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Open Letter to iNav Corp / Activation / Anti Piracy / Customer Service
Why iNav / iGuidance being given the "boot"?
Software is one of those things that once a critical mass of user gets use to it, are very difficult to change. That is why we still use QWERTY keyboards designed in the 1800s when far better keyboards have come and gone.
iGuidance is a good program. That is why I stayed with it from Verson 2 to Version 4. The major reason I did not upgrade to 2009 is because I update every 2nd year and alternate between Microsoft Streets and Trips – a program that is optimized for planning, rather than actual in car navigation. The decision for me to dump iGuidance was not a easy one, but one that I had to make after weeks of frustration in dealing with their support. Eventually, I got what I needed, but that was not without considerable effort. Reflecting on the whole experience, I have to say, there really isn’t much choice. Here are the reasons:
Customer Service and Support
Historically, iGuidance tended to need little care and feeding. Though it is well known that the company concentrates their efforts on their OEM business of writing custom interfaces for makers of handheld and special purpose GPS, their laptop products are generally, capable though not without serious issues that, for example, crashed systems.
As of this writing, iGuidance (who offers no phone support), promises users that they will get a email response within 2 days. The reality is, they are not meeting their claimed standards. Realistically, it takes many days to get a response from them, and when it comes, the response are often inadequate. iGuidance do not maintain or regularly participate in an open “users forum”, hence, email support is the only way.
Over this past Christmas, iGuidance support was effectively shut down between xxx to xxx, and if there was a problem, it was nearly a week after their “back to work” date before they responded.
For a relatively high priced piece of software selling several time above Microsoft’s price, this is unacceptable.
Product Activation
There is no question that iGuidance, as with all Mapping Software, needed to do something about rampant piracy of their software and the map data. Being in the software business myself, I am totally sympathetic to their needs to protect their IP. However, iNav’s product activation strategy and support has got to be some of the worse I have seen in consumer grade software.
Let’s begin with competitors like Microsoft. Streets and Trips sold “a-la-carte” can be had for as little as $40 a copy. The data in it is no less current than iGuidance and virtually indistinguishable to the casual user.
Microsoft allows a long period (60 days) before the program turns off if it is not properly activated.
No Activation Grace Period
Why is this important? Activation requires internet access or phone support. I can imagine many instances where it would be required “out in the field” where such access is simply not available. The 60 day period is very generous, but the concept, of giving users a decent interval to get to a place where they can activate their legally purchased copy is, remarkably well conceived as a policy.
Why is a grace period so important? The No. 1 reason why software has to be reinstalled from scratch (and hence requiring activation) is because of hardware failure. The reasons range from hard disk crashes, corrupted data from voltage / current surges, or just plain old fashion failure from using a PC that is not “ruggedized” in as hostile an environment as a moving vehicle, with vibration, sharp temperature changes, and many other things that can go wrong.
iNav, by not offering a grace period for activation, is telling their customer base that they are totally ignorant of the actual circumstances their product is used in, and also woefully unaware that their largest competitor by volume, offer a far more reasonable approach and understand their users better.
iGuidance Product Activation
While I cannot speak authoritatively of how iGuidance 2009 works – where users have to pay extra for a locked SD card in addition to the normal internet / phone activated licenses. Let’s look at the whole issue of activation from a users point of view.
I own many copies of Microsoft Windows of every version ever published except Vista Ultimate, and every copy of Microsoft Office from Office 97 onwards. As a power user who own many computers and support many more (friends, family, and associates), I have probably done more product activations than 99% of the non-professionals out there.
I have NEVER been denied activation for a Microsoft product regardless of how many times the software has been installed.
While I do not belong that tiny minority of tweakers and enthusiasts who are virtually reformatting and reinstalling their software every week, most of my Microsoft products routinely get “reactivated” at least once every year.
That is because I change hardware (not only add / subtract / alter components), but just get new PCs, at least once a year. When I do so, I reinstall the software, and with it, goes a new “activation”. Without a doubt Microsoft have full details on all my “activations”, and can see that I am averaging 2 or so a year, often with new equipment. Let’s compare Microsoft with iNav.
iNav Activation Pitfalls
First, iGuidance is completely locked and cannot be used without activation as we noted previously. There is no grace period. So that means, iGuidance’s systems have to be “up” full time 24/7/365 to support their users if there is any issue with the “manual transfer” method of license activation. The first use requires activation, so if you don’t get it working the first time, the issue of being able to transfer an already activated license is moot.
