New DVD/Download "Build a Traditional Windsor Rocker" with Elia Bizzarri

[Megan Fitzpatrick]

You can always contact me directly (though yes, I know you shouldn't have to). If you do, I promise any problems will be addressed.

[Mike Holbrook]

Yes, almost a month still no working efile that will play Elia's video on my computer. The download I pulled off the PW video site this AM still want work. I sent yet another email to PW customer service and a PM to Megan here on SMC. I am trying to resist the urge to get into how many marketing emails I have from PW during that same period, several trying to sell me what they never delivered......

[Mike Holbrook]

I wish I had better news for fellow posters interested in videos made available through Popular Woodworking but I don't. I sent the lady who responded to my initial email about my purchase a note on Friday of last week in the AM. It is now Tuesday night and I have had no response from customer service at all. I might add that I have had multiple communications each day from PW trying to sell me more videos, including the one I paid for but never got.

I did get a communication from Megan who apparently has done everything she can to try to get me help and is as frustrated as I am.

I do not understand why, a month after offering a download, they still can not seem to provide it. I have done the download many times over the last month, spending hours of time on this. The temporary link I was sent by customer service a couple days after my "purchase" downloaded something that ran once that day, but did not work the next day. They indicated that the temporary file was a "temporary" solution so I was not real surprised. Since that time I have followed the directions for downloading from the link I got with the purchase many times. I get a file that downloads but does not run. I sent the customer service rep. a copy of the file that downloades but will not play on my computer on Friday too.

I ordered a download of Peter Galbert's new Windsor Chair book from Chris Schwarz at Lost Art Press the day it was released and had it within minuets, the actual book was still at the printers and did not mail for another week to 10 days. This isn't "rocket science", people including small kids, load videos on the internet all day long every day. I watch multiple videos downloaded by private individuals, from all sorts of devices, on Facebook and other places on the internet every day. They all seem to play on my iPhone, iPad or iMac just fine which begs the question why can't Popular Woodworking make it work. What's worse in my book is the lack of recognition of the problem or any effort to fix it.

[Kent Adams]

Youtube has a service for content creators that want to sell content. I'd suggest PW look into using that service to sell videos rather than some repackaged in house compiler. There are several issues with various video creation software out in the market. I've used some to utter frustration to try to produce content for a website I had. Youtube and Vimeo have the best talent in the market and video sellers should use them. Adobe Flash is going the way of the dodo bird and isn't supported "out of the box" by any browser today. It has to be side loaded and its so full of security bugs, its dangerous to run on your computer. Flash must die!

[J. Greg Jones]

I've bought the downloadable version of the video in question and had no problem downloading the 2 mp4 files to my Mac, using Safari. Assuming that you did purchase the video download ($21.59), and not the streaming subscription version ($14.99) from their videos.popularwoodworking on-demand site, you should be able to go to the shopwoodworking.com site, log in to your account, and view your purchases from the Account Dashboard on the left of the screen.



Click on My Downloadable Products, and a list of all your downloadable purchases should appear. Right-click on the link in the title description, and select Download Linked File. There are two files for the Bizarre video, so you need to do this for both Part 1 and Part 2.



Do you see this when you log in to your account?

[Mike Holbrook]

J. Greg,
I'm not sure what you bought. The description on the receipt I eventually got says:
"Build a Traditional Windsor Rocker with Elia Bizzarri Video Download Files
Build a Traditional Windsor Rocker with Elia Bizzarri Part 1 (xxxproduct downloadxxx)
Build a Traditional Windsor Rocker with Elia Bizzarri Part 2 (xxxxproduct downloadxxx)
T76501$29.99Subtotal $29.99Grand Total$29.99"

Yes I have the Shop Woodworking site on my computer. It lists 9 downloadable files. I just spent a good deal more time downloading a video called "Building a Furniture Maker's Tool Cabinet" with Chuck Bender that was also on my list. It downloaded slowly but created a video file I can play. I tried the Elia video again and got nothing usable. As far as I can tell the two files are different.

