31 replies to this topic

[Mathijs Kok]

Like every year we are checking out our customer services and I would like to ask you let me know if there are any aspect you feel need attention. As this is a wide topic I will cut it into smaller bits and discuss them one at a time. Please help us out and keep this on topic. If you make a post that really helps us I would be honored to get the poster a free product.

Right now I like to know your feedback on the downloading of the products you bought. We got new download servers with mirrors in Europe and the USA. We also got them connected close to the main trunks of the www, but still, we all know it is often an issue to get big files.

[Holgi]

Hallo Mathijs,

ich hoffe in deutsch ist wie immer Ok für Dich. Also ich kann überhaupt nicht meckern sondern ich muss ein großes Lob aussprechen, denn ich denke es gehört auch hier her! Wenn ich in der Vergangenheit (letztes Jahr im April) schon einige Probleme mit Downloads hatte kann ich keine Probleme mehr feststellen! (es viel mir nicht einmal auf, es ist wie selbstverständlich, alles funktioniert und das auch noch sehr schnell)

Vielen Dank dafür!

[weisdergeier]

Hello Mathijs,

in the past I didn't have ane really problems with downloading. The downloads went smooth and after a few minutes I had the files on my PC.

Only thing I had problems with, was to find the right download link in the Aerosoft homepage, when I shutted down the page and needed a reload.

[flusi4ever]

I haven't had any really big download files, but the Mega Airport Budapest update is bigger than 1 GB, just one single file, and it will take ages to download it here with my DSL1000.
I am not sure, if it's the same in the onlineshop, but I would suggest splitting such files up in files of maybe 300 or 400 MB.
So you don't have to download them all at once.

[Eric Bakker]

Mathijs,
I often get confused where to look for updates: the downloadshop or the support-database, or...?
I assume the downloadshop is only for the customers who bought the product here (as opposed to the support-database?), but still I feel it should be more in sync.

[edit] is this where the Aerosoft Launcher comes in handy?

[Holgi]

Mathijs,

a proposal for better file names is: take the version number in the filename!

Sample:
old: AS_STAVANGER-X.zip
new: AS_STAVANGER-X101.zip

[ebksb123]

Mathijs,

a proposal for better file names is: take the version number in the filename!

Sample:
old: AS_STAVANGER-X.zip
new: AS_STAVANGER-X101.zip

That's what they did with Frankfurt Hahn


It would be great if you could put the database and the downloadshop together, so I agree with Eric Bakker. Everything else is fine for me

[Aidan Sandri]

Faster d/l speed for Australia. I get 80kb/s with your servers, with FS2Crew I get 1mb/s

[Mathijs Kok]

Only thing I had problems with, was to find the right download link in the Aerosoft homepage, when I shutted down the page and needed a reload.

You mean finding your order (the page with the link and the codes etc)?

[Mathijs Kok]

Faster d/l speed for Australia. I get 80kb/s with your servers, with FS2Crew I get 1mb/s

Yes, I could not agree more on that. We have had that problem for years. It is caused by the fact our European servers are routed to the east (so towards Singapore etc) and there are only a few lines into Australia from that side and they are all overloaded. If you get the option to pick the US mirror you will most likely get faster connections. But it is really out of our control as we are really very close the to Dutch exchange and that is one of the main hubs of the internet. 80% of traffic going outside of Europe is running those lines, but they got more then enough bandwidth, the issues are really fare from us. We have also seen a few local providers in Australia with slow (because they are expensive) connections to some parts of Europe. We thought about a mirror in Australia but with only 2% of our sales there it simply makes no sense. We would loose money on every sale.

I was in Australia not long ago and I was very surprised some internet services were very fast and some were very slow. Not at all what I was used to.

[Mathijs Kok]

Mathijs,

a proposal for better file names is: take the version number in the filename!

Sample:
old: AS_STAVANGER-X.zip
new: AS_STAVANGER-X101.zip

If you use mirrors and many additional external shops that becomes very hard. Say we update XX.zip and keep the same name. All the links would still be valid. Now if we would rename XX_100.zip to XX_101.zip it means that we would have to change many links and get many other webshops to make the same change. That's a shit load of problems waiting to happen.

