waters/empower2 issue

[jeremyatwsu]

We are in a lab that is mainly doing GC, but I run an HPLC from time to time for preparative chromatography.

I came in one day to start up the HPLC, and EMPOWER 2 will not run at all. Long story short, after 4 days on the phone with Waters we determined that the ORACLE database was corrupted, apparently irreparably. The technician was a real nice guy.

I uninstalled Empower2, then reinstalled it. The Empower2 seems capable of running, but it will not because it says we don't have the base package license. I insert the floppy for installation of the license, and the message says that the license is already installed.

Our Waters sales representative tells me that we need to buy a new license to use the software, even though we already own a license. ($4000 to use something we already paid for!) Or we can re-up our support plan for $4600, which happens to include new licenses.

This statement by waters is in contrast to their terms of use agreement (that I still have) that says a license can be used on a second system only if it is first removed from the first system, only one instance may exist at a time. I would happily remove the license if I knew how. I don't want to steal anything, I just want to use what we already paid for. If I want to reinstall any other software I can think of, I don't need to buy another license, I just reinstall it.

The money is not the issue, the issue is trying to make us pay twice for one piece of software.

I may have to think about a trade-in for an Agilent or Shimadzu system, because I am really unhappy about this exploitative behavior.

Any waters representative, can you make this issue go away?

Jeremy

[lcguy1]

Did you uninstall the license before you reinstalled the EMpower2?

[benW]

OOH!
Problem is that if you have not uninstalled the license before removing the software, the license diskette will not have been "re-activated"... ... and Waters does not know that you have not installed this license elsewhere.

However, if Waters have been helping you with the issue, they should understand what has happened.

I am also a little surprised to hear you had an irreparably currupt Oracle database!

Did you have any sort of backup?

[jeremyatwsu]

benW,

No we didn't have a backup of the database. We cannot move the license back to the diskette because of the corrupt database. So far Waters doesn't offer anything to resolve this issue, and I don't think they will. The senior scientist is trying to get thiis fixed so we can use the system again, probably going to switch software because of what we see as exploitation.

J