The file I get for Chuck Bender's video is listed in the Apple finder/desktop as:
file:///Users/MacMitch/Desktop/MC43MzE4MjUwMCAxN.....XXXXXX>>>,.mp4, size 1.29 GB, kind- MPEG-4 movie.

The file I get doing the same download routine for the Elia video file produces the following:
file:///Users/MacMitch/Desktop/MC45MTcxOTkwMCAxND......xxxxxxx.....,.html, file size Zero Bytes, Kind HTML text

I XXXxxed out a large portion of the text and numbers, leaving only a small portion that J. Gregg might be able to use to identify the same files in his finder.

My best guess is the link they put in my download Shop Woodworking file is incorrect.... an HTML file probably want play as a video. I have had this problem before and had to jump through lots of hoops to get actual download links. According to the receipt I believe the description says I bought the download, apparently paying around $10 more for it than J. Grigg did.

[Mike Holbrook]

At 11:07 today I got a message from the Popular Woodworking customer service rep I started talking to back in early September.

Basically the message seems to say about the same thing the one I got back in September did. It says they emailed me a working link in September, which I explained some where above only worked for one day. They apologize that the links were not working properly. They say they have fixed the links "They were fixed today and will be pushed out to our store this evening." In the same message the customer service rep. says they have uploaded the proper files to my account, saying they should have done that back in September. I imagine this means they discovered the links in my Shop Woodworking download file were the wrong ones and replaced them with the correct ones, which may actually fix the issue.

It sounds to me like there is/was an issue with the links sent in early receipts for this video, which did not work. I am hesitant to spend the time trying to see if the "special" links they sent me to allow me to download while they fix my actual download page work. I will probably wait a day or two and then see if I can download off my Shop Woodworking" files, like J. Gregg apparently can.

I am almost exactly where I was back in early September hoping that some new link will actually allow me to download what I bought. At least Popular Woodworking knows they have/had an issue and are trying to fix it. My technical expertise in computers has waned over the years but it seems to me that PW has a very convoluted system for delivering videos that relies on people to manually do things correctly that would be better left to code and the machines, which I believe is what Kent is suggesting above.

[J. Greg Jones]

I can appreciate your frustration! We bought the same video, but it was discounted when I bought it. What happens if you just click on the link rather that right-clicking-does the video load in a new Safari tab or window? If so, you should be able to right-click on the video in that tab (or window, depending on your Safari preferences) and download the video from there. Hope this helps.

[paul cottingham]

The biggr issue for me is that they are doing nothing to fix it. And whenever (with a few notable, and lovely exceptions) i have tried to get assitance, it has taken sometimes a week to get a reply, if i get one at all. And the replies have been uniformly unhelpful, and borered on rude. And several have been rude enough to leave me seething. To her credit, Megan has solved several, and has been very helpful and kind, but that is ridiculous, and i feel silly contacting her over issues customer support should manage.

PW has themselves a massive customer service issue. Add that to some of their tech issues, and i fear for their future. Mikes story is one i suspect could be told by many, many customers, they just left, rather than fighting with CS over it.

[Derek Cohen]

I experienced the same problem, probably before any other here. I contacted Megan, and she was really prompt in addressing the situation. I was able to download the Windsor Rocker videos without an issue.

The problem now for PW is that they need to do something to rebuild trust in the system. They have a download facility which is very desirable. In this technological age, I would rather download the videos than order the DVDs (I copy them to a NAS and can watch them via my wireless modem on my iPad). The problem is that I - and no doubt others - am insecure about purchasing more downloads. This is not the first time it has happened to me. I would like to download the Toshia Odate video, but .... Megan, will the link work?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mike Holbrook]

J. Greg, I think I am doing the same thing you are. Apparently the original links that came with receipts for buying and the links on my personal downloads page are bogus.

I am not running this thread to pile on Popular Woodworking. Like Derek mentions, this is not my first rodeo with Popular Woodworking regarding these kinds of issues with videos. I decided after running into this issue many times that there are issues at PW that have not been resolved that, as Paul mentions, must have run off quite a few customers and I am guessing employees as well. Like Derek, I still have high hopes for the goals I think PW is striving for. My purpose in this thread is to help PW see some realities that I feel they have been missing in terms of delivering their product in the real world.

