Demo or 30-day M.B.G.?

#1

Hiya.

I’ve already emaile Hash directly with this question…and I havn’t heard back from them (that was a few days ago). I’m considering upgrading my AM to the lastest one (last one I upgraded to was AM2000), but I had a LOT of issues with it…mainly crashing and buggy behaviour. I started with AM v5, and kept hopeing for the stability to get better. sigh

Anyway, with all the talk about how stable it is nowadays, I’m once again considering upgrading. However, I refuse to get “burnt” again and so I’m trying to make sure that either (A) it is as stable as my other programs, or (B) that if it isn’t stable on my system I can send it back and get a refund.

Last I checked, there was no “demo” of AM…and I can’t find anywhere on the Hash site about returning a buggy product. Does anyone know if Hash has a money back guarantee or some kind of demo that the can give out if someone requests specificially?

Thanks for any info! :slight_smile:

#2

Hash has had an 30 day return policy since as far back as I can remember (and i’ll just keep that span of time to myself to protect my age :slight_smile: )

As one of the rare few that never really had much of a stability problem (with the exception of the four months of using early v9 alphas to write a book on A:M /me takes an asprin to stop the swelling pain from the memory) I can’t say how stability is compared to your past experience. But it is distinctly better than 2001 and 2002. And with the new bug reporting system in place you definitely feel less like you live in a bubble. :slight_smile:

Hope this helps,
-David Rogers

#3

Since you already bought A:M in the past, you would only be buying the latest upgrade, which costs $99. I don’t know for sure that they have a money back guarantee for upgrades. Best to check with them. You can call them for faster response. Their number is on their web site.

Jim

#4

Thanks guys. I guess I’ll have to give them a call then (they arn’t answering my email).

I’d really like to give AM another shot, but… after convertion to US, shipping and duty fees, the ‘upgrade’ costs works out to somewhere around $220 - $230 canadian. And if it’s just as buggy as before, well, that’s $200+ that I could have spent towards my other upgrade (re: Softimage XSI).

Later!

#5

Hm… I think, hash dont like to hear such questions as “is A:M still THAT buggy”?
Martin will answer to that in a short form and may be a little bit rude…

I can say, that A:M 10.5 is more stable than A:M 8.0(A:M 2000), properly even more stable than 8.5(A:M 2001) and that A:M 11 is quite stable too…
If you are using it in a wrong way, anyway, you will get the bill sooner or later.
There is no way other than: save often… maybe you wont have a crash at anytime, but you will be very thankful if you have one and you saved often…
Look at the stability tipps on the Arm… They will help you to become a happy A:M-User…
I did pretty much the same as they said in the tipps before the tipps came out, and I didnt have a crash in a weak…

Fuchur

#6

11 and 12 are solid for me. I say get it. Worse case they will give you the money back. But I think you’ll love the new features. Cloth looks great!:buttrock:

#7

Hiya.

Well, my questions to Hash were answered. Basically, they said “Its stable, trust us. But because you are upgrading from a prior version, we won’t give you your money back if we’re wrong, so give us your money and take your chances like always.” :eek:

So I’m passing on the upgrade to AM…for now. I always keep my eye on it, because it was the first software that really impressed me when I first started out in 3d oh those long years ago! :slight_smile: The other possability is to re-buy a FULL version and try it…if it works, return it for my money back, then buy an upgrade to my old version. :slight_smile: The last possability is to call hash directly and try and work something out (re: let me get my money back on the upgrade if it isn’t satisfactory)…but I don’t know about that. It places Hash in the position of power, where I, the customer, have to kow-tow to make them happy when it should be the other way around. …

#8

As a consumer you have the same rights and privilages as any other consumer. Exercise them. You have identified options - use them. If Hash are within their rights then there is no point bitching about them!

Cheers

#9

With that amount of smileys you call it bitching? LOL.

At any rate to the original poster: I would wait on upgrading to about mid-year. At that time you can check in with the users who risked their $$ and see how stable the current build is, if Hash is planning to continue to support this build or move on, leaving it in the lurch (ala v9), by developing an entirely new version and forsaking further “patches,” or what.

Basically, you’ll just get a better vector on the direction of the product for that year.

#10

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