Commercial use - Connection time out
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TV is a German company.
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sign up for a yahoo email account and register that with TV
oh wait, Yahoo is a company too, haha
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@bazbsg wrote:sign up for a yahoo email account and register that with TV
oh wait, Yahoo is a company too, haha
If we cannot be honest with them, what's the point in having anything to do with them? They have chosen to be thoroughly dishonest so, now they have made their bed they must lie on it.
One thing they seem to have overlooked is how things happen so much quicker on the internet. Good news travels slowly but bad news spreads like wildfire! Just look at all the posts in this thread as a prime example. And, run a search for the exact error message you are getting to see how many other sites and forums are also talking about this. TV's competitors are making hay while the sun shines.
Any serious enterprise would have raced into damage control as quickly as possible. That means solving the problem for one's loyal users. It does NOT mean editing their posts and/or deleting anything negative being said about the company. Remember, there's no smoke without fire!
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At the bottom of this, and every page on this forum, it says "Get Started Now! It's free for personal use". That may have been true for the last few years, but as can be seen in this forum, it is no longer the case. Some users may still be lucky enough to be considered personal users, although who knows how long that will last? But many are being falsely accused of commercial use when it is patently false.
In other words, TV need to redefine what personal use is because using it to connect to a friend is no longer accepted as personal use. And as in my case, having an email address that uses a company name is also not permitted unless you purchase a business user license (ridiculous), which is a bit like saying you may not be employed.
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I work in a very, very large institution and have regular contact with senior management in the IT division - and work in the IT unit of my own division. Though I was using TV for personal use - and within the license terms - TV decided I wasn't and resolutely declined to deal with the attempt to demontrate my bona fides before being cut off or subsequent communications.
As a result I have now uninstalled TV on my home desktop and laptop, and, when asked - or when I recall the shabby treatment dished out to many who seem to have suffered similarly - will share my frank opinion of TV and assuming that corporate culture is just corporate culture and that there is no particular contempt for the users to whom free licenses were granted, andtherefore that it probably applies to all, will advise any and all to evaluate their options very carefully and tell them why I can no longer recommend them personally.
I have found a replacement. It seems Germans are very keen on this sort of software and replacements are not hard to find. Also seem to work well.
So long and thanks for the fish.
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According to the EULA, this is the only term applying to free personal use: The use of the Freemium Software is solely permitted for the Customer’s own, private, non-commercial purposes (e.g. free computer support for a spouse/partner).
Why would anyone need to provide remote support to one's spouse/partner? Presumably you live together so you have direct access to his/her PC. If you are separated or divorced, how likely is it that you would want to provide your ex with remote computer support?
In my case, I have been using it to assist 2 computer illiterate friends who live 100's of kilometres away from me. I have always believed that was precisely what TV meant by personal use. I don't charge them anything for helping them out and never have done. In fact, I don't know anyone that charges their friends for helping them with anything, not unless they want to end their friendship.
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Indeed, time to bin TV.... silly company... actually I suspect the have a 3rd party monitoring this forum, and supply the responses for the commercial vs private use and they are desparately trying to hide their underperformance from the actual TV company.... but that is TV's fault too... not to be monitoring all this... indeed, they have lost me a a positive influencer...
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So before I, very sadly, turn my back on a platform that has been invaluable to me and my family over the last several years, I just want to leave a few comments for the guys and girls at Teamviewer (and for everybody else, I guess):
1. I do understand that companies need to make money. As such, Teamviewer is perfectly within their rights to charge for their services. It does not make much sense for a lot of us to insist that TV has to continue to provide their services for free if we, in turn, do not deliver value to the company, through, say, actively contributing to growing its user base. If we don't like the changed terms and conditions and how they are enforced, we are free to leave, which I will have to do now.
2. (And I hope you are paying attention, TV): The commercial license is catastrophically mispriced for casual users. I understand how TV is defining commercial use - but in order for this 'commercial use' to justify an investment of SGD 39 _per month_ (i.e. SGD 468 per year) for a vastly reduced performance (only 3 devices) your product needs to generate value for your users at least equal to that amount.
If somebody were to use the product to, say, provide support for friends and family 80% of the time and to occasionally retrieve a file for their personal use from a home PC while at work, it seems that this will be considered corporate use as soon as the PC being accessed remotely happens to be downloading emails. It is also worth remembering that the lines between personal and corporate use of devices for many, many users these days are blurred to say the least, which many large corporations are now taking into consideration by providing their employees with PCs where the corporate part is 'sandboxed' and which can therefore be accessed for personal use even though they are licensed to the company, running a VPN, etc.
