Filed under: Odds and ends, Deals
MacHeist II and Speed Download 5 resolution
We've commented on the MacHeist / Speed Download 5 saga before, and the entire episode clearly led to some heated passions. As a recap: Speed Download 4 was included in the MacHeist II bundle, and shortly thereafter Speed Download 5 was released. However, Yazsoft required MacHeist customers to pay an upgrade fee even though MacHeist II ran during a period where purchases of SD4 direct from Yazsoft were eligible for a free upgrade.
Anyway, after much controversy back and forth it appears that the matter is headed towards an equitable resolution. MacHeist's John Casasanta has posted in the Macheist forums that Yazsoft is now willing to offer free SD5 upgrades to MacHeist II customers until March 27. You need only enter your MacHeist details at this webpage. Alternately, for $15 you can get two SD5 licenses plus a free upgrade to SD6. Finally, if you're already paid the $15 you can request a refund, or just keep your two SD5 licenses plus free upgrade to SD6. See Yazsoft for full details.
In any case, it's good to see this matter resolved. Just remember that if you're a MacHeist II customer you have to act by March 27 to claim the free upgrade.
Thanks Phill!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Just_a_guy said 2:11PM on 3-15-2008
um how is this program in comparison to Igetter?
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ManuelJ said 2:25PM on 3-15-2008
SD5 is a s**t!. I bought SD4 (not via MHeist, i bought it before) and I was very pleased with it. When SD5 comes out, i ran to buy the upgrade. When I have it running, I'd noticed what a s**t it is. It seems (at least to me) they published the upgrade too quickly (to force Macheist users to pay a little more than they did), with a lot of "new features" which aren't so new, and the real new features are so bad, like the redesigned floater, and many new bugs. I personally feel that the upgrade is a scam.
Thanks for reading my opinion.
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Tom said 12:40AM on 3-16-2008
Can you tell me why someone would use Speed Download at all? What's the point? My downloads go at max speed already, is it like getright or something?
Brian Sexton said 3:07PM on 3-15-2008
This was a non-issue from the beginning.
1. The MacHeist purchase details—at least the ones for the first bundle, but presumably also the ones for the second bundle (I bought the first bundle, but not the second)—fully disclosed that the heavily discounted licenses may not be eligible for the same upgrade prices (whether $5, free, or whatever) as full-price versions.
2. Regarding the absurdly inaccurate and sensationalist statment "However, Yazsoft required MacHeist customers to pay an upgrade fee . . .", nobody forced anybody to pay an upgrade fee. Upgrades are not mandatory and the release of a new version does not prevent the previous version from being used.
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mentalsticks said 3:46PM on 3-15-2008
+1
Brad said 5:15PM on 3-15-2008
You're mininformed about the bundle for MH2. All the licenses were supposed to be full licenses and treated as such by the developers. There are cases where the developers said that they would release a new version and there might be an upgrade fee. This was never brought up by Yazsoft and if they had done like they were supposed to and treat the license as a full one the MH2 ones would've fallen under the grace period. Instead, they decided to go against the agreement.
Todd Sieling said 5:43PM on 3-15-2008
For such a non-issue, YazSoft handled it about as badly as they could have. I think they screwed up and are trying to make good, but I'd be hard pressed to actually buy something from people who take down their feedback forum at the first sign of dissent rather than face their customers on a level playing field, instead of trying to bark at them from their blog. The issue wasn't really the value or cost of the software and the upgrade, it was the timing and the way it was handled, IMO.
krye said 3:29PM on 3-15-2008
Thanks MacHeist, you're the best!
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cowboy_k said 3:33PM on 3-15-2008
I'm not sure who was at fault in this whole kerfuffle, MacHeist or YazSoft, but I'm glad to see that they've been able to work things out so that their mutual customers benefit in the end. Too often, when companies are at odds, the customers get caught in the crossfire, and it was beginning to look like that was going to be the case here. Kudos to MacHeist and Yazsoft for working together on this.
So, now that this is wrapped up, what software soap-opera shenanigans should we obsessively follow, flame, and freak out about? :-)
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Christina Warren said 3:36PM on 3-15-2008
Brian,
I totally agree that the issue was overblown, but the situation wasn't that cut and dry. MacHeist went out of their way to make it clear that all licenses would be the same as if purchased directly from the software publisher/developer -- none of the "promo only" stuff -- which is what was responsible for much of the confusion when it came time to upgrade to SD 5. Without regurgitating the semantical brouhaha, the fact that upgrades to SD 5 were free to purchasers of SD 4 after a certain date (and the MacHeist bundle fell within that "free" upgrade window) made the whole thing messy.
As someone who bought the MacHeist II bundle, I'll say that the fact that the upgrade was paid never, ever bothered me -- I understand and respect that. However, what annoyed me - was that at least in the first couple of days after SD 5 was released, the upgrade was automatic and not marked as paid -- so my software was upgraded and then I found out I couldn't use it. Downgrading was messy and the whole thing just left a bad taste in my mouth.
I'm glad the whole thing was resolved - and I do agree that some people were way overboard in the complaints.
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DaveF said 3:46PM on 3-15-2008
Thanks! I don't frequent the MH forums and wouldn't have learned about this except for your posting. So I've got it SD 5 and it's working.
On a side note: how do I "register" with TUAW, so don't have to respond to a verification email for every comment?
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artifex said 4:29PM on 3-15-2008
Your verification email should have your password in it. Use that next time.
Also, if you use Twitter, Phill sent the notice out on the 13th:
http://twitter.com/MacHeist
Christina Warren said 4:30PM on 3-15-2008
Dave F - just enter in a password and then use that password every time you post a comment.
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David Fischer said 11:37PM on 3-15-2008
Artifex: Thanks, I see that the bottom of the reg email has a random password. Never read far enough to see that.
Christina: I'll try the password again -- previously that didn't seem to work. (fingers crossed).
Dripps said 5:01PM on 3-15-2008
Just lucky you posted this as I would have also missed out. I was surprised I couldn't upgrade my Mac Heist license. I had already purchased SD4 so I wasn't using the license I got with Mac Heist. I thought.....now with this update I can use the newly purchased license to upgrade. No such luck...until this solution was worked out. But how are the Heisters going to learn of this? Shouldn't Mac Heist send out an email? Thank you TUAW.
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Michael Grothaus said 5:37PM on 3-15-2008
this is why i pirate their software
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Ed said 4:43AM on 3-16-2008
+1. I do the same with Watanabe. Screw 'em. As that's their attitude, it's mine too.
geochick said 6:26PM on 3-15-2008
I'm glad they resolved the issue and decided in the end to offer up the license for "free". After the forced update that rendered my copy of SD version 4 license useless I had stopped using SD b/c I wasn't about to pay another red cent for version 5 after I had just installed version 4. Yazsoft should not have pushed out version 5 as an update that you then found out you had to pay for after the update.
Well I just got my license for V 5 and its working again... Phew!
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applestar said 9:00PM on 3-15-2008
Hmmm.
My name and serial do not work on their MH upgrade site. Strange.
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David Fischer said 11:39PM on 3-15-2008
(just a test 2)
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