Ordering ProPack

[pd91223]

Why is this process so difficult and fraught with problems?!

 

Yesterday evening I decided I was ready to upgrade to ProPack. The first two times I tried to place the order (from the upgrade button inside RailMaster) I received a message saying there had been error. I found a thread here explaining that the RailMaster folder had to be read-only and that my VirusScan/Firewall (McAfee) software could be at fault.

 

So, 3 further iterations later I received a message saying my order had been accepted. Yippee!! Now just to wait for the activation key ...

 

This morning still no key, so I checked my credit card pending transactions but no record of an order placed! Going back to last night I've sent 4 emails to support@rail-master.com with no response or acknowledgement. Loathe to try placing my order again just in case the 5th iteration above did actually work and it just hasn't hit my credit card history yet.

 

I've place loads of orders for software and software upgrades over the years, but never had so much trouble. Blaming it on McAfee and forcing one to change settings seems ridiculous - surely the upgrade process should be "standard" and thoroughly tested with VirusScan/Firewall products if it needs to communicate with users' machines. Why does the ProPack upgrade process have to be different from any other software? Why does it take so long to get any answer? Do Hornby want business or not? How much longer do I have to wait to do a "simple" upgrade?

[WilliamDavid]

Communicating with these guys is not my favourite pastime. 

I'm having problems with reactivating Propak after a problem, and dealing with them is not easy.

So many automated responses that are nonsense.

Like Hornby in general, they are a bit awkward to deal with.

[pd91223]

What hope is there for Hornby if they (or their "agents") deal with their customers in this way?!

[96RAF]

I had occassion fairly recently to request a reset of my RM activation as a result of a PC failure before I could deactivate it.

The procedure was flawless:

 I input the basic code and it faulted as prior activated, but told me how to contact HRMS, which I did, explaining the scenario. HRMS came back confirming I was who I said I was and that the deactivation had been reset their end.

I went back into the authorisation screen where all my details had been retained, pressed submit again and it went through no problem.

I went back to input the Pro code and submitted that.

Front to back time less than a couple of hours.

Rob

[pd91223]

Still no response to any of my 4 emails to support@rail-master.com - 39 hours & counting. My credit card is not showing any transaction despite what the ProPack order process told me. Beginning to think I'll have to try the order process again - how many attempts will I need this to time to fail ... or to "succeed" but actually fail again.

 

Dreadful support, dreadful process.

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

pd91223

We are not sure if you are the same person who submitted a Pro-Pack order in the last couple of days and sent several emails to us as there is nothing in your posts to give a clue other than what you have descibed and nobody else had had this issue.

If so, our emails to you have been bounced back.  Your Pro-Pack order was processed and a receipt and code sent to you in two separate emails (both bounced back) so we asked Customer Care to email you the details in the hope that you would receive them.

In most cases orders, key reset requests etc. are dealt within within a couple of hours.  Sometimes, it can take longer if emails are bounced back or antivirus/firewall programs are blocking RailMaster.

Because RailMaster can access devices on your computer, as well as the Internet, it cannot be likened to other programs in terms of apparent ease of upgrades etc. due to security.  It is important that the program is not being interfered with by third party applications and McAfee, in partcular, is known to be very aggressive, not just in regard to RailMaster, but with many other programs out there.

Hopefully, you will have received your Pro-Pack code via Customer Care, if you are the same person who was having difficulty.

[pd91223]

Yes, one and the same. I'm pleased to say that after the email from Hornby Customer Care and changes to McAfee, the ProPack upgrade is now working.

 

But, what a palaver. Can I suggest that there should be a link to the Internet Security guide file as part of the order process. If I'd seen this in advance then I might've been able to save a lot of time and trouble - mine & yours & Hornby Customer Care.

 

Thank you, and I look forward to delving in to all of the new functionality available to me.

Paul

[pd91223]

The Internet Security guide referred to above is "security_en.pdf" which can be found in your RailMaster folder. I couldn't find any mention of this in any of the locked topics at the head of this Forum, so would it be possible/sensible to have a locked topic that references this. It could save others a lot of hassle & time.

Paul

[96RAF]

pd91223

As you say the RM folder has a help file and during setup ot asks if you want to park this on your desktop along with the other help files.

 

If you also look at the sticky posts at top of this forum page the first one is a link to an external help site by Augustus Caeser which in addition to masses of help in getting RM going has a specific area covering all aspects of anti-virus and firewall problems and their resolution.

 

This subject has been done to death and beyond on this forum, so to say this help was not in your face is akin to not seeing the wood for the trees.

 

Rob

[Chrissaf]

As Rob says, security issues have been flogged to death on this forum. The reference to the Security PDF has been made more than a few times in posted replies.

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Not only that, it is also referenced in the Security / Anti-virus chapter in the RailMaster user guide on page 12 (extract below).

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.

[Fishmanoz]

Pd, am I reading it correctly that something in your security settings was causing emails from HRMS to bounce?  If so, what changes did you need to make?

[pd91223]

I am yet to receive any emails from HRMS. The only email I received was from Mark Lodge, Customer Technical Team Leader at Hornby themselves: "Our dedicated IT Support Team for Railmaster have been trying to contact you regarding your Pro-Pack upgrade, but unfortunately without success. So They have asked me if I could pass on the following ...".

 

I assume they were trying to respond to the emails I sent them, in which case the fact that their emails were bouncing back to them can have nothing to do with the security settings that caused me so many problems when ordering. I assume Mark Lodge had no such problems contacting me. Perhaps HRMS have security setting issues on their email system (tongue in cheek!).