After many years of building a very loyal and positive community of users, it seems Teamviewer is now at risk of destroying an enormous amount of goodwill and affection through a very heavyhanded intervention. One more thing that I have not seen commented on an awful lot in this thread is the question of what data exactly TV's algorithm is analyzing in order to determine 'commercial use'. One can only hope that no personal data is used and disclosed to TV staff in the process...
So long story short and very much in agreement with one of the recent comments above: a useful option for TV to consider would be a mixed-use 'prosumer' account whereby friends and family can still be supported as usual (i.e. un an umlimited number of devices) while charging me a moderate amount (up to SGD 50 per year) to access up to three 'core devices' (e.g. my home PC, my work PC, my laptop) for a set number of times (e.g. 100) per year. (Maybe with an option to buy credits priced in cents rather than dollars if the set number of times per year turns out to be insufficient.)
Just a suggestion.
For me, this won't really matter any more. Once I switch, it is very unlikely that I ever return. I suspect this is the same for many others who have left their comments in this thread over the last 2+ years.
Good luck, Teamviewer, I really liked your platform. But as they say, there's plenty of other fish in the sea...
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@Closed accountThanks for the heads-up on the alternative. It works really well and is fast.
It took me a bit of time to adapt to the difference in its interface but that was like switching from right hand drive to left hand drive; everything is there, it's just in a different position.
As far as TV is concerned, I have seen nothing that indicates the company has had a change of heart over its policy of killing off free users. So, why is this thread marked "Solved"?
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Sorry to hear that, but I am doing the same !!! I've been escalated for 5 months with no success, it's time to give up!
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I have been using it non-commercially for years and only recently it triggered the "Commercial use suspected". I wonder why all of a sudden this happened, I haven't done anything to trigger it and I use it lightly with both PCs signed in on my personal account. The license prices are a joke and they are so expensive. Was good while it lasted. I am already using some alternatives but too bad TV was my favorite. Everything comes to an end and you greedy TV devs brought this to yourselves. Good bye and cheers!
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Agreed totally!
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Yeah, me too. I also happily used TV for years, and nothing at my end change but they have pestered me away with the commercial use issue... mainly the fact they approved it, then cancelled it 3 times, with no way to have a reasonable dialog with them to understand on both side what was correct. Thus, I am leaving because of horrible customer care (yes, I use it for free, but if they are not going to support free use then why offer it at all?)
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I am also leaving TeamViewer now. When their support team does not know the difference between FOR work, and FROM work, and won't remove the "commercial use detected" false positive I'm outta here. I am also using a VPN on my phone and home network.
They also claimed that we are not allowed to use our phone on the free version of TV, it's only for paid accounts. I find it hard to believe that it's possible to log in to the android app if my account are not eligible to use it.
She also couldn't link me any terms proving her mobile rule.
Also the pop-up says limited to 5 mons, yet cuts me off in 20 seconds.
A "prosumer" subscription option would probably bring me back. But for now, it's a big fat good bye.0 -
I've noticed that on the Android version, each time it starts, it "activates" itself, but my understanding was that it was free.0
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Hi
I am a regular T.V(Team Viewer) user , but only for home purposes.
I have 3-4 laptops at home( on diff. floors) and I communicate with them regularly rather than climbing up or down the stairs ( ha ha ....I am lazy...and helping the kids out with their machines from one place is pretty okay)
each time I start T.V, it 'thinks' I am using it commercially and warns me.
No damage done, after the warning I can just go ahead and do my stuff.
I also have my work PC ON (24 X 7) , and at times I use it to get reminders and stuff like that (No actual work, but just reminders, or interesting internet links that I browsed when @ work...heh heh)Issue is, I am NOT using it for commercial benefits at all !
But T.V does not understand that and 'assumes' I am. so each time, I get presented a pop-up where the A.I thinks it's right.
as stated, no damage done , I can go through and do all my stuff.
Weird stuf now : But I am in Love with T.V (aaaaaarggh ...) , I also remember having a chat with it's owner a long time ago when half of the planet did not know what T.V was.
I used T.V at that time to converse with my parents and take care of their PC remotely . (Yes like am an obideient son ......ha ha)I had explained my 'Issue' to the owner then , I think it was 2003-2006 ..I could be wrong here, and the owner had explained, if its your parents you want to help, go ahead.
anyway ..to cut a long story short...T.V assumes I use T.V for commercial purposes, while I know I dont.
I dont mind at all paying T.V for all the fun I have had all these years....but how do I repay them without going into complex licensing Issues, because I am NOT a commercial user of T.V.Weird stuf now :Neither am I a millionaire...just a Family man with a salary But I understand that T.V is not the Red Cross & neither the U.N (running