So sloppy! Never again!
*stomps feet*
http://twitter.com/stardock/status/7000004723

Durrr, the activation utility checks the game every time you launch it. Perhaps I installed it on another one of my PCs and SecuROM decided to screw me? (Which is exactly what happened.)
GREAT system, mind you. All I had to do was wait a day, after which my friend was away and no longer interested in playing!

I system that repeatedly double charges credit cards is sloppy. An account database that falls to pieces on a semi-regular basis is sloppy. Sending everyone home more than a week before your busiest period is sloppy. Impulse is one of those 'looks good on paper...' things.

Oh, Impulse has a long way to go, but Stardock at least pretends to care about improving the relationship between DRM, consumers, and freedom.
I was very forgiving of Steam back in 2003 (although it did induce much rage), so I'm willing to forgive its competitors for shortcomings as they mature.

All you had to do was wait a day. Here I am having to wait 2 weeks and you say I am unreasonable?
"They will get to it", "The Holidays" Were you quoting twitter to make me look like a liar? You failed.

Rubbish. Stardock don't improve because they have people like you saying they are brilliant. They are not and they need to improve.

Steam was outright terrible to begin with. I didn't touch it until just over two years ago. If Impulse shows similar improvements in a few years then I might go back to it. But I'm not short of alternatives.
Impulse sometimes winds up with the worst DRM of any version of a given title. They also fall short of their own standards with their own titles. Namely Demigod, which they did actually criticise themselves because of that. Their DRM stance has had a very marginal impact. They claim to be for customer rights, but in practice I see more of that from Gamersgate and certainly from GOG.

Impulse isn't "brilliant" and I do not hesitate to crticize Stardock when I see it appropriate to do so. The service needs to improve, and the people at Stardock know of this.
Stardock is far more transparent than Valve, and I've found the company as a whole to be more agreeable with my business ethics than the likes of Direct2Drive and Steam. Thus, I am willing to speak highly of Stardock because their platform, Impulse, has far more potential for gamers than Steam. If Brad Wardell can produce in Impulse what he has said he wants to produce, gamers will benefit.

With my experience with them they are no better than Valve. They just want to get in on the whole DD service thing that Valve have going but they are not willing to invest in the infrastructure. Like I said it would not cost much to hire 4 people for customer service. Like Navagon pointed out Gamersgate have set a benchmark for all DD services to follow and Impulse is the last in the line and they don't really seem to care. Brad Wardell is a nice guy and he does have good ideas but what he says and what Impulse delivers are two very different things.

You have a right to that stance but time alone will determine the accuracy of your claims. Wardell has publicly stated that the user experience for Europeans needs to improve (a few weeks ago in the 2009 company report, available to anyone). If nothing changes, you can call him out on it.

No my experiences give accuracy to my claims. I have wanted to embrace Impulse and as documented they have let me down. I would like to see what would happen if GOG took 15 Euro from someones account. Wardell talks a good talk but he doesn't deliver. Gabe Newell accepts that Europeans are getting screwed and he really, really, wants to fix it. Ask most people how they feel Gabe is fixing it for Europeans on Steam.

Wardell has publicly stated that the user experience for Europeans needs to improve (a few weeks ago in the 2009 company report, available to anyone).
Yeah, but how much of that report is true? After all, they claim in that same report to have a 10% share of the market which is apparently utter bullshit -- hence why both D2D and GamersGate have called them out on that statement.
Only Stardock's actual actions can be taken as a sign of anything, words in a report and promises on a forum ultimately aren't worth the medium they are delivered by.

Haha, good one.
Unless it involves chicken wings, I trust little that Newell has to say.

And yet Gabe said that. Why should I think Brad will be anyway different?

Would this face lie to you?
http://games.cnews.ru/articles/img/16-brad.jpg

Welcome to the real world.

Melchiz guess what? Not even so much as a reply. It's now the 5th of January and not even so much as an acknowledgement. They have a monkey on twitter going on about deals, they have someone updating the Impulse Now client with offers and yet no-one has even bothered to look at my problem which was logged on the 22nd. Sure it's Christmas and I begrudge no-one that but they are now back working and still nothing. If I had a post-paid credit card that $19 would now be $25 owed to the bank, luckily I use a pre-paid card but Stardock don't know that.
I could accept Steam taking their sweet time as it was an argument between them and my credit card but Stardock have no such excuse. I sent them a new message telling them to shove the $19 up their arse and keep it. It's not a big amount of money but its the principle. Internet transactions are made on good faith and Stardock have abused that not once but twice. Ain't happening again and I will make my feelings known about them.