I wished to retry immediately and complete my download, without waiting for the uncertainties and vagaries of a webmaster having to reset my download counter by hand. So I have been very regrettably forced to make a double order and pay my buy twice, in order to re-unlock my download counter immediately. In the second row, I was eventually successful (at third attempt).

Several times I've tried to contact Battlecorps staff to get a refund of my double charge, but all my attempts have failed.

I also seize the occasion to make a quite forceful complaint about the kind of brute, crude, and apparently buggy “click once� download counter software that Battlecorps seems to use for its online shop. It apparently does not allow a customer unlimited download attempts from one’s account page, nor does it manage to distinguish between successful or failed downloads, and in my experience either or both options seem to be the prevailing business standard among RPG online sellers. This experience presently caused me to be quite reluctant, to say the least, to buy any further Shadowrun PDFs from Battlecorps site.

And the whole experience is presently causing me to feel robbed of $25.

Thanks, I've just PM you.

I'm positively impressed by that, just like I'm negatively impressed by my previous failed attempts to contact them by e-mail, and above all, by the abysmal quality of their download counter registry software. I'm a regular online buyer of RPG PDFs, and this is the first time ever that I have to make a double pay in order to complete a download.

I appreciate the timely readiness of Atimpson to notice my trouble and offer to help, but so far I'm extremely reluctant to use Battlecorps site in the future (at least until they do improve the download interface).

I suppose that was some price to pay in order to get Augmentation ASAP, instead of waiting for its availability from other tried and proven online sellers like RPGnow, Drivethrough, or e23, where I've NEVER experienced such download trouble in my dozens buyings. Luckily, when it will become Arsenal's turn, I'm not that eager to get the gear sourcebook ASAP as I was for the magic and 'ware ones.

..until everyone talsk about the new Qualities in Arsenal.

Maybe. Provided that it is indeed something like cool new Qualities. But with Street Magic and Augmentation, I knew that the subject matter itself made me quite eager to get well before any spoiler. About gear, I'm much more laid back. It has been so for previous SR editions and most other games as well. Powers crunchy goodness appeals me much more than gear crunchy goodness. Characters heavily reliant on tools and props annoy and bore me. My ideal character can be thrown naked in a bare cell and lose nothing of its essential badassness.

Tons = 17 PDFs purchased through BattleCorps starting in 2005. Zero problems. I feel your pain but part of me has to assume some problem on your end, especially given your description of events. However, it's certainly not unheard of for any website to have problems on any given day. Hope things go smoother in the future whereever you buy your PDFs. =)

Perhaps. I won't be so arrogant as to assume that software problems were necessarily on the Battlecorps end of the download. No qualm with that, any system can get a buggy day, and my office system is far, far from perfect (thank a stingy and paranoid administration, short on software updates and generous with web filters ). My annoyance is not with that. I'm irate with the fact that they do apparently use such a brutish and unreliable method for tracking downloads as "click once on the link, update registry", with a limited number of attemps available, while other sellers do offer unlimited downloads, or check for downloads to complete successfully before updating the counter.

My critique is not just a vent-off, it is meant as customer feedback to spur them and modernize their interface and business.

From what I've understood, we are the unfortunate victims of two different system malfunctions: the Battlecorps domain, whose e-mail addresses are apparently down, and the PM system of this forum.

Anyway, you can contact Atimson either by PM on this forums, but you have to access your control panel by clicking on the "X new messages" link, and create your PM from there, or contact him by the e-mail address he gave me and is apparently working, which I can PM you.

As for the problems with your order, well, they were different from mine, the registration of my order was fine, I had troubles with completing the downloads, but your problems only reinforces me in my judgement that the Battlecorps online shopping system needs some overhual (maybe the problem that crashed the e-mail addresses is making the online shop instable, too).

I've just forwarded an example of the bounce messages to you too.

Note: the bouncing also seems to affect the @catalystgamelabs.com, while the @gmail.com appears to work fine. I've sent you that bounce message, too.

I hope this helps you to solve the problem !!