The Great ADSR Sounds Screw Up of 2022!

[James Steele]

Ha... figured I'd make a topic over here just for giggles.

For any who missed the drama, ADSR Sounds had a special deal where you could get iZotope Nectar 3 for $12.50. Apparently this was an error. Call me naive, stupid, whatever... but I thought maybe I was just really lucky and this was some kinda major blowout thing and jumped on it. So did a lot of other people apparently.

Anyway... turns out it was a mistake. It was supposed to be $124, not $12.50. So what to do? I thought maybe I just lucked out and got to be one of the few who scored a major deal. The transaction went though. I downloaded and installed the software. The authorization from iZotope is on my iLok. Woohooo... what a deal!!

But not to be. I mean, I guess to be fair, it was a mistake. So I got the following in my email box today. Looks like license will be revoked. They're already processing my "refund." I'll get a link after Christmas to some "sound packs" that I'm almost sure I won't be interested in. And for $12.50 I can buy something called "Drum Machine" with some expansions. Drum Machine. Yeah... super interesting to a guy who does primarily rock and metal. Sigh.

I guess it's only fair, but kinda bummed. I did write back to the guy and said I understand, but had no interest in the other offers and maybe since his company bungled it pretty good, if I were in his place, depending on how many were sold, I'd see if I could negotiate something with iZotope where people could STILL get what they actually WANTED, but with an additional discount. Amazing that a typo could not get discovered and that could go all the way through the process... through the shop... download fulfillment... serial number for iZotope... iLok license delivery... the whole thing. Amazing.

ADSR email.png (281.74 KiB) Viewed 2426 times

[Michael Canavan]

ADSR have a really good free sample manager, but this is pretty lame of them. If you've already gotten a serial, that is now in your iLok account I'm surprised they can pull it. I get that it's a mistake, but the "offer" is a really bad concession. They're entirely capable of offering something more substantial since they have their own libraries, and they should.

[HCMarkus]

ADSR Defined

Attack: "Wow, what a sale on this plugin!"

Decay: "Wait, do I really need this...?

Sustain: "OK, I guess I'll go thru with it."

Release: "I got a refund."

[stubbsonic]

ADSR Defined

Attack: "Wow, what a sale on this plugin!"
Decay: "Wait, do I really need this...?
Sustain: "OK, I guess I'll go thru with it."
Release: "I got a refund."

I bought Nectar 3 on sale maybe a year ago. I didn't have any bitterness about others getting a way better deal, but did have the thought that they must be "retiring" Nectar 3 soon. What a weird circumstance. Mistakes happen. I can imagine them finding a better "out" but I'm not them.

[James Steele]

ADSR Defined

Attack: "Wow, what a sale on this plugin!"

Decay: "Wait, do I really need this...?

Sustain: "OK, I guess I'll go thru with it."

Release: "I got a refund."

Bwahahahaha!! Nice one!

[James Steele]

If you've already gotten a serial, that is now in your iLok account I'm surprised they can pull it.

Yeah. Not only in my account but on my dongle already. I imagine they could remove it from the cloud, but can iLok manager pull it off my dongle? It’s possible. I suppose if I was really sneaky, I could take my spare dongle and move the Nectar 3 license onto that and unplug it any time I ran iLok Manager. Theoretically, it seems if the dongle where that license resides isn’t connected, any “standing order” to remove the license could never be executed. But probably not worth the trouble. I don’t see myself using Nectar 3 that often anyway.

[James Steele]

Well, just an update. So far I still have Nectar 3 Plus for $12.50. Every time I run either iLok Manager or iZotope Product Portal, I'm expecting to see it revoked. Again, not sure how you do that when they the license is already issued and on my iLok dongle? It was a legit mistake and I have no ethical argument that I should be allowed to keep it. We'll see what happens.

[James Steele]

So tonight I was issued the unrequested refund at PayPal for $12.50. Be interesting to see how they revoke my license that’s already on my iLok now. What a mess!

As I said before, not saying I’m entitled to Nectar 3 plus for the mistaken price of $12.50, but just as an interesting question, I wonder if acceptance of the refund is consent to surrender the license. I wonder what would happen—or if it’s even possible—to refuse a refund on PayPal?

[Michael Canavan]

A couple things, like most of lifes big questions, my feelings on this are nuanced. On the one hand a flash sale at that price isn't unusual, their compensation could easily been a tad more respectful, they primarilysell loops, REX files and drum sounds after all. It's all digital content that could be given away to save face in circumstances like this, and some of that would be things like rock drum beats that could be sliced and diced for someones unique needs. So I'm slightly shocked they didn't offer something more.

Then on the other hand they give away for free the most useful for DP sound library content browser in Sample Manager. MOTU for whatever reason is behind the curve in the browser area, both the original audio one, and the more recent Content Browser are horribly crippled when it comes to dealing with Apple Loops and/or Acidiced WAV files. There isn't even a volume control in Content Browser, it's burried in Preferences which is real fun when dealing with auditioning audio to add to a project. It also as you can guess, does not play back at the Conductor Tracks tempo like Apple loops and acid WAV should. ADSR give away a pretty great sample manager that covers all of this. I'm not a big user of these types of things, but recently I have been using them more than before and it's absolutely critical to have a drum beat play back in tempo. ADSR get some props here.

