Bad Experience with Altium Canada distributor CAD Microsolution

[zeino]

Altium may be a great software but its distributor CAD Microsolutions is totally incompetent in terms of customer services, and their handling of Altium distribution in Canada is horrible as far as I have experienced. It is 9 days that I have  requested a a student license and they denied it despite me being a student. All my communications were through university email and I sent them my student ID card with latest sticker, they emailed me first that the card photo is old and I should send new card and later they wrote this:

"We have also reviewed your other validation that you have provided and although you are a student at the University of Calgary, you are going for your PhD in Philosophy - is this correct?" In other words they interpreted the PhD in my university webpage as doctorate of Philosophy and as they understood someone studying Philosophy and not Electrical engineering and computer science (so much of logic and understanding) They later emailed me this:

"it sounds as if you are going to be using your student license of Altium for commercial purposes. This is also against the requirements of owning a student license of Altium" In other words they predicted that I may do something illegal in future and denied the license. After 9 days and me complaining to Altium of they attitude and discrimination the CAD Microsolution President Darren Gornall which the day before had called me and arrogantly ordered me to listen while he is talking and saying he wants to help me and doing me a favor sent the an email mentioning article 1.25 of Academic use or basically doing the bullying again and reluctantly agreeing with the student license which obviously I declined to accept after 9 days of suffering and harassment.

Don't know if Altium agrees with this treatment but being a Monopoly in Canadian market has made CAD microsolution a hazard for Altium society in Canada and the way they treat students is totally unacceptable. I now forced to look at Eagle or Orcad for my hardware implementation of my Thesis (indoor positioning cooperative algorithms) and have very negative bias towards Altium in Canada and CAD microsolutions specifically. I hope the monopoly is ended as soon as possible and Canadians have a choice. I share this with you to be aware of it and report any similar incident. Obviously CAD microsolutions have never dealt with students otherwise the would have known what PhD stands for. Obviously the shouldn't be given the last say in licensing in Canada. They are not competent for this role at least.

Who on earth uses an expensive non perpetual license for commercial use when he knows it will end next year. It makes sense as a university thesis with the aim to master a tool before heading to market. The way of reasoning on this is absurd and if hypothetically even a student does that that should be considered a plus for Altium as they will eventually have that students as their future license buyer. Unfortunately, CAD microsolutions are  not competent enough to understand Altium stand in the market and are working against it in Canada. It is a shame that they represent Altium.

Soon I will build my circuit with Eagle and share it in Linkedin and Educational societies and repeat my story for everyone to know! May CAD microsolutions be ashamed on how they treated students and this particular student. All emails  between me and CAD microsolutions  are available for anyone interested.

[DerekG]

The way of reasoning on this is absurd. Unfortunately, CAD microsolutions are  not competent enough to understand Altium stand in the market and are working against it in Canada. It is a shame that they represent Altium.

Now you know why I have often written on this (& other) forums that I dislike the Altium software & dislike the Company Altium even more.

I use Altium software for work & started with Protel (the predecessor to Altium) in 1989. I hoped that things would improve when the (then) CEO Nick Martin was booted from their board several years ago.

Apparently things appear to have not improved.

Before spending a lot of time with EAGLE, take a look at Proteus & DipTrace.

Both these pieces of software are nice to use. Diptrace has a bumped version being released in about 6 to 8 weeks which is very nice indeed.

Both companies offer discounts to students.

[koko79]

That sounds horrible!
In the UK you can get the full OrCAD software as a student for free.
The Canadian OrCAD reseller is a US Company called EMA Design Automation.
I do not know if they are running the same educational plan in US and Canada but it might be worth asking them.

[zeino]

Thank you DerekG, I will look at DipTrace and Proteus. Thanks for introducing it.

[miguelvp]

Contact Cadence and get Allegro through your University.

http://www.cadence.com/support/university/Pages/default.aspx

After all Cadence is more an Altium competitor and Allegro is a superior product.

I know they do actually offer OrCAD but Allegro probably would be a better tool to have under your belt.

[daqq]

In the UK you can get the full OrCAD software as a student for free.

With some haggling, discussion, emails most (serious) companies will give away some version of their obscenely priced software to students (even high school students) for free or a few bucks. And from my experience they view it as a completely normal procedure - the behavior of the distributor you mention is appalling really - the whole point of a distributor is to smile at potential customers and try to get them hooked as much as possible... Some additional agreement or paperwork (like references from your professors) might be required for the extra-special stuff.

It seems you are dealing with a paranoid asshole. The best course of action is to report them to Altium (directly to Altium).

[FivePoint0]

Wow I'm in the UK but this sounds so familiar.

Premier EDA is our enforced distributor.  We pay £1000 more than other E.U. countries and to be frank Premier EDA seems pretty arrogant.  "Snotty" emails including cc ing more senior people within my organisation (who were not impressed in the least) that kind of stuff.  One of the bugs I questioned - denied by Premier EDA - I didn't know how to use the tool they said, was actually listed all along as a bug by Altium!

I've not dealt direct with Altium but I seriously doubt they could be worse than these two distributors.

Mentor Graphics on the other hand are 5* - they ask customers what they want as do Easy PC / Pulsonix who too have great customer service.

How you have been treated is accusatory and offensive.  I would write to their head office and politely ask for an explanation.  And keep up the pressure in forums such as this.  Our organisation is seriously looking to move away from Altium because of the poor interface with the distributor.

[zeke]

pm sent.

[rs20]

So, clearly CAD Microsolution are being silly here, etc etc, but I just have to say:

...and arrogantly ordered me to listen while he is talking...

So, were you interrupting the CEO while he was talking? Or did he just randomly say that out of nowhere? Because the latter would just be extremely odd, and the former hardly casts you in a positive light.

I'm not trying to antagonize, I'm just genuinely confused when I read these one-sided accounts sometimes and I rarely get the chance to ask what the author actually means.

[pcb_man]

That sounds horrible!
In the UK you can get the full OrCAD software as a student for free.
The Canadian OrCAD reseller is a US Company called EMA Design Automation.
I do not know if they are running the same educational plan in US and Canada but it might be worth asking them.

In the UK, domestic students can get Altium Designer for free too! Just send an email to advantage@eda.co.uk and the (apparently) useless UK reseller will help you.