Dongle email

[Da_elf]

i guess i didnt get the email cuz i already had mine hehe. when i bought vray there were no resellers. it was just...ummm i think i did it via paypal or something directly to chaos. trinity i think was one of the 1st resellers i think.

[BELCORP_SAC]

Im still waiting the dongle too

[res3d]

dongle from ideate

I just want to say that I was aware of the reason for the charge from Ideate for the dongles and I was willing to pay for the service that Chaos was not able to address.

also this forum is not the place to post personal gripes, take care of it yourself and don't drag the rest of us into it.

[DaForce]

Well I think this is exactly the place to be posting about such things. I would think all the vray users would want to know which companies to avoid because they are just trying to screw people over to make an easy profit on an item that is meant to be free.

[Normand]

My Dongle

I am a customer of Ideate Inc. and received my dongle for the $40 charge. Rahul Verma of Ideate Inc. explained me the reason for this charge before selling the dongle to me and I was fine with it. Rahul is a very helpful guy and knowing Ideate Inc., I’m pretty sure they had a valid reason to charge for these dongles. I will let Rahul know about this thread so he can share his views on the issue.

[percydaman]

It DOES take some time on the resellers part to make sure the dongles get out to their customers. I guess some resellers feel they should be compensated for that time, while others don't. Call it an administrative fee I guess. I'm not saying I agree with the practice, but its certainly showing which resellers are those that will get more future business.

[claude_tnt]

Normand: before selling the dongle

hrmm.... isn't this supposed to be free..... i can understand the shipping charges..... but not the actual charges for the dongle...

claude_

[Verma]

Why Charge for Dongles...

This is Rahul Verma with Ideate, Inc., the reseller being mentioned in this posting. Since some of you are looking negatively upon us charging for the dongles I would like to share the reason why we charged for them.

We received 200 dongles after Siggraph last year from Chaos Group. The dongles were for our existing customers and for new orders of V-Ray.
There were no instructions with the dongles on serial number and authorization process.

After lots of email exchange with Chaos Group, we came to know that there were 2 kinds of dongles, ones with serial number written on them and ones without. The ones we received were the 2nd kind.

Chaos Group provided us a utility to find out the serial numbers of the dongles. Now we were supposed to manually:

- Attach each dongle to a computer
- Run the utility
- Note down the serial number
- Write it on a sticker and put the sticker on the dongle
- Record the serial number in our database
- Attach the serial number to each customer account for future reference

Me and my manager both felt that this is not fair to us, as we are the middle company here and should not be responsible for this work.
Chaos Group said that they understand if we put a price on it to cover our transaction cost and the time spent on the work. We figured $40 is a nominal charge for that.

After all these decisions when we thought we were ready to provide dongles, Chaos Group asked us to hold on as they were trying to work on some issues with the dongles. That’s why we never informed any of our customers that we have the dongles with us. But lots of people were anxious to get their dongles as they all filled out the dongle request form but never received any dongles. I started getting calls and explained the situation to my clients, some understood my situation and happily paid for the dongle and looks like some did not understand.

Now as far as the quote from some users here that we are trying to make a quick buck, again, we feel $40 is a fair charge for retrieving and documenting the serial numbers, and managing the dongles. I met with Chaos Group at Siggraph this year and asked them to help, they offered coming to my office and collecting the dongles and provide them directly to my customers for no charge. I appreciated that and handed all the dongles to them.

If someone paid for the dongle and is not happy being charged for it, I would appreciate you talking with me directly. Anyone that has worked with me over the years knows that I'm one of the most honest people you'll work with. Believe me, the $40 was not intended for profit, but to cover our costs. I would be more than happy to assist in any possible way, but posting negative comments in the forum is not very professional without knowing the whole story.

Thank you.

Rahul Verma
Account Manager - Multimedia
Ideate Inc.

[percydaman]

Re: Why Charge for Dongles...

This is Rahul Verma with Ideate, Inc., the reseller being mentioned in this posting. Since some of you are looking negatively upon us charging for the dongles I would like to share the reason why we charged for them.

We received 200 dongles after Siggraph last year from Chaos Group. The dongles were for our existing customers and for new orders of V-Ray.
There were no instructions with the dongles on serial number and authorization process.

After lots of email exchange with Chaos Group, we came to know that there were 2 kinds of dongles, ones with serial number written on them and ones without. The ones we received were the 2nd kind.

