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Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.
F-84 Thunderstreak
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DennyA
SOH-CM-2023
SSW's Thunderstreak is superb and it's 30% off until January 7. It includes the Thunderbird paint. http://www.simskunkworks.com/store/index.php/go-to-our-software-shop
What Thunderjet are you using?
What Thunderjet are you using?
falcon409
SOH-CM-2026
I don't see where anything is for sale, not based on the page that link takes you to. NM, found it on sale on one of the Sim Shops. . .but separate purchase for FSX and P3D. . .don't think so.
DennyA
SOH-CM-2023
Code is XMAS2017 for 30% off any of their planes.
Their aircraft are awesome. Their website is terrible, and their purchase process is painful. (Separate download for all the paints, but do they put that in the registration email? Nope!) And yeah, separate SKUs not only for FSX and P3D, but for different versions of P3D.
That said, no regrets for my own purchase, as their F-84F is amazing under P3D 4.1.
But as a company, they're not customer-friendly. If you hit Ctrl-E to try to quickstart the engines instead of going through the manual startup process, it plays a brief (unlicensed, I'm sure) music clip of "bad boys" to chide you. Seriously? Condescending to your customers much?
(Despite all this, it's a great plane. But man, they need someone at the company who's customer-focused.)
Their aircraft are awesome. Their website is terrible, and their purchase process is painful. (Separate download for all the paints, but do they put that in the registration email? Nope!) And yeah, separate SKUs not only for FSX and P3D, but for different versions of P3D.
That said, no regrets for my own purchase, as their F-84F is amazing under P3D 4.1.
But as a company, they're not customer-friendly. If you hit Ctrl-E to try to quickstart the engines instead of going through the manual startup process, it plays a brief (unlicensed, I'm sure) music clip of "bad boys" to chide you. Seriously? Condescending to your customers much?
(Despite all this, it's a great plane. But man, they need someone at the company who's customer-focused.)
I agree Denny, I was not expecting much when I purchased the F-104G and was very pleasantly surprised.
However when I think of getting another aircraft from them, a sense of dread just thinking of repeating the purchase process.
That's too bad, for the F-104 at least, it is clearly a labor of love for the aircraft.
However when I think of getting another aircraft from them, a sense of dread just thinking of repeating the purchase process.
That's too bad, for the F-104 at least, it is clearly a labor of love for the aircraft.
SSW1
Members +
Hi,
on every mail customers receive after installing the plane there is written:
"Hello,
you have received this message in CC since requested an activation key for our product.
Activation key will be sent shortly, anyhow within next 48 hours,
pending on your time zone and our working time.
Recall that most of our products are split in 2 installers,
one containing core files and other containing textures and liveries.
Refer to downloading instructions at our site.
Thanks to have purchased our product
SIM SKUNK WORKS STAFF"
May be the purchase process is in your opinion painfull, however it assures first of all your rights of recess/refund accordlying with Italian and European laws.
It requires few actions from the user, the installer auto-writes a mail to us with necessary informations, we make the key and send it to the customers, he just download and run a little activation program, that's all.
All the process requires minutes to be done but we consider up to 48 hours for duty hours and time zones, but normally user receives the key within an hour.
If you mean that's painfull, allright it is.
The site is "terrible" ? May be you consider yourself, as customer, free to give any offensive judgment to the others work, with the same freedom I will answer you that if you mean "terrible" as "is not idiot-proof" you are right.
As we said several times in this forum SSW IS NOT business oriented, we make models mainly for us and our friends, we don't care about business since all of us have their work or other incomes, some of us are retired former fighter pilots, both English and Italian, other Aeronautical Engineer, etc...
You are pretty right saying we are not customer-focused, we are pretty much focused on realism instead, unfortunately for you we do not believe that the customer is always right, the "Bad boys" song is there by design to remind you that the plane is not a "toy", you must know it to master, /docs subfolder contains all necessary info the user needs to drive the Thunderstreak at the best.
May be you disagree with us here, but listen we won't change our mind for you.
cheers
/SSW
UnknownGuest12
New member
So, if you consider yourselves so much above us, common mortals and customers, why not just give your products to your select friends ? why bother selling when you have so high incomes from your others jobs?
And what about a little politeness and education?
Bye, bye, fare well
And what about a little politeness and education?
Bye, bye, fare well
Thanks everybody.
SSW1
Members +
Hi,
Politeness calls for politeness, rudeness calls for rudeness, do not you think it should be like that ?
Guess my answer is much more polite that the post i answered, or do you guess politeness must be only from one side ?
cheers and happy new year.
/SSW
C'mon guys. I think this is going over the top.
I don't think at all that SSW lacks of customer friendliness. As a SSW customer myself and in my experience, they take their customers seriously, and if you have a question or a complaint, you always get a response, and if you have a suggestion and are able to voice it at such, it is taken seriously.