[WilliamDavid]

I've just ordered another Propack for another tablet.

It took a few hours with no problems.

[Fishmanoz]

Paul, I’m still confused as to what your problem was, and the fix.

 

May I assume for a start that you have a licensed version of RM installed and that you update it regularly to the latest version, or at least when it asks you to do so on startup.  The fact that you’ve been able to successfully install the license key tells us that your AV program was not blocking RM at that time.

 

Then HRMS tells us in their post back on page 1 that your order went through to them without issue And that they sent you a confirmation and ProPack key but the emails bounced.  Putting the bounces aside, it again appears that RM communicated correctly to HRMS with only one possible mystery left - you said your bank account wasn’t debited?  Must be by now though given you have ProPack and it’s working.

 

So I’m left with 2 problems unexplained:

 

-  Bounced emails - either your ISP rejected the emails, or your own mail program did or you might have mis-typed your email address on the order.  If the last, I’m unsure how Mark contacted you.  I can’t see your A.V. settings playing a part though.  What do you think might have happened?

 

-  What did Mark get you to change, I’m sure we are all interested to know?

[pd91223]

Fishy ... first of all some of the problem may've been mine originally because I didn't notice the Internet Guide before I started the upgrade process to ProPack. If I had, it might've saved me a lot of trouble! I do read the pinned topics, but the firewall issue hadn't registered because I'd never had problems with other software purchases. 

 

I have no idea why HRMS were unable to respond to my 4 emails - none of my other contacts have reported rebounds or any inability to reply to my emails. The email address I typed in to the upgrade form was correct as is proven by the fact that Mark was able to email me on behalf of HRMS. Eventually - 3 days later - my credit card transactions showed that the upgrade had gone through, but transactions normally show as pending within 24 hours.

 

I'm surprised that the process does not issue an immediate acknowledgement of the success of such a transaction - other software purchases/upgrades always do within minutes of the transaction. I still have nothing from HRMS to confirm the transaction. My only proof is that my credit card shows the purchase happened on 6th July with "RAILMASTER SALES 01908 584858" - it was posted to my account on 9th July. Surely a receipt of purchase is not unreasonable to expect!

 

The only "fix" I did to overcome all of the initial errors I had when trying to place my order was to change my McAfee firewall settings. As I said previously, I've never had to do this for any other software purchases/upgrades.

Paul

[Fishmanoz]

I would think the lack of acknowledgement of purchase will be the same bounce problem as other emails from HRMS. 

 

As as for your settings being a problem, this would appear to be not the case given your order got out without being blocked. 

 

Can you confirm you were originally able to register your licence key without being blocked?  If so, this again says the program wasn’t being blocked.   This is the common point at which new users often fail due to AV problems.

[pd91223]

I had no problem registering either of my 2 original RailMaster licences. I did not have to make any changes to my McAfee firewall for these.

[Fishmanoz]

So as far as I can see the only problem was HRMS getting bounces on your email. The Rm ProPack upgrade worked as it should from your end and no change to your AV was needed.

[pd91223]

Not exactly, Fishy. From my original post:

The first two times I tried to place the order (from the upgrade button inside RailMaster) I received a message saying there had been error. I found a thread here explaining that the RailMaster folder had to be read-only and that my VirusScan/Firewall (McAfee) software could be at fault. 

So, 3 further iterations later I received a message saying my order had been accepted. Yippee!! Now just to wait for the activation key ... 

This morning still no key, so I checked my credit card pending transactions but no record of an order placed! Going back to last night I've sent 4 emails to support@rail-master.com with no response or acknowledgement. Loathe to try placing my order again just in case the 5th iteration above did actually work and it just hasn't hit my credit card history yet.

I'm assuming that my eventual success was due to me changing my McAfee firewall settings.  It doesn't explain why I had no problems with the original licences and why HRMS have been unable to email me, although Mark from Hornby was. Has anyone  else ever had an email receipt of purchase from HRMS when they've upgraded to ProPack?

[westernwill]

Hi

 

I sent a request to update to Pro-Pack back in 2014, for which I still have the emails, and almost immediately received a reply from HRMS to say the payment had been processed and then, a few seconds later, the authorisation code arrived. 

 

I have Norton for my firewall, and apart from disabling it to get RM initially activated, I have never had to do anything since, including the Prro-Pack upgrade.

[Fishmanoz]

I did the online ProPack upgrade without issue but some years ago when my Trend AV was less aggressive than now. It now doesn’t like downloading the upgrade file but I keep insisting it does. I have also recently deregistered, moved to another laptop and re-registered RM, ProPack and HH, all without issue or need to contact HRMS. 

 

But again, your ProPack upgrade worked, just like your original registration, even if it took 3 goes, proving your AV wasn’t blocking anything going out (yes, I’d remembered the 3 goes from your original post in making my first comment).  Any changes you made from communication with Mark was long after your upgrade was processed. 

[jbcontrol]

hi all, after hearing of problems with upgrading to railmaster pro i was surprised today when i ordered mine. it was late afternoon, past 4.30pm and i thought that i would have to wait until monday at least. when i looked at my emaillater this evening there was my unlock code. So i have got upgraded in a surprising short time. Well done to hornby and thank you

[Fishmanoz]

That’s far more like the usual service jb than the one problem reported due to emails bouncing going to him. There was even someone reporting in that thread that their experience was much like yours.