# Traincontroller issues



## joey3292

Just wondering, Has anyone had issues with ordering Traincontroller from Friewald. I have been using it 
for a while, really like it and decided to purchase the silver version. I order it and there was an issue the the stick being lost in the mail. Well after inquiring several times and waiting weeks the company cancelled my order and refunded my money. OK fine. I waited several months and reordered. OK. Then the next day my order was cancelled. Apparently according to Juergen I was too much trouble and he will not sell me his product. 

Anyone else have this problem. I really like this program and don't know how to get it. I even had my brother try to order it and he will not let him order it either. 
WOW! 
Help?

Joe Young
New York
USA


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## highvoltage

There is an N scale forum:

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5

I suggest asking this question over there, might get a better response. The forum we're in is for overall problems with ModelTrainForum in general.


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## CTValleyRR

joey3292 said:


> Then the next day my order was cancelled. Apparently according to Juergen I was too much trouble and he will not sell me his product.
> 
> Anyone else have this problem. I really like this program and don't know how to get it. I even had my brother try to order it and he will not let him order it either.
> WOW!
> Help?


Are you REALLY sure that was the problem, or are you just annoyed? In my experience, people don't turn away business because of personal feelings. I assume that you have *politely* reached out to the company and try to resolve this.


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## joey3292

Yes, I will do that. Thanks

Joe Young


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## joey3292

Yes, I am annoyed because he refuses to sell it. But I certainly was not nasty at all. All I did was question the time it was taking. I started back in November and it wasn't questioning things until January. Almost 6 weeks after payment without a response.At first I ordered the bronze and figured with the Christmas holiday and all they were busy. I am also amazed they (he) would turn away the business as well. Check out the e-mails.
TrainController Silver 
Inbox
x 

Freiwald Software <[email protected]>
Mar 29 (7 days ago)
to me 
Dear Mr. Young,


welcome as a new user of TrainController Silver.

Your license to use the software will be sent to you on USB stick by mail.
For security reasons the stick will be initially empty and does not contain
any license information. Please let us know, when you have received the
stick. We will then send you the license code, that belongs to the stick, by
email.

Please note:
The processing of your order is complete with transfer of the stick. We
strongly recommend to protect the stick against loss.

With the stick you can unlock the software for unlimited use. We recommend
to download the latest version of the software from the Internet.

Feel free to contact us again, if you have further questions or problems.

I wish you much fun with the software.



Best regards,
Juergen Freiwald


****************************************************************
Freiwald Software
http://www.freiwald.com

Railroad & Co.
Software for perfectly controlled Model Railroads
Join the Railroad & Co. Users Group:
http://www.freiwald.com
****************************************************************



Joseph Young Mar 29 (7 days ago)
OK, I will let you know when it arrives. Thanks

Freiwald Software <[email protected]>
Mar 29 (7 days ago)
to me 
Dear Mr. Young,


thank you very much for your inquiry.

Ooops, we just realized, that we have had already trouble with you in the past with sending of USB sticks or issuing of license codes by email or both.

We do not want to get into such issues again.


I am sorry but for this reason we revoke our previous email. We will not send you the license code for TrainController Silver. Instead we will return your money to your credit card account as soon as possible.

Please do not send us any order again in the future.




Best regards
Juergen Freiwald
_____________________________________________________________

Freiwald Software
http://www.freiwald.com

Railroad & Co.
Software for digitally & conventionally controlled Model Railroads
Join the Railroad & Co. Users Group:
http://www.freiwald.com
_____________________________________________________________


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Joseph Young [mailto:[email protected]]
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 29. März 2018 15:44
An: [email protected]
Betreff: Re: TrainController Silver


Joseph Young <[email protected]>
Mar 29 (7 days ago)
to contact, bcc: me 
You’ve got to be kidding me.

Sent from my iPhone

Joe


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## CTValleyRR

Well, that's a new one on me. Sounds like he thinks you already have a version of the software and the accompanying thumb drive, though, and he's concerned about intellectual property rights.

Personally, I would not have replied with "You've got to be kidding me", but with a polite request for further information.


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## joey3292

I agree that is obviously a major fear of theirs, the theft intellectual property rights and rightfully so. They have an excellent product and I think they really have a handle on it. Perhaps its paranoia, I was/am willing to pay for it and in no way trying to steal it. I only sent that "kidding me" comment after his comment "Please do not send us any order again in the future" sunk in.

