Read this so it doesn't happen to you

Unity Engine
1

Read carefully so you’re prepared in case this happens to you…

I’ve purchased Unity 3.0 Pro license with iPhone pro back in April 2010 (pretty early… I think I showed some confidence on the company)… I also have, of course, Unity 2.x license, also with iPhone Pro (and Asset Server). I’ve been working with Unity for a long time now.

I got my office robbed, and with that, several computers stolen, so I purchased another one since I had an urgent deliverable.

By friday morning (8AM EDT) I was ready to go with Unity on my new computer. I downloaded it from the site, entered my license, and it said the activation limit was reached. My other license was in a Windows computer, also gone.

Given I had an urgent deliverable by friday afternoon, I sent an email to support@unity3d.com asking to enable my license for my new computer. I clearly specified the urgency of the situation. I got an automated response saying they will answer within 5 business days (prioritizing license issues). Of course, I couldn’t wait that long.

So I went online and added the skype profile to my account. Nobody was there.

So I called the Denmark office, since the San Francisco office didn’t open for another 4 hours. A girl picked up the phone and when I told her about my issue, she said those things need to be handled by email. I told her everything and she said there’s nothing she could do, that she can’t contact anyone since they have offices all over the world, like San Francisco and UK.

I ask her to give me the UK office number (that is not specified on the web), and she refused. She said she will give my contact information to someone to give me a call about this, but that there’s nothing else she could do.

I asked: “I have purchased a license and I can’t access the program, and I need to deliver something in 5 hours. What are my options?”. And she said: “I can’t offer you any option”.

I also sent an email to sales, marketing, info and pr (all @unity3d.com), telling them about my situation and how frustrating it was that I have paid for a product, and because of some silly anti-piracy policy, I can’t use it, and I might loose an important job, and asking them to give me an answer and to enable my license for activation.

Being almost 3PM EDT on Saturday (almost 30 hours later), I had no response AT ALL from anyone at Unity… my problem was not solved, my license was not enabled…

I had to find a way to solve my situation, which I did, and saved my job.

Of course, now my company is looking for alternatives to Unity because I can’t risk an account for a thing like this.

So be aware, if you work with clients and deliverables, make sure you have alternatives in case something like this happens. You might find yourself in a tight spot with no support from Unity Technologies… growing up and being a great company might be the best thing that happened to this guys, not to their customers. They use to answer so fast the emails… it was a matter of minutes.

It’s funny how, being a software development company, they don’t know that if your anti-piracy policy gives your paying users a hard time, then piracy is not your biggest issue… you should always focus on the paying customers…

I hope this prevents a situation like this from happening to someone.

Nicholas.

2

I don’t think your story has changed my opinion of wanting to develop in unity. In this industry, shit does very much happen, and even EPIC would take time to get back to you. If EPIC can take a week to respond, you should really accept that a quick turnaround 24 hour solution isn’t possible without having a paid contract for support.

I understand your fustration, but its like this everywhere - hands on 24 hour support has to be paid for separately no matter how big the company is…

However did you try making a fuss on the forums? Higgy would have definately been able to ring a few bells for you within 24 hours and at least get the matter seen to.

3

Hi,

Look, bad stuff happens to all of us. I’ve had pretty good luck with Unity’s SF office. Actually I don’t think there’s ever been a single issue they didn’t handle. So my question is, if you first realized the SF office was closed (you were 3 hours too early), why didn’t you just call back 3 hours later?

Fridays are hectic. I never send an email for something urgent on Friday and expect it to be taken care of, no matter who I send it to.

That said, posting something here would have probably resulted in a positive result as well. If nothing else, sending a private message to one of the forum admins would probably be a good idea as well.

-Chilton

4

“Being almost 3PM EDT on Saturday (almost 30 hours later), I had no response AT ALL from anyone at Unity… my problem was not solved, my license was not enabled…”

I’m very sorry, nVarcha, to hear about your experience, and glad you got it resolved! It sounds like you might have reached the answering service in Denmark, who apparently aren’t really well informed enough of what to do in this situation. We’ll look into this.

Our office is closed on weekends and holidays.

We do really try our best to assist customers within one business day. If you are ever really in a pinch with something license related, you can call our SF office at 415 820 4275 during Pacific Standard Time business hours and we can usually help immediately.

5

I hate the concept of activation limits. How many are there for Unity Pro and is there a way to reset it?
If there is not even a way to reset the limit and given the many times I switch computers, Unity would have just gotten a lot less attractive to me.

6

A couple of things regarding the comments:

  1. I’m not asking for 24/7 paid support… this was NOT a “how to use X feature” question… it wasn’t even a bug I reported. This was I’ve paid for a program and I’m being punished for doing that, whereas those who doesn’t pay for it, do not experience this problem. THAT is the main issue.

  2. Caitlyn, thanks for your response. So far, it’s the only official response I’ve gotten. I’m still very disappointed with this, since I’m still unable to use Unity 3.0 (I’m working with the 2.6 alternative). Luckily, we didn’t migrate to U3 yet.

  3. This wasn’t a situation where I forgot to do this activation and remember suddenly on a friday morning… I got robbed, the whole office got stolen, all the computers were gone. This was, clearly, an emergency. I can’t afford this happening again.

  4. Posting in the forum could have been a good idea… however, I didn’t sent the email and just stood still… I called directly to the company by phone… I can’t expect an email to have an immediate answer, I do expect it on the phone.

Officially, we’re discontinuing working with Unity in the future. All current projects will remain, but we can’t afford loosing an account for something as silly as an “activation” process.

And keep in mind, I love Unity production-wise and up to this event, Unity’s responses were great. The thing is, when I needed that answer the most, the company wasn’t there… It’s not worth the risk of something like this happening again.

And as you stated, shit happens… but when it happens, I expect a solution, and I’ve given them a couple of alternatives in an email which, as I said, is still unanswered.