do have a license and this isn't some early morning exercise-induced hallucination. Yes indeed, there it is. Call a family member into the room to bear witness. "See that right there? That license?" "Yes."
12. At the family member's suggestion, try the manual upgrade thing again. Maybe I mistyped the serial number, helpful blood of my blood suggests. Tally ho. Retype the serial number, carefully checking number for number against the screen, Alt-Tabbing back and forth because, again, being able to just copy and paste the thing would be ludicrously simple.
13. YOU NEED TO PURCHASE A LICENSE! Larcenous scallywag. Yes, that had popped into my head once or twice in the last half-hour. I should get right on that license-purchasing business. Oh, hang on, I have.
14. E-mail digitalrowing.
15. Wait.


The whole arduous procedure would be slightly less of a throbbing root canal if the company didn't make the broad assumption throughout the entire process that I'm either too stupid or too dishonest to actually have ALREADY BOUGHT THE LICENSE.

I'm ready and willing to guarantee that most people seeing these messages have, like me, bought the license already.

I've upgraded my computer considerably over the last year; swapping around motherboards, adding some RAM. Perhaps it doesn't recognize the old computer as "Computer #999999" any more. Maybe that's it. Maybe it's just good old-fashioned human error. But when you plunk down good money for a license and follow every installation step thoroughly and meticulously, getting condescended to at 6:15 a.m. does not set one's foot on a sunshiney path for the rest of the day.

I can only sympathise.

Having tried a 10 try evaluation copy a while ago and after using 9 of the attempts to get the basics working I do think that Row-Pro do need to get their UI in order.

However, it does look a good tool and I can see that there are a growing number of users so perhaps they take the view that time spent on the UI is wasted comapred with time spent developing the actual software.

As you are upgrading you are obviously happy with the product and I will likely invest at some time.

I have had no problems at all upgrading from 1.8 to 2.0.

Installing "Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0" left me a long time in the dark during its download.

I think they should give you the option to abort installing RowPro 2.0 if they detect you need .Net 2.0 , and let you install .Net 2.0 separately , it shows its progress better that way.

But after waiting a while all was installed, and re-licensing 2.0 was no problem.

I feel your pain. I have never seen a straight answer to how digitial rowing actually operates or how they make their money. My suspicion is that they have day jobs, and developing and supporting rowpro is something they do in their free time. If not, and if somehow rowpro makes enough money to really support several employees, I think they are incompetent. If they are doing this as a hobby, I am eternally grateful.

There are numerous bugs and flaws and problems that have existed for years, like the transition to daylight savings time, which happens twice a year. I don't understand why things like that aren't just fixed. Many people have trouble with activation and installation of rowpro, and the whole process is excessively uptight with the license and far too restrictive with the 10 "uses". I bet they lose lots of sales on people like Johnnybike who never get RP running properly in the trial period. We made this suggestion (to go to a 30 day demo period) over a year ago. My computer crashed repeatedly on the upgrade to v2 in the activation process (I never got it running as demo, but only after I paid for the upgrade on faith).

I can only wait until Shepard tries to go online, and runs into all the bugs with getting a working online racing profile and setup, since that seems to inflict many new users. Numerous people have loudly and publically complained about these problems, but I have seen no indication that anything has changed or improved over the past year.

With all that said, I really love RP. It seems to me that somehow once you get it installed and activated properly and get a working online profile, RP pretty much works flawlessly. I have only crashed a few times, and I almost never have a problem rowing online. I still regularly see online problems for some other people (presumably still getting setup) and no problems when I row with other people.

Stick with it, it is worth it. For anyone doing the demo, the best recommendation is to leave RP running if possible, since it counts each time it starts to be the 10 uses.

Honestly? I tried online for the first time last week, and while a scheduled race on Oarbits was a disaster, the chat function and "instant race" thing got me hooked up with a thoroughly satisfying, fun experience almost immediately.

I LOVE RowPro. That's why I'm re-upping and buying the upgrade! I just hate being told (repeatedly) at 6:30 a.m. the blindingly obvious fact that I need to buy a license when I've already blinkin' bought one.

There are nice ways to say these things. When I reinstalled Windows after upgrading my machine, it said "I'm sorry, we seem to be having a problem with your registration. Please contact Customer Support" or something like that. Not "YOU NEED TO BUY A LICENSE TO USE WINDOWS!"

Early morning grumpiness doesn't help either. But I try to balance my irritability with a sort of over-the-top sense of humour.

It is nice to let people know about the few problems with RP, but as everyone has stated in various words..."I love RowPro". I know that the RP staff hears the small number of problems that some people have . They will work hard to correct them. I have ALWAYS found the RP staff and Pete to be extremely courteous and responsive. I suggest....yes....let them know the negatives....but let's concentrate and accentuate the positives. We all must realize that RowPro is an awesome amazing program. The technological achievements that allow it to run relatively flawlessley are incomprehensible to me. The RP staff need to be stroked and commended for these advancments lest they become discouraged and demoralized. We don't want to be left up the creek with no paddles.
GOOD JOB ROWPRO!!!

Ron wrote:... GOOD JOB ROWPRO!!!

I'll second that.

But this morning I was trown out of RowPro 3 times at the start of a race. The same happened to 2 other users.

I was one of those other users in Godfried's race this morning with the repeated failed starts. The techology is imperfect, but I am still a RowPro promoter. The ability to train and race with others online is one of the biggest factors in making indoor rowing my cardio workout of choice.

Pete Loeffen at Digital Rowing has emailed me with his description of some of the known problems and his plans for resolution. I have asked him for permission to just put his email into the forum so we can all discuss it and feed back our thoughts on where they should be putting there effort. In my opinion Pete's team is very responsive to the rowing community but they are a small crew and it takes them time to work through the more serious problems.

Frank

I made a typo during the activation sequence. But we had it sorted out within 2 days. The software works well!

One problem i noticed was with programmed intervals. I set up a 20 minute workout with a different interval target each minute. The program seems to pause/delay at the end of each interval.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Jim S