The Launcher is indeed able to sort that out. Not perfect, but we are getting there.

[Mathijs Kok]

I often get confused where to look for updates: the downloadshop or the support-database, or...?
I assume the downloadshop is only for the customers who bought the product here (as opposed to the support-database?), but still I feel it should be more in sync.

Good point, it is one of the things we are working on. It will all be moved to your order page.

[Mathijs Kok]

I haven't had any really big download files, but the Mega Airport Budapest update is bigger than 1 GB, just one single file, and it will take ages to download it here with my DSL1000.
I am not sure, if it's the same in the onlineshop, but I would suggest splitting such files up in files of maybe 300 or 400 MB.
So you don't have to download them all at once.

But the moment we cut up files the support increases dramatically. No matter how bold and red the explanatory text is, a lot of customers will ask us what to do with Budapest.part1.zip etc.Personally I hate downloads in parts, there always seems to be one think missing or bad.

[Mathijs Kok]

Hallo Mathijs,

ich hoffe in deutsch ist wie immer Ok für Dich. Also ich kann überhaupt nicht meckern sondern ich muss ein großes Lob aussprechen, denn ich denke es gehört auch hier her! Wenn ich in der Vergangenheit (letztes Jahr im April) schon einige Probleme mit Downloads hatte kann ich keine Probleme mehr feststellen! (es viel mir nicht einmal auf, es ist wie selbstverständlich, alles funktioniert und das auch noch sehr schnell)

Vielen Dank dafür!

Deutch is of course ok. As said so often, I understand it well, it's just when I start typing it people start to look at me as if I was an idiot, lol.

We'll always have problems when we start to sell very large numbers. We had had issues with 6 products, all of those sold very fast in the first 2 days and our servers melted. The only way to solve that is to hire way larger servers (think 10 times as big) to handle these rare peaks. That's just not affordable, so we decided to change the release of these products next time. Try to spread the load better over time. But I can guarantee you that we'll have releases where this will fail and the forums will full of posts saying we should prepare better and that we are amateurs.

Let's put it this way, when our servers are melting we are sorry it will take a while for you to get the files, but all the while we are happy as a dog with two....

[Holgi]

If you use mirrors and many additional external shops that becomes very hard. Say we update XX.zip and keep the same name. All the links would still be valid. Now if we would rename XX_100.zip to XX_101.zip it means that we would have to change many links and get many other webshops to make the same change. That's a shit load of problems waiting to happen.

The Launcher is indeed able to sort that out. Not perfect, but we are getting there.

Ok,
I understand that!

but ...

what is with colors?

red means I have already loaded the file
green means the file has not been loaded or is a newer version (I think you can find the date of my last download in your database)?

[tempelhof]

A single sign-on for download shop, box shop, support database and possibly the forums.

I remember when I first bought something from the download shop, I was very irritated that my login didn't work (I had bought stuff in the box shop before).

At least there should be a system note on the login forms that there are different accounts required.

[MUC]

Sry, I can't help you. Everything is perfect in my opinion. I downloaded EHAM yesterday and everything was great. I had not have got any problems. I paid with creditcard and after 10 minutes I could explore Amsterdam Schiphol.

[Luckyswede]

We'll always have problems when we start to sell very large numbers. We had had issues with 6 products, all of those sold very fast in the first 2 days and our servers melted. The only way to solve that is to hire way larger servers (think 10 times as big) to handle these rare peaks. That's just not affordable, so we decided to change the release of these products next time. Try to spread the load better over time. But I can guarantee you that we'll have releases where this will fail and the forums will full of posts saying we should prepare better and that we are amateurs.

Hello Mathijs,
Why not having a pre-pay system, so the most "fanatic" can pay some weeks or days in advance and then make their downloads at a pre-release party, a day or two before the official release. You can even limit the number of invitations to the party so the servers can handle it.

