MakeMusic Forum

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Posted By : Tim Poulsen - 11/8/2012 5:30 PM

Your purchasing process leaves a bit to be desired. I don't think you've thought out the workflow for a family very well.

I tried to purchase a subscription for my children to use. We were required to use an account set up by one of our kids' teachers. It's been a couple of weeks, and I don't remember the exact reasons why. But the purchase ended up being under my son's name & email address. All communication goes to him, which is not what I want as a parent. Billing and account communications should go to a parent.

We're having subscription issues (ticket submitted). But I have to do so under my son's account. And I'll have to pester him to forward any emails to me. Come renewal time, messages are going to be sent to him not me. He's like a lot of modern kids who text, not email. This is going to be a challenge.

If I change the email address on the account, I fear that will break the tenuous link to the school's copy of the software so that my son stops getting his assignments. Or, he'll end up needing to log in as me.

I don't think I'm out of the ordinary to closely monitor and control what my children do online. I don't share my credit card info or passwords with them. And I try to teach them to not share such information with others. They should never have control of an account that bills me money like this.

Please try to think like a parent and rework your process.

Tim

Posted By : Jim Jolley - 11/9/2012 1:00 AM

Tim,

The email used by your son is mainly used for a login. If you submit a request to change the email to your email address, it will break the link to the school account.

To solve this problem, login and go through the process of reenrollling to your son class (under the new email) but keep your sons name. Then contact the teacher and tell them what you have done and why. They should have no trouble getting whatever you need up and running. I have had this happen with several students and can get it working for them in about 30 seconds.

You might want to check if your school program has a group subscription which would solve your email contact issue for renewal. It's what we do and it works very well.

Sounds to me like you went about this in a odd way, perhaps your son's teacher wasn't clear about how to make the purchase and set up an account. The process has been working pretty trouble free for my parents but it did take some training of the parents about what to do.

Also, for future reference, expressing your concerns here don't always get to the proper people in the forum. You should contact customer service so they get the message.

Jim Jolley - Band Director - Center Hill Middle School

Finale 2008a, 2009b, 2010a, 2011b, 2012b - Smartmusic 2012b - Garritan CoMB - Vista

Posted By : Tim Poulsen - 11/9/2012 7:33 AM

Thanks for your response Jim. As you can tell, we as parents, and I think the teacher, are all new to SmartMusic. It shouldn't be so tough though. As a programmer, web consultant, former network admin, etc. if I find the process cumbersome, I can't imagine how less tech savvy folks figure it out. Maybe it's because I bring certain expectations of how software and customer service should work.

I'm disappointed to hear you say that the SmartMusic folks don't monitor their forums.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Tim

Posted By : Jim Jolley - 11/9/2012 10:28 AM

Actually they do, but they don't always relay information to the folks that need to know things. Feature requests and complaints are always best to submit straight to makemusic. They usually fix them almost instantly or at least get to working on them. Most of my issues have been solved in a few minutes.

As for being new to smartmusic, my experiences have been with new persons is that there is a learning curve. But makemusic has spent a lot of time with video tutorials and worksheets. I have been doing my classroom testing for the past 3 years exclusively (my son was in the classes too) and the first year was a little bit of a struggle. The good thing is each year has been much easier since the first. So don't be discouraged, there are some great features in it.

Suggestion: go to the find music tab on the left and listen to some music pieces.The quality is pretty good and your son can play along with some of the pieces. My son does this just for kicks and really enjoys it.

Let me know how else I can help.

Jim Jolley - Band Director - Center Hill Middle School

Finale 2008a, 2009b, 2010a, 2011b, 2012b - Smartmusic 2012b - Garritan CoMB - Vista

Posted By : James Lund - 11/9/2012 11:13 AM

Tim,

Sorry you've had a less-than-ideal experience. We're deep in the midst of revamping our online store and website, and you'll see a hugely improved experience in the future once we've got the updates rolled out.

Regarding our support system, you can create your own account to communicate with our tech support team without having a subscription, although it will help them to troubleshoot if you reference your son's account information. The support team consists of musicians, teachers, and composers who all have technical expertise and great resources available to help you fix things.

Our forums are mainly here for our users to interact with each other; to share ideas and experiences. Our forum moderation staff makes sure to check for inappropriate language or code of conduct violations, but uses the support system and knowledge base to provide technical support so they have enough tools to help get to the root of your issue.

Thanks again, and I hope your son is up and running ASAP!

James Lund

MakeMusic, Inc.

These on-line forums are intended for the exchange of ideas among the users of MakeMusic products. If you'd like individual help from our technical support staff, please contact us directly at www.smartmusic.com/support.

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