Protecting the Affinity brand

[GrahamMYC]

The thread I started on the payment problems with Affinity 2 products has been closed, and that is the right decision,

I am  lucky in that I eventually found a payment method that worked. But that  does not help a lot of people.

Having followed this thread I have concluded that 

1: The banks have had to tighten up on security

2: Affinity/ Serif  have done all within their powers to resolve the difficulties.

3: There have been problems with Serif/Affinity contractors that they are still trying to resolve

4: Serif/Affinity have practical and legal difficulties in disclosing the problems they are experiencing with those contractors

5: Despite assurances from others, Serif/Affinity have not realised the reputational damage that they may/will suffer as a result of failing to look after a small, but significant, number of clients or potential clients who have experienced serious stress,

6: Too many people are passing the buck, but Affinity is not the bigest problem.

Sad though it may be, we all need to calm down and allow Serif/Affinity some room to address the individual problems and lean hard, very hard, on their contractors to sort out this mess. 

I have known this company for 20 years. They do care, they do look after their customers, and I am sure that, in the end, they will do so this time. Without being able to prove it, I believe they have been badly let down by others, and i hope and trust they will be able to negotiate their way out of this mess. The argiument that the number of failed transactions is normal will not wash. Serif will, I am sure, take this seriously and endeavour to make sure that everyone who wants their V2 range can have it at a very competitive price.

I congratulate the forum mediators who have been slammed by this problem over the weekend for dealing with the issues with a degree of patience. However, I think Serif/Affinity should think a little harder about what this problem looks like from a customer point of view, The situation  has not looked good, and I just hope it improves.

[Raw]

Protect the client.
Protect the professional.
protect the time.
Protect the confidence
and we protect the Affinity brand.

 

Silencing and not providing a solution is far from doing things well. Even when people are angry, they have been and are being very polite. It is not pleasant to have €119, €238, €357, €467 withheld and for the bank to say that it is Affinity that should respond and Affinity that it is the bank and close threads.

Buying here should not be a risky sport.

Cheers

[GrahamMYC]

There is not a lot to be gained by continuing to sling mud at Affinity. I guess (and hope) that behind the scenes they are leaning very hard on their contactors to sort this out,

 

[Raw]

Demanding our money back or receiving the license I don't think is "throwing mud" at Affinity. It is demanding our right as consumers. I also hope they are fighting hard behind the scenes to fix this. Perhaps (if they are fighting hard) it would be nice if they told us what they are doing instead of closing threads and throwing the ball into the bank.

Thanks for your thread and your comment GrahamMYC.

 

Excuse my English.

[Mark.Sanchez]

Their moderators have not been well trained to deal with a crisis like this. Those moderators should be fired! They have been rude in their responses instead of being sympathetic and trying to assure things are being taken cared of they were so quick to dismiss our issues and say that it’s not Serif’s fault! It frustrates me more!

[hassanshahid]

7 hours ago, GrahamMYC said:

There is not a lot to be gained by continuing to sling mud at Affinity. I guess (and hope) that behind the scenes they are leaning very hard on their contactors to sort this out,

 

At the end of the day Serif is a business not my childhood friend. I paid them and I didn't get my product. It's not my job to protect the Affinity brand. Never mind actually resolving an issue, I haven't even had an actual person acknowledge my ticket.

It's been almost a week. "We have small team", not my problem. Your team should scale up with your size. The mods claim it's a "small subset" of the user base so it shouldn't be taking weeks to even get a response. I'm not sitting around waiting for weeks to maybe have them finally respond and even then, they may or may not fix my problem and either refund the money or grant a license.

I'm getting a chargeback through the bank tomorrow. One week is long enough. 

[Patrick Connor]

To all in this thread,

I am sorry that you feel we are not dealing with this appropriately. I think that we should be able to respond to queries but failed transactions take a while to look into so anyone not getting an answer by now is bound to think we don't care. We really do. Sorry if you think we don't or in dealing with so many queries it has come across like we don't.

