I just got a new (way faster) computer and need to have the subscription transfered to it. How do I do that?

support@hash.com will probably know how to do that.

Thank you Holmes

I called Hash support yesterday and was hoping to get someone on the phone like I use to. Instead it directed me to the email address and told me for a quicker response, go to this forum. I hate doing business like this. It's so much easier to talk to someone than it is playing email tag.

I REALLY want to transfer my subscription to my new (way faster) computer. I'm sure somebody has done this already. If so would you please tell me what you did?

This is one of the things I don't like about a subscription based plan. With the CD, you can just re-install. Is there a way that I can de-activate my old PC and start it on the new one?

Thanks,
George

what a turnoff....

Did you send them an email?

Yes. I was hoping for a response so I could have it up and running for the weekend. I got the automated response but nothing after that. Is the only way to reset the subscription done through Hash? If it is, I'm not very happy with the lack of support here.

George

i got your email and i sent you the steps, I will check the email again later tonight to see if that works so i can get you your new license file.

Thank you Jason for responding. I did not receive your email. Could you please resend the information to my yahoo email?

Send it to:

cenandor@yahoo.com

Please send ASAP!

Thanks,
George

Well I was hoping to hear back from Hash Inc. about activating my A:M subscription over the weekend but no such luck. It's only 7:30 on the west coast now so I wouldn't expect any response till at least 9 or 10 o'clock PST which is 12:00 or 1:00 my time.

I'd like to make a request to Hash Inc. that would ease my mind with this subscription thing that you guys have forced us to do or pay double of what we use to pay for the Animation Master CD.

If Hash Inc. can't afford to have a person to talk to over the phone for customer support (as you use to) and are going to continue to have an automated recording system that essentially only tells you to email support (which basically makes calling Hash useless), then why not automate the subscription transfer process?

I'm sure it's not very often that people need to switch over their subscription to other computers but I'm telling you, it's a big disappointment when you DO change your computer and you want to transfer your subscription and there's no way to do it until someone responds to you through email.

If you could automate the transfer subscription thing over the phone, then a person would have more control over their subscription and (for me personally) have a better feeling about the whole subscription thing. I can't believe I'm the only one who hates dealing with a company through an "email only" system and have no choice but to wait for an email response (which I never got).

The way it would work, is a person punches in his account info on the phone to verify who they are (much like when you check your banking info over the phone), then punches in his old activated account number, gets the new number which also deactivates the old one. Not sure what the cost would be to do that but man, that would be great.

Another option would be to have a button you could click on, on the support site that allows you to transfer your subscription by having you verify your information, instructs you to punch in the old code and it automatically issues you a new activation code.

The latter sounds like it'd be the cheapest and easiest way to go.

Either way, if the subscription program and email only support are here to stay, Hash Inc needs to think about automating the subscription transfer process also.

What do you guys think of this idea?

George

I'm not sure what it'd take to program such a thing.

The only automated way of activating A:M is subscribing to A:M.
Transfers of licenses from one computer to another is going to take more time as a person has to be involved in the transferring.

For my part I have two websubscriptions spread out over the course of a year.
As one is approaching renewal the other still has the better part of a year to go.
In this way, if I were to purchase a new computer the new subscription can go onto the new machine.

I know this doesn't help your situation. I'm just talking through some options here.
If you haven't emailed Jason personally you should at (jason @ hash . com) <<no spaces
The holidays are probably a busy time for him.

I still like the idea of the Hardware Dongle (just like the Netrender dongle). I'd pay $50-$100 (a one off) to buy the dongle then have the dongle itself activated so I could then run AM on ANY machine I attach the dongle to. (ie a bit like the CD except you don't have to get a new one each year and the activation on the dongle would expire after a year).

This is the biggest issue with the subscription model - that fact that you can not move freely from one machine to the next without having to buy a subscription for each PC. Most of us don't use AM often enough to warrant such expenditure......

Cheers

I hear you.
I could argue the need to transfer to other computers is indicative of a degree of usage that can warrant such an expenditure.
$79 for a program like A:M on a single computer is fair pricing. (Jason will help transfer that license too... just be patient with him)

The current price of the CD ($299) is indicative of a more realistic value of A:M than that of the old subscription model ($99).
For many years that price was underwritten by volume sales and the willingness of Martin Hash to cover extraneous expenses (especially development/programming).

Those of us that don't use A:M often enough to warrant full price (I am not currently purchasing the CD either) aren't left out of the game, we can still purchase the full version of A:M for just $79 each year! For $20 off the old subscription price that's a really sweet deal.

I think I remember having that conversation with hash about a year ago. If I remember correctly, each dongle cost about $200 and they had to buy 2000-3000 at a time. So it is definitely not a substitute for the web subscription.
$200 dongle + $79 for AM ... you might as well just buy a CD.

I don't know how (or if) they used to allow users to update dongles back when they offered them.

Here in a year or two we should be able to get A:M on a solid state harddrive with all the bells and whistles.
Just think of all the video tutorials we'll be able to get on one of those things!

Think we have problems now?!!
When we upgrade each year to the hardware version of A:M we'll have to decide whether to mothball the old drive, use it for storing project files or a host of other things.

Me either but the current method is not good.



This is why I think automating a transfer on the website is more logical than the phone and is probably doable.



I don't see why a person has to be involved. If you have a good program that calculates and can issue a new license which then automatically de-activates the old account, no person should be needed to do it.



Thank you Rodney. This is a very smart idea however I'm not using the other computer. I only have one computer. Thank you for giving me Jason's email I will email him directly. I just hope they come up with a better way to address this problem.

George

I suspect there are many problems to be found in such an automated program.
For instance (and in theory) a group of people could share one automated license and then continuously transfer the program.
Of course a well designed subscription manager could flag or intercept such instances of abuse but then you'd have the problem of legitimate users whose profiles get flagged too. I'm not sure who would finance and program such an optimized, user-friendly, never failing subscription manager code though. (Hint: We won't!)

The easiest way to work through your license transfers is to work with Jason directly.
Someday he may earn enough to hire a reliable secretary but for now thats the way to go.

For what its worth I know Martin and crew are always on the lookout for what will work best for me and you.

I don't see why it'd be that difficult but having very little programing knowledge, maybe it is too difficult. I only offer the suggestion in case when this brilliant idea of subscriptions came up it wasn't thought about and maybe could be done (Hey I can wish anyway hehe).

$200-$300 for a dongle - a one off cost - I'd still pay that. (I think I paid $400-$450 for my first netrender lic and dongle back in 2001).

The Hash USB dongles are/were updateable, each year we paid our Netrender upgrade and the 'firmware' on the dongle was updated with a new set of codes. As a 1 off expense it makes it cheaper than the CD and unlike the CD can be configured to work just like the web activation for annual subscriptions.

Cheers

WOO HOO!!!

Just checked my email and Jason got back to me and.... I'M BACK UP AND RUNNING AGAIN!!!!!

Thank you VERY much Jason!!!!

I've been wanting to see the speed differences on this computer compared to my old dinosaur one.

AGAIN, thank you Jason and HASH for making an incredible program that I love and hate (nothing to do with the program on the hate side, it is strictly on my lack of getting it to do what I want it to do due to lack of skill hehe).

George