Chaos Group provided us a utility to find out the serial numbers of the dongles. Now we were supposed to manually:

- Attach each dongle to a computer
- Run the utility
- Note down the serial number
- Write it on a sticker and put the sticker on the dongle
- Record the serial number in our database
- Attach the serial number to each customer account for future reference

Me and my manager both felt that this is not fair to us, as we are the middle company here and should not be responsible for this work.
Chaos Group said that they understand if we put a price on it to cover our transaction cost and the time spent on the work. We figured $40 is a nominal charge for that.

After all these decisions when we thought we were ready to provide dongles, Chaos Group asked us to hold on as they were trying to work on some issues with the dongles. That’s why we never informed any of our customers that we have the dongles with us. But lots of people were anxious to get their dongles as they all filled out the dongle request form but never received any dongles. I started getting calls and explained the situation to my clients, some understood my situation and happily paid for the dongle and looks like some did not understand.

Now as far as the quote from some users here that we are trying to make a quick buck, again, we feel $40 is a fair charge for retrieving and documenting the serial numbers, and managing the dongles. I met with Chaos Group at Siggraph this year and asked them to help, they offered coming to my office and collecting the dongles and provide them directly to my customers for no charge. I appreciated that and handed all the dongles to them.

If someone paid for the dongle and is not happy being charged for it, I would appreciate you talking with me directly. Anyone that has worked with me over the years knows that I'm one of the most honest people you'll work with. Believe me, the $40 was not intended for profit, but to cover our costs. I would be more than happy to assist in any possible way, but posting negative comments in the forum is not very professional without knowing the whole story.

Thank you.

Rahul Verma
Account Manager - Multimedia
Ideate Inc.

Pretty much as I suspected. And like I said, those resellers that perform those functions without passing the cost on to the customer, all in the idea of customer service, will be remembered.

[RErender]

I will be happy to discover serial numbers, I figure I can do at least 10 an hour, I will only charge $20 each.

[percydaman]

I will be happy to discover serial numbers, I figure I can do at least 10 an hour, I will only charge $20 each.

ahhh...capitalism at its finest! Ill do it for $15

[RErender]

I will be happy to discover serial numbers, I figure I can do at least 10 an hour, I will only charge $20 each.

ahhh...capitalism at its finest! Ill do it for $15

hmm, I'll include shipping with mine for the $20, should still clear about $3000

[rpc212]

I just want to say that I was aware of the reason for the charge from Ideate for the dongles and I was willing to pay for the service that Chaos was not able to address.

also this forum is not the place to post personal gripes, take care of it yourself and don't drag the rest of us into it.

Well, that is your opinion and mine is I don't want to pay for an item that was supposed to be free. Other users around the world are getting their dongles for free. Why should Ideate customers have to pay? I still think $40 US + shipping is way too expensive for what Ideate has to do on their end.

Secondly, I'm not dragging anyone into anything. I'm simply posting what has happened to me with regards to my reseller of Vray and the dongle situation. If it is embarrassing to the reseller, or to you, I can't help that.

Additionally, I think it is important for others to know about the situation as where else is one to get advice about Vray issues, whatever they may be, than on the Vray forum?

[rpc212]

I would be more than happy to assist in any possible way, but posting negative comments in the forum is not very professional without knowing the whole story.

Hmmm. Well, I asked Ideate about the charges, was informed about the reason for the charges by Ideate, saw the posting others made in this forum, got advice from Vray user posts on this forum, and gave my opinion, which is shared by others here.

I can say the same thing about Ideate not being very professional charging for something that was supposed to be free. I think $40 US is an exorbitant amount for the explanation of the work involved. Complete 3 Vray dongles an hour and Ideate has $120 US coming in. There probably aren't many here that make that amount from using Vray to create intellectual property, a far harder task than:

- Attach each dongle to a computer
- Run the utility
- Note down the serial number
- Write it on a sticker and put the sticker on the dongle
- Record the serial number in our database
- Attach the serial number to each customer account for future reference

I'll do the dongles for $15 US and include shipping!

I think it has best been said by Percy:

And like I said, those resellers that perform those functions without passing the cost on to the customer, all in the idea of customer service, will be remembered.

[DaForce]

Yeah I would say at worst.. 5-10 minutes per dongle. Thats if your slow.
Say So anywhere from 6-12 dongles per hour... $240-480 an hour.
Not bad for an item thats meant to be free

If you feel the need to be reimbursed for every second of your time for a product you have already sold and are offering support for... well... customer service?