Personally if I were in your shoes I would write them, let them know you appreciate that mistakes can be made, but that it's more than fair to offer up a bit of variety in their offering. They even have a Metal category for sounds and patches etc. For the most part I find that people are pretty chill about it if you ask.

[bayswater]

Be interesting to see how they revoke my license that’s already on my iLok now.

I’m wondering that too.

Maybe relevant - when I was looking at a free Avid download, I was asked for an iLok ID, as expected, but I was also asked for my iLok password. I cancelled the order and sent a support email to Avid asking why, and got a vague reply about providing customer service. I don’t recall ever being asked for an iLok PW by anyone else.

Providers can add authorizations without your password — I guess we’ll see if they can they remove them too. Presumably, they’d have to go through iLok and have them do it, so perhaps the next time you log into your iLok to add or update an authorization, they’ll remove it?

[James Steele]

Yeah... I don't believe I've given my iLok password to either ADSR or iZotope. Again, I don't feel like I have a really strong ethical position to demand I be allowed to keep Nectar 3. I'm more interested in the technology aspect of it. I just launched iZotope Product Portal and still shows that it's licensed and iLok License Manager still shows the license on my dongle. Perhaps only the people who hadn't yet installed the plug and licenses could have it revoked? It will be interesting to see how it plays out. I don't really use Nectar all that much anyway, but snapped it up just because of the price and that I'm a terrible, terrible plug-in... umm... addict. LOL

[James Steele]

Well, lo and behold, this email just came in...

ADSR-email-2.gif (131.11 KiB) Viewed 2049 times

You can see this part: "As a final note: Please be reminded that all keys associated with the Nectar 3 order will be voided within the next 7 days." That's interesting. I guess there's a way. As I might have said, earlier, if I felt like just approaching this as some sort of challenge, I'd be tempted to move the Nectar 3 license to a different iLok and physically unplug it any time I ran iLok License Manager and see if that prevents it from being revoked. More as an interesting technology experiment than anything else. Again, not claiming I have an ethical right to keep it.

Not really sure I want the drum machine thing, but whatever.

[Phil O]

So, I Googled this and apparently a company is not legally obligated to honor advertised pricing if it was an hosest mistake. Bait and switch is treated differently.

However, if I advertise a computer for $23.50 and it should have been $2350.00 my company would suffer significant financial loss if I honored the advertised price. But, there's no real loss in honoring that price for software other than the loss of a few potential purchases at the correct price. Remember that the number of sales they got were probably only due to the low price. Although it was an honest mistake and ADSR has the law on its side, I think it stinks that they are not offering a significantly better compensation to those who (in good faith) bought the product at the advertised price .

If, in fact, ADSR has to pay iZotope for each one of those licenses, they should at least offer an at-cost deal to those customers affected. JMHO.

Your friendly neighborhood Phil

[James Steele]

Yeah... well I'm sure iZotope sells them a certain number of licenses to resell??? I don't know how it works, but I got an email tonight about a crossgrade deal on Nectar 3 Plus for $49 with a coupon code. Deal runs out Jan 10 at 11:59pm PST. I went ahead and got it, so I can still use it legitimately if/when they yank the other license in the coming week. Here's the details I posted in the Plug In Deals topic:

Plug in Boutique has Nectar 3 Plus Crossgrade going on for $49 (for any paid for iZotope or Exponential Audio product. You have to use the coupon code PBiZo2 at checkout. Coupon expires January 10 at 11:59pm PST. You also get a choice of two freebies when you check out.

*Also the deal didn't mention this, but after I purchased it, there was also a serial number for Melodyne Essential included with it.

https://www.pluginboutique.com/products/7795

I went ahead and did this anticipating that my Nectar 3 Plus license I got when ADSR mistakenly sold it for $12.50 will eventually be revoked. In fact, I installed this new license on my iLok dongle, and then deactivated the one I got from ADSR, so it's sitting on the cloud now and I guess they can get to it easier that way maybe? Dunno.

[MrFigg]

Hej. I joined this forum for the sole purpose of replying to this thread. As above I bought Nectar Plus from ADSR for $12.50. Didn't think there was anything strange with the price as iZotope are known for having plugins on sale for stupid prices. Anyway, got all the emails and offers of compensation same as everyone else. I should add here that I have absolutely no interest in sound packs or drum machines.
Here's the thing...if ADSR had just sent me an email explaining the situation and asked if it'd be fine with me for them to refund the money and take back the license then I more than likely would have happily done so. Being on the other hand that they were going to void my license and that I had no say in the matter annoyed the hell out of me.
Few days ago I saw that 4 sound packs had been deposited in my account. There were however no download links to these files anywhere in my account. I was also told that a refund had been processed. Due to differences in exchange rate I was refunded 130 SEK as opposed to the 137 SEK I paid for the plugin. Not a lot of money but still not a full refund.
The Nectar serial is still showing on my ADSR account as downloadable software. I have Nectar registered to both my PC and iLok and it is still showing on iZotope's website as purchased.
Again, I am not so much bothered about the license itself but I am increasingly more irritated at the way ADSR are handling both themselves and their customers.