Anyway rant over!

So now i am looking for a new computer program to run my layout. Any suggestions?


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## fcwilt

joey3292 said:


> So now i am looking for a new computer program to run my layout. Any suggestions?


There really isn't anything that compares at least when it comes to GOLD.

There is a program called iTrain which has a following.

Frederick


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## MichaelE

Is this available on a CD he would sell to you?

No way would I buy software via download and then receive a key for it to work. That's just asking for trouble.


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## fcwilt

MichaelE said:


> Is this available on a CD he would sell to you?
> 
> No way would I buy software via download and then receive a key for it to work. That's just asking for trouble.


Practically all of the software I have purchased in the last few years works this way.

Even when you can get the CD you still need some sort of "key" to fully enable the software.

It's just the way things are today.

Frederick


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## Fire21

I wonder how many potential customers Friewald just lost due to poor handling of this one customer? :thumbsdown:


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## CTValleyRR

MichaelE said:


> Is this available on a CD he would sell to you?
> 
> No way would I buy software via download and then receive a key for it to work. That's just asking for trouble.


If you're referring to a physical key, I agree. But a digital key? That's the way the market works. It's simple and convenient, and I've done it many times.


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## CTValleyRR

Fire21 said:


> I wonder how many potential customers Friewald just lost due to poor handling of this one customer? :thumbsdown:


Giving the gentleman the benefit of the doubt, he probably concluded that whatever issue he was (is) worried about exceeds the risk of the loss of a few customers.

Interestingly enough, I just returned from an employee training session at a nearby tourist attraction, and they took pains to emphasize how quickly a customer complaint, valid or not, can escalate via the Internet, and how we need to work to avoid that.


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## MichaelE

Complaints now travel at the speed of light.


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## joey3292

The way it works is you download the full version of bronze, silver or gold for free. It works 100% so you can design and test all of the functions. The "unlicensed" version shuts down at every 15 minute (then you have to restart) for the first 30 days (actual usage days,not calendar days). After the 30 days it continues to shut down but changes can no longer be saved. 

Joe


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## joey3292

fcwilt said:


> There really isn't anything that compares at least when it comes to GOLD.
> 
> There is a program called iTrain which has a following.
> 
> Frederick


Frederick,
I agree the Traincontroller Gold is the "Holy Grail" of computer control. Silver is perfect for my small N scale 9X14 around the room layout I am building. I do have iTrain downloaded and took a look at it, but the ease of TC was, in my opinion worth the price. 

Joe


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## fcwilt

joey3292 said:


> I do have iTrain downloaded and took a look at it, but the ease of TC was, in my opinion worth the price.
> Joe


Hi Joe,

Thanks for the feedback. I try to stay aware of the various programs out there. 

iTrain has it's following, it is relatively inexpensive and within it's limits does the job.

I decided that TC GOLD was worth it for many reasons, not the least of which was the ease of use.

Frederick


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## fcwilt

joey3292 said:


> The "unlicensed" version shuts down at every 15 minute (then you have to restart) for the first 30 days Joe


It perhaps should be noted that the 15 minute timeout only applies while connected to actual hardware.

You can try TC out under the simulator with no such timeout.

Frederick


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## SantaFeJim

Joe (aka) Joey3292

I found this while searching for reviews on TrainController GOLD.

*Post Jan 20, 2017, Freiwald will no longer sell its products to those particular USA states (the major political subdivisions of he US) where the current President had received a favorable outcome. I say favorable outcome because its not clear what disqualifies a state's residents from buying TC and related products. One can presume that it is those states where the President won an electoral majority.

Beyond the basic folly of allowing political interest to drive your revenue stream by refusing to accept customers with money (which really makes Freiwald somewhat akin to the right wing ideology I suspect they are strongly against), there is the basic problem of Freiwald not understanding the mathematics of the US election system. 

Registered voters in all 50 states and territories can vote in a Presidential Election. Of those eligible to vote, a subset of those are actually registered to vote. Nevermind that children under 18 (who may be railroad hobbyists) cannot vote. It was estimated that around 67% of the eligible citizens are registered, only 58% went and actually voted. Of those, the state winning candidate only got 47-68% of the vote. None of this takes into account that the voters don't actually directly elect the US President, and in that separate election some states selected folks who were not even running for US President as their choice.