[Andreas_W]

Hello Mathijs,
Why not having a pre-pay system, so the most "fanatic" can pay some weeks or days in advance and then make their downloads at a pre-release party, a day or two before the official release. You can even limit the number of invitations to the party so the servers can handle it.

i've clicked on the wrong button!! I wanted to give +1 but i hit the down-arrow. I'm really sorry!
I LOVE your idea!
How can i reject this rating? :-S

[Post edited by Admin] Using expletives like that is not necessary, please refrain from using them.

[Goof]

Hello Mathijs,
Why not having a pre-pay system, so the most "fanatic" can pay some weeks or days in advance and then make their downloads at a pre-release party, a day or two before the official release. You can even limit the number of invitations to the party so the servers can handle it.

I reall like that idea!

On topic:
Never had any kind of problem. Downloadspeed is as fast as always (120 kb/s DSL 1000 ) so there is no problem, Downllads are always available-->everything is perfect.

Regards,

[Eric Bakker]

A single sign-on for download shop, box shop, support database and possibly the forums.

A very good idea!

[Clem Wu]

Yes, a single sign in would be awesome! Downloads are all good and working well for me.

[mopperle]

Also would vote for SSO and also kind of date added to the download, just to see when it was last updated.
And yes, no problem with downloads so far, even with huge file sizes.
And I agree with Mathijs, that splitting up files would increase helpdesk calls. I remember one topic here in the forum

[weisdergeier]

You mean finding your order (the page with the link and the codes etc)?

Yes exactly. I think an extra link under "Support / Service" would be helpful. That's the place I would look for. Maybe only visible, when you are logged in.

[Sizel]

Only 2% sales from Aus. I thought it might a bit more than that.

I realise that most of your sales come from Europe and US but it would be reassuring to have a shop that invites the 'rest of the world' as it seems only geared up for these two continents and may be off putting to potential customers further afield. Being the internet and you sell to the world why not advertise it that way?

I use the Euro zone shop and over here in WA i don't seem to have any issues with download speeds.

Cheers.

[BlackburnBuccaneer]

I have so far had no problem with downloading my purchases, however as mentioned by others I don't find it very easy to find updates for non Launcher based products and it would be good if updates were accesable from download shop account.

[Mathijs Kok]

A single sign-on for download shop, box shop, support database and possibly the forums.

I remember when I first bought something from the download shop, I was very irritated that my login didn't work (I had bought stuff in the box shop before).

At least there should be a system note on the login forms that there are different accounts required.

It's a project that has been running for years now, lol.

[Mathijs Kok]

Hello Mathijs,
Why not having a pre-pay system, so the most "fanatic" can pay some weeks or days in advance and then make their downloads at a pre-release party, a day or two before the official release. You can even limit the number of invitations to the party so the servers can handle it.

No we will never do that. For downloads I think it is just bad to ask people for money if you can't deliver seconds later. It will also create resentment with users who do not buy into that idea.

[AWG Simulations]

I think you should tell us the load on each server and if possible combine the Download Store and Boxed Store into one as it will avoid confusion. You should also perhaps add loyalty points were if you purchase a product at £30 you will get £3 worth of points to spend on your next purchase similar to what Just Flight does. Aerosoft support is suburb so no issues there!

Aaron G.

[James A]

I think you should tell us the load on each server

Surely you will not know that unless you (as in aerosoft) are observing the hit's at any one moment and publishing updates constantly?! Can't understand the relevance.

if possible combine the Download Store and Boxed Store into one as it will avoid confusion.

No, they should stay as a seperate entity as sure as eggs are eggs they will create more issues/complaint's. The present system works a treat for me (and others no doubt) so as is normally stated, don't fix what ain't broken....

You should also perhaps add loyalty points were if you purchase a product at £30 you will get £3 worth of points to spend on your next purchase similar to what Just Flight does.
Aaron G.

Well worth considering but, not essencial.

What I would like to see as mentioned in previous posts is a date of the update so one could easily keep tab's on when one knew when last updated to what update is now available.

[Mathijs Kok]

Thanks for the comments on this, I am now opening a new topic.