The reality is that iNav have a terrible track record (see above) of customer service. Look at what they do, and not what is promised on their website. A user that for whatever reasons, have trouble activating, can either get support from a dealer, or can wait weeks for iNav to get around to answering their questions by email.
As we noted earlier, look at all the possible instances when a license activation cannot be properly deactivated or transferred in the normal operation of a PC: Fatal hard drive error, virus / spyware corrupting files, Master File Table corrupted, boot sector corrupted, registry damaged, head crash, or, for that matter, such simple things as having a laptop stolen!
For every one of these issues, iGuidance is basically useless on a reinstall / new machine unless you have a second “activation” left. What’s wrong with that?
2 Activations Insufficient
iNav gives their iGuidance users 2 activations (plus the one SD card if that option is purchased). That may have been adequate in the days when most people only owned one laptop or PC. However, with the rise of netbooks, many users now routinely have 2 or more computers, using the larger desktop / laptop for travel planning and things like booking hotel / travel, and the netbook as their “in car” system. 2 licenses that may appear to be generous in the past, are decidedly marginal.
At $100+ for those 2 licenses, iGuidance is far from cheap compared to Microsoft Streets and Trips.
If iNav want to keep users to 2 activations, then clearly, they need to back this with high quality, timely, and prompt technical support. Yet, my experience with them is that when I told them I couldn’t activate, and was told there was 2 activations within a few months of 2007, was that it took considerable expressions of dissatisfaction before I got a second activation restored.
Now, given my normal modus operandi of owning multiple computers, reformatting them on average once a year to “clean up” and re-optimize my software, it would seem that having my software activated once or twice a year is perfectly legitimate. If I were truly trying to steal software, it would not be just a few, but massively more --- like 20 activation attempts a year.
I do acknowledge that since activation was new, and iNav is unique in having to require “deactivation” before a software install, I may have overlooked this in normal, routine maintenance of my machines. But, Microsoft have never made an issue of having their software properly “deactivated” before grating me a new install. iNav’s policies of enforcing activation and deactivation strictly basically does them no good as legitimate users are not going to be stealing their product en mass anyways, but sure do succeed in making it to be another troublesome little “gotcha” task that must be performed in machine maintenance.
What about the people who take their PCs to a repair shop or have someone else maintain their machine? Should the technician decide the machine is in need of a reformat (imagine the causes: infested with viruses, worms, spyware, data corruption), and went ahead and did it without properly deactivation iGuidance, if the 2 activation counter is up, the iGuidance customer is SOL without a big fight with iNav tech support.
The bottom line: iNav’s current activation policies are so out of touch with industry norms that they have elevated anti-piracy to be more important than their legitimate customers’ experience. Anti-piracy is now valued higher at iNav than the utility of their products to legitimate customers.
Having to haggle with technical support and wait weeks for a “courtesy waiver” from iNav subtracts value from their product and encourage their installed base to look elsewhere for the next upgrade. Whether this is by design or by sheer management ineptness, I don’t know, but does it matter? The outcome is iNav lost me as a customer.
Botched Introduction of Activation
iNav is notorious for poor documentation for their products. When iGuidance 4 was first introduced, their registration servers were down for months --- meaning that there was no way to register the product and with it, legitimately obtain support.
There was no special tutorial or card or warning sticker alerting customers of the new “activation” policy. So if for any of the above mentioned reasons, the customer used up their 2 lives, it is SOL.
Thanks a lot, iNav.
What iNav needs to do:
iNav really need to re-evaluate whether they should be in this business. Their half hearted, lackadaisical and indifferent attention to this market is causing them as much grief as to lead one to question why they should not just discontinue the product.
If iNav wants to stay in, at the very least, a detailed study of the anti piracy provisions of their major competitors: Microsoft, Tom Tom, etc. is in order.
The problem is, even if INav were to change policies for iGuidance 2010, they have lost too much ground with Version 4 and 2009. Short of a retroactive fix (a patch) to bring such features as 30 day grace period and reasonable activation limits, I am afraid many of their customers are probably lost for good.
I would welcome it if a iNav would officially respond to this post and tell us what they are prepared to address what I feel are legitimate user concerns. In the absence of a credible response or a major change of policies for iGuidance 2010, I am afraid, this is the last copy of a iNav product I will own.
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