Please let us download the drivers without registration

[turbogrga]

Greetings,

I have read Jon's explanation why registration is required and OK, fine that you need info wrt. to customer support. However, I don't think it justifies putting the drivers behind a registration wall.

I have purchased a piece of hardware and I feel that I own it. I should be able to use it without any further registration. Registration should be offered as an option, not as a requirement. That's what every other consumer hardware vendor does.

By the way, I have already registered once but now the website requires me to register again. I'm pretty sure it was after the transition to a new system. I have used a working email address and correct serial number but fake name and country, so I suspect my registration got cancelled. As a company you should respect that users may wish to remain anonymous and not be tracked and registered every single place they go in the Internet.

I don't wish to start a debate about (non)privacy on the Internet. My point is that I don't see why I should register just to be able to use a piece of hardware that I own. Both my television and my toaster works without registration, so should my radio. It's that simple.

So, please let us download the drivers without any registration, thanks.

Alex
OZ9AEC

[ivorydawn]

Well said Alex, I find it very off putting when companies still want to control me long after I have paid for my goods.

Andrew
G7MNS

[Tech_Support]

Hello Andrew,
As Jon clearly stated, we only request this information for support and manufacturing planning reasons. We do not use this information for marketing or sales purposes, nor do we ever pass any of this information to third parties under any circumstances. We certainly have no intention of trying to control anyone.

We will shortly update the website platforms page so that people may download the software without providing any information whatsoever. However, unless people register they will not receive support if they have problems. As the RSP is sold via a range of different channels in various regions of the world, it is essential that:

1. Customer support requests are dealt with by the right person in the correct time zone
2. We can determine that support requests come from a genuine RSP owner/customer

It might surprise you to know that there are actually people our there who enjoy posting totally spurious support requests for what seems to be no other reason other than to waste our time and absorb our resource. The registration process enabled us to weed out these bogus support requests so that we can dedicate our resources to helping genuine customers.

Once we have updated the website, the 'start here' interactive installation process will still require people to register as this is specifically designed to automatically generate a support request if the installation process fails for any reason and alert us to where the failure has occurred. If people do not wish to register or follow this interactive installation process, they will simply be able to download the software from the relevant platforms page without needing to provide any information whatsoever. If they then have problems, before they are able to get support, they will have to provide us with:

1. A valid email address - otherwise we will not be able to respond
2. The serial number for their RSP - so we can determine whether they really own an RSP and can cross check any performance issues with the manufacturing test data for that particular unit
3. Where they purchased the unit from - so we can ensure that the relevant support person can handle this in a timely manner
4. What OS they are using
5. What software they are using - as many support requests relate not to the RSP itself, but to using the SDR software that people are using
6. What is the nature of the problem that they are having

If people cannot or refuse to provide us with this information, we will not be able to help them.

I hope that this change when implemented will address the concerns raised by yourself and Alex.

Sincerely

SDRplay Tech_Support

[turbogrga]

Thanks for the response and the update.

I totally understand the need to have users register before providing technical support to them. I'm quite satisfied as long as we can download the drivers without registration.

Alex
OZ9AEC