Apple is the largest company in the world now, they drive much of the hardware and software that people use to watch videos. Derek certainly isn't alone in his desire to watch videos on his iPad. My kids, now young adults, do not usually watch TV, they spend much more time watching videos, programs...on their iPad, iPhone or notebook over WiFi. Most of the "old folks" I know who still watch TV, typically watch streamed videos of entire seasons of shows. Many young people even skype with friends vs phoning. It is time for Popular Woodworking to figure out where the video market is going not where it has been, if they want to compete. It is kinda crazy that Popular Woodworking has a different set of instructions that have to be followed exactly for a user to download on a "PC" vs a Mac. I thought that ship had sailed, very few download sites even ask anymore. The software identifies the contacting devise handles delivering the appropriate file format, compresses it to speed it up, and provides an identifiable label that the person downloading can recognize as what they were looking for instead of some encrypted file name. The "end user" should not have to worry about these issues. We certainly should not have to figure out the particulars of why PW's downloads are not always working, but here we are.

[Steve Voigt]

Man, this whole thing is such a sad, sad story. It's almost enough to make you throw up your hands, turn off the computer, walk out to the shop, and do some woodworking.

Almost.

[Mike Holbrook]

A valid point Steve. I have a friend who has lost parts of the fingers on two hands trying to multi task while woodworking so I try not to multitask but I have taught myself to type/read on SMC while I answer questions/between "work" calls though ;-)

I sometimes wonder if typing could be causing allergic reactions on the skin on my hands vs the woodworking materials & liquids. After 4 Prednisone tapers and loosing large amounts of the skin on my hands about 5 times I am still a little cautious about stressing my hands. I was just getting comfortable back in the shop again when my hands started back with issues. I was really hoping the elimination of gluten from my diet would fix the issues for good, it still might if I can keep from using my hands too hard for long enough to grow back some tougher skin. Sometimes we do what we can to stay involved in whatever way we can.

[Mike Holbrook]

Just to expand a little on my motives in pursuing this topic with a certain amount of shall we say diligence. I have aspirations of offering educational videos and literature on the internet for my work,. I am and have been looking into the subject for quite a while. I am attempting to cultivate a relationship with customer service at the parent company who apparently owns Popular Woodworking. Because of the issues I have continued to have over the last year or two with my hands I am following some similar threads in my hobby of woodworking and my business. The subject of good communication and education is one that has always fascinated me and been an important part of my work & hobbies. I think streaming video on the internet is the wave of the future. Hopefully in this process we can find and improve the educational resources for SMC posters.

[Mike Holbrook]

Just making a final post on this issue with getting downloads from our friends at Popular Woodworking.

I worked with the PWW customer staff for some months trying to help figure out why I would sometimes have problems getting downloads. The customer service staff cleaned up my entire download file as there were multiples and bad download files in my personal download file. Soon after cleaning the files up I again had multiples and still had problems downloading. I did eventually get all my files downloaded but it was, shall we say an adventure.

Customer Service, as of my last correspondence, had forwarded information I provided regarding doing downloads to their programming staff. My internet connection is sometimes very slow. It seems to me that the PWW software has issues with slow downloads. If the download goes fast then things go well, if things are slow then downloads seem to: hang up, put bogus files in client download areas, return a html file instead of the correct file....I can not be sure if the issue is due to traffic at my location or traffic at whatever servers are doing the downloads.

My advise for fellow SMC people trying to get downloads from your download file area is: 1) if you see the download is going slowly, abort it 2) sign totally out of the PWW system 3) try again later when your connection and the traffic at FWW is slower 4) Be aware that when you do this it may cause a bogus file to appear in your download file. You may or may not be able to tell bogus from good download files. If you get a bad download and there is another copy of the file try downloading it.

I am not sure my experience will prove the same for all other users, but I thought my experience working with those files might help someone, at least until FWW can get the issue resolved within the code. I think the reason this issue persists is it would only show up in instances where downloads go very slowly, which may not be easy to test for.