A recent example is this:
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php/108687-SSW-delayed-activations-key
And Denny, the gripe you have about the sound when you hit ctrl-e. This has absolutely __nothing__ to do with customer friendliness. That's pilot's humour, might be a matter of taste, and if you don't like it, go find the soundfile (or ask them or us here what it's name is) and delete it, or replace it with something you like or won't hear or whatever. Just a suggestion - which is working either way.
My 2ct,
Mark
I don't think at all that SSW lacks of customer friendliness. As a SSW customer myself and in my experience, they take their customers seriously, and if you have a question or a complaint, you always get a response, and if you have a suggestion and are able to voice it at such, it is taken seriously.
A recent example is this:
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php/108687-SSW-delayed-activations-key
And Denny, the gripe you have about the sound when you hit ctrl-e. This has absolutely __nothing__ to do with customer friendliness. That's pilot's humour, might be a matter of taste, and if you don't like it, go find the soundfile (or ask them or us here what it's name is) and delete it, or replace it with something you like or won't hear or whatever. Just a suggestion - which is working either way.
My 2ct,
Mark
My word...things soon start to get a bit out of hand in here. Just to try and clarify. The members of SSW. are first and foremost a group of very dedicated flight simmers. Starting with the F104G, they built only aircraft that they use, making them as close as possible to the real ones, entirely for their own use. After a lot of consideration, they decided to form the SSW. in order to sell them to like minded simmers. No one at SSW makes a penny out of the sales, I believe it's used to run their servers etc. for their own flight simming activities. So, they are not relying on SSW to provide them with a living, so are not the usual idea of a business. That's why they say they are not bothered whether you purchase...or not. Certainly not because they think they are above anyone. They are a great bunch of guys and will bend over backwards to get you up and running...really. Just to be clear, I am a member of the SSW, though I have no say in decision making. I helped quite a bit in the early days, but to be honest I do very little these days. They have some very talented guys now, who, to be honest can run rings round me now I'm getting long in the tooth.
/Russell.
/Russell.
I recently got their F-84F in the sale and am very glad I did. Purchase and activation was easy, dealing with them was straightforward, no hassles. If you don't buy it and you like vintage military jet aircraft, you're simply missing out. (I'm not affiliated with them in any way!)
DennyA
SOH-CM-2023
For what it's worth, I wasn't trying to be hostile to SSW, just pointing out that their site doesn't really fit the mold of what most folks expect nowadays for Internet purchases. The plane is fantastic and worth every penny. And I've heard good things about their support. That's all good, and I didn't mean to take this conversation into a negative space.
I just would like to see all of these guys be successful, because if making planes is worth their while financially, that means we get more planes in the future!
Perhaps I was a bit direct in my language, but I didn't mean to cause offense. As I said in the my initial post, the plane is great, zero regrets for my purchase, and I recommend it. Just wanted potential customers to know they'll have to read carefully on both their email and the site to get a working plane. (And my intent in pointing this out isn't to criticize, except in a constructive way. I imagine y'all spend a reasonable amount of time answering the "why is my plane all black" tech support question, for instance, which could easily be solved by including that link in the email and making it more prominent on the site.)
Streamlining the purchase process wouldn't harm the seriousness/detail/etc of your planes at all. And the amount of time spent tweaking it would probably be made up for in reduced tech support time.
Anyway, keep up the great work!
PS: On the "bad boys" song, just gotta say in my three flights in the cockpits of real military planes -- B-17, T-34, F-15D -- not being involved in the engine startup process in no way harmed my enjoyment of the flights.
It's not a lack of appreciation for realism, it's just that some folks like system management, others are more focused on the flying parts. We're all different in what we take enjoyment of, that's why humans are both interesting and challenging to deal with.
I just would like to see all of these guys be successful, because if making planes is worth their while financially, that means we get more planes in the future!
Perhaps I was a bit direct in my language, but I didn't mean to cause offense. As I said in the my initial post, the plane is great, zero regrets for my purchase, and I recommend it. Just wanted potential customers to know they'll have to read carefully on both their email and the site to get a working plane. (And my intent in pointing this out isn't to criticize, except in a constructive way. I imagine y'all spend a reasonable amount of time answering the "why is my plane all black" tech support question, for instance, which could easily be solved by including that link in the email and making it more prominent on the site.)
Streamlining the purchase process wouldn't harm the seriousness/detail/etc of your planes at all. And the amount of time spent tweaking it would probably be made up for in reduced tech support time.
Anyway, keep up the great work!
PS: On the "bad boys" song, just gotta say in my three flights in the cockpits of real military planes -- B-17, T-34, F-15D -- not being involved in the engine startup process in no way harmed my enjoyment of the flights.
It's not a lack of appreciation for realism, it's just that some folks like system management, others are more focused on the flying parts. We're all different in what we take enjoyment of, that's why humans are both interesting and challenging to deal with. 
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