A failed transaction is bad for you (because you do not want to try again in case it happens again) and bad for us (we're not getting the money). Worse still is when the payment method looks to the customer like it has been taken (or in a very few rare cases actually has) but we have no transaction at our end. That will always look terrible until it is resolved. We have only closed a few threads here, mainly because they are overwhelmed with people who also have their own independent support tickets (emails to AffinityOrders@serif.com) and obviously financial issues like bank transaction numbers cannot take place in public. I also close threads when too many people come to the defense of Serif and start laying into those voicing valid opinions. It is sometimes the only way to stop you being attacked when you are simply explaining your experiences.

So

1. There is a substantial delay in responding to your query, which is not good enough we accept, we do appreciate your patience.
2. BUT nobody is being ignored, we are just picking up oldest tickets first
3. To identify problems like this takes time as each case is unique. 
4. Most payment failures are picked up automatically and reappear in your account without us doing anything. If that is true for you PLEASE email us to let un know we do not need to investigate further, it would really help

This article has been written explaining what happens most of the time, but you will hear from us at some point soon to address your specific cases.

[csadam]

31 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

I also close threads when too many people come to the defense of Serif and start laying into those voicing valid opinions. It is sometimes the only way to stop you being attacked when you are simply explaining your experiences.

Thank you for recognizing this problem and stepping up in protection of disappointed users.

[Mark.Sanchez]

I got a response of customer service. There was a cvv error with my transaction but charge still went through. Something’s NOT RIGHT! It’s either Serif’s system has been HACKED, or this this a SCAM! I think it doesn’t take a genius to figure this out!

I have a funny feeling we are NEVER GETTING OUR MONEY BACK.

[EnDeeKay]

Hello Affinity, hello world.

Thankful to banks that they responded and I got my money back last day. And thankful to Affinity that they responded ASAP. But I think Affinity should be more precise and not blaming bank systems or web browser updates.

I know "Serif" for years and I understand they cannot be fraud. But, in this all situations, they should rather postpone their product selling or redirecting selling to third party like Microsoft or Mac (I last purchased V1 from Microsoft).

One more important thing,...

After the failure of transaction and deduction of money from my account, I received a NOTIFICATION from Affinity on the page that led me to "Your Order Summary" page, which did not require any card detail input (and I assumed the continuation of product purchase in case of failure) and I pressed "Continue" button which ONE MORE TIME resulting in deduction of money from account. Such things seems IT's matter which should be filtered.

I am keen and desperate to know, should I proceed, now, buying the V2s of Affinity? And where should I prefer to buy from, whether directly from Affinity or from third party? I still haven't got back taxes deducted on purchase.

Also, I want to know if Affinity furthers the last date of discount as I want to try the V2s first.

Regards

 

 

 

 

[Patrick Connor]

1 hour ago, EnDeeKay said:

I am keen and desperate to know, should I proceed, now, buying the V2s of Affinity?

If you have had problems then my suggestion is to delete any saved credit cards on your Affinity account. That may help (if you have one saved).

Other than that here's a link to an article on our forum covering failed payments.   Can I also suggest making sure you have cookies enabled for our site and that your browser is up to date, or trying again with a different browser.  

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/153756-payment-failed-to-process-and-its-taken-my-money-what-can-i-do/

If you still need help with this issue please email affinityorders@serif.com

[EnDeeKay]

13 hours ago, Patrick Connor said:

If you have had problems then my suggestion is to delete any saved credit cards on your Affinity account. That may help (if you have one saved).

Other than that here's a link to an article on our forum covering failed payments.   Can I also suggest making sure you have cookies enabled for our site and that your browser is up to date, or trying again with a different browser.  

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/153756-payment-failed-to-process-and-its-taken-my-money-what-can-i-do/

If you still need help with this issue please email affinityorders@serif.com

I don't know how to delete credit card's credentials, but, even I used debit card. Tell me wether I have to delete debit card's credentials also, and how?

My web browser is up to date and I also have enabled cookies.

I have already followed the link and also have emailed a copy of this comment to your given email address.