Path: news.mathworks.com!not-for-mail
From: <HIDDEN>
Newsgroups: comp.soft-sys.matlab
Subject: Re: Serious Question if You Have Experience with MatLab License Renewals
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:31:02 +0000 (UTC)
Organization: University College Dublin
Lines: 85
Message-ID: <gdfcqm$r7$1@fred.mathworks.com>
References: <2c62fdf9-ded4-4c51-9f95-c353546d2081@z72g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>
Reply-To: <HIDDEN>
NNTP-Posting-Host: webapp-02-blr.mathworks.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Trace: fred.mathworks.com 1224423062 871 172.30.248.37 (19 Oct 2008 13:31:02 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: news@mathworks.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:31:02 +0000 (UTC)
X-Newsreader: MATLAB Central Newsreader 87230
Xref: news.mathworks.com comp.soft-sys.matlab:496061


junoexpress <MTBrenneman@gmail.com> wrote in message <2c62fdf9-ded4-4c51-9f95-c353546d2081@z72g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>...
> Hi,
> 
> I work at a university where every year it seems it is a huge problem
> renewing our MatLab license. It seems to take forever to get done,
> sometimes it isn't done on time, and the people who rely very heavily
> on MatLab (I'm in an engineering dept)  are basically shut down.
> 
> I've dealt with MatLab customer service personally on several
> occasions, and quite frankly, it is the best I've ever experienced.
> This leads me to believe there is something screwy with the way my
> univ is doing the ordering. I can't get a straight reply from the IT
> people here as to how the ordering process works. Can anyone shed some
> light as to whether the license renewal process is that complicated
> and HOW LONG THE PROCESS SHOULD TAKE if done properly (I'm not
> shouting: just emphasizing how important this piece of information is
> to me). I know that each license renewal is different in the sense
> that it depends on the packages one orders, etc, but any general
> insight/past experiences by others would be appreciated, so I can get
> some idea as to what the heck is going on.
> 
> Many thanks in advance,
> 
> Matt B.

Dear Matt B.

I think this message and the replies speak for themselves: the Matlab licencse renewal is a mess.

I have been trying to renew my academic, single-user SMS(software maintenance service) for some time now. Here is an email I sent in the latest round of this struggle with info@mathworks.co.uk :
===============================================
Dear XXXX,
 
When I go to My Cart  http://www.mathworks.co.uk/store/cart.do  I get the following : 
 
 I see two Quotes and when  click on Delete Quote 2087191 and Update Cart I get the following : 
 
>> The request could not be completed because of the following : 
Quote 2087191 cannot be removed because it is required by Quote 2146415
Un-ticking Delete and pressing Checkout I get the following : 
 
https://www.mathworks.com/store/checkoutLink.do?homeserver=www.mathworks.co.uk&homelang=en
 
 
This has Purchase Order as the payment method. There is no place on this page to alter the payment method. 
 
Anyway, just to stay in the game I type in a fictitious PO Number (12345), press checkout and I get the following :
 
https://www.mathworks.com/store/billingSubmit.do
 
This shows that I am about to purchase two SMSs for the same license for the same period.
 
On this page there is an edit Payment Method button which I press and I get the following : 
 
https://www.mathworks.com/store/breadCrumb.do?page=billing  (breadCrumb ?)
 
This brings me back a previous page  which   has Purchase Order as the payment method. There is no place on this page to alter the payment method.
 
 
At this stage I should give up,  but I waste more time by doing the following :
 
I go back to MyCart and delete both Quotes. This empties MyCart. 
I press Continue Shopping and on the resulting page I press Request a Quote (SMS) which brings me to http://www.mathworks.co.uk/services/maintenance/  which asks me to press another Request a Quote button. 
I press this second  Request a Quote button and  I get the following : http://www.mathworks.co.uk/support/contact_us/cs/renewal.html .  which bring me back to where all this started last August, when I  "requested a quote".
As I said before : > I have searched the Mathworks website but cannot find any way to renew my
> licence online with credit card. Is this true or have I missed something?
 
All I want to do is this : Go to a secure Mathworks webpage which has a button Buy an SMS, using  a credit card.
 
Why can't I do that? I don't want to fill out and fax or mail a purchase order. I don't want to give credit card details over the phone.

 Yours sincerely,
 
Derek O'Connor
================= end of email ======================== 

I can't remember the details about how this all started back in August -- maybe I clicked a wrong button -- but surely it should be simple to renew an existing license (Matlab has all my details) using a credit card on a secure webpage
 

Regards, 

Derek O'Connor