So Freiwald decided that 27-40% adults of a state got to determine whether 100% of the residents of that state (including all of the children) are eligible to purchase TrainController and related software. From a business perspective, this seems like a very stupid decision.

Nevermind that the US President is the president of all 50 of the US states and all territories, regardless of whether a state voted for him in the electoral balloting. If Freiwald would act fully on its own logic it should cease doing business with the United States entirely. But logic nor sense are behind Freiwald's decision.*

Sounds CRAZY right? here is a link to the whole thread.

https://www.marklin-users.net/forum...-odd-and-poor-business-decisions--slightly-OT


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## CTValleyRR

SantaFeJim said:


> Joe (aka) Joey3292
> 
> I found this while searching for reviews on TrainController GOLD.
> 
> *Post Jan 20, 2017, Freiwald will no longer sell its products to those particular USA states (the major political subdivisions of he US) where the current President had received a favorable outcome. I say favorable outcome because its not clear what disqualifies a state's residents from buying TC and related products. One can presume that it is those states where the President won an electoral majority.
> 
> Beyond the basic folly of allowing political interest to drive your revenue stream by refusing to accept customers with money (which really makes Freiwald somewhat akin to the right wing ideology I suspect they are strongly against), there is the basic problem of Freiwald not understanding the mathematics of the US election system.
> 
> Registered voters in all 50 states and territories can vote in a Presidential Election. Of those eligible to vote, a subset of those are actually registered to vote. Nevermind that children under 18 (who may be railroad hobbyists) cannot vote. It was estimated that around 67% of the eligible citizens are registered, only 58% went and actually voted. Of those, the state winning candidate only got 47-68% of the vote. None of this takes into account that the voters don't actually directly elect the US President, and in that separate election some states selected folks who were not even running for US President as their choice.
> 
> So Freiwald decided that 27-40% adults of a state got to determine whether 100% of the residents of that state (including all of the children) are eligible to purchase TrainController and related software. From a business perspective, this seems like a very stupid decision.
> 
> Nevermind that the US President is the president of all 50 of the US states and all territories, regardless of whether a state voted for him in the electoral balloting. If Freiwald would act fully on its own logic it should cease doing business with the United States entirely. But logic nor sense are behind Freiwald's decision.*
> 
> Sounds CRAZY right? here is a link to the whole thread.
> 
> https://www.marklin-users.net/forum...-odd-and-poor-business-decisions--slightly-OT


I see the original Marklin thread. What I don't see is any factually verifiable information. It's all rumor and hearsay.

I actually spent about 15 minutes searching the actual Freiwald forums and news for any sort of announcement like this, but couldn't find anything. So I Googled it. Nothing.... except the Marklin forum thread.

Postulating for just a minute that this is true, what would be the point of implementing such a policy and not broadcasting it to the world?

Mind you, I don't have a dog in this fight -- I don't use the software and have no interest in it. Just in the absence of a verifiable source from the company, or even a reputable news source, I've gotta wonder about the authenticity of the claim.


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## andi80796

Yes. I had a similar issue. Obviously Herr Freiwald blacklists clients with any sort of 'issues'. That includes those with defective USB sticks, those who ask inquisitive questions, warranty cases... There are several threads in German MRR forums on this topic. He has also eliminated many inconvenient threads from his user forum. He will refuse to sell upgrades and revoke existing licenses, offering a refund of the purchase price.
He apparently just feels that customer service is not worth the pain.






joey3292 said:


> Just wondering, Has anyone had issues with ordering Traincontroller from Friewald. I have been using it
> for a while, really like it and decided to purchase the silver version. I order it and there was an issue the the stick being lost in the mail. Well after inquiring several times and waiting weeks the company cancelled my order and refunded my money. OK fine. I waited several months and reordered. OK. Then the next day my order was cancelled. Apparently according to Juergen I was too much trouble and he will not sell me his product.
> 
> Anyone else have this problem. I really like this program and don't know how to get it. I even had my brother try to order it and he will not let him order it either.
> WOW!
> Help?
> 
> Joe Young
> New York
> USA


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## andi80796

Joey3292, if you cannot live without TC, just have a friend or colleague order it under their name.


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## QueenoftheGN

You do realize, this thread is from early 2018 right?


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## andi80796

QueenoftheGN said:


> You do realize, this thread is from early 2018 right?


yes. but the topic is still current


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