I've been a follower of Glenn Fricker's YouTube channel SpectreSoundStudios, which focuses on metal and hard rock production techniques and gear, for quite a while. I enjoy Glenn's content, and feel the channel deserves extra support at the moment, following Glenn's wife having severe medical issues, which has limited his ability to produce content. However, Glenn also has a spin-off venture called Spectre Digital which creates and markets software and plugins. I have no idea about the actual commercial relationship is between the two entities, but Glenn frequently promotes Spectre Digital products on his channel.
One of the products Spectre Digital produces is Element Bass, which is an amp-sim plugin aimed at bassists. I bought this back in November, and I have to say it's really good. However, I have two issues with it, and with the company in general.
1. It requires you to login to your Spectre Digital online account every few weeks, or it stops working. This may not be an issue for some, but I like to keep my (Windows) music production laptop offline to prevent any issues with o/s updates upsetting anything I have installed, so this is an inconvenience and an annoyance for me. What is especially infuriating is that this is not highlighted on purchase - I only discovered it when it stopped working after a few weeks, demanding that i re-authenticate. I think this is unacceptable - once you've bought the product, I think you should have unrestricted use of it. This is how all my other purchased software works.
2. Worse, in my view, is that I raised a support ticket with the company questioning what was going on. Almost immediately I received an automated reply saying they had got my message and would reply within 24 hours. That was the Friday before last, and since then I have heard nothing from them, despite further attempts on my part to make contact. They were very happy to take my money, but now they have no problem with completely ignoring me. I did find the information that the re-authentication would be required every few weeks on their website, but it was in the FAQ's section not in the 'technical requirements' bit. If they had just replied explaining that that was how it was designed to work, I'd be lot less pissed off about it To be fair I probably should have read all the FAQ's before purchasing, but the lack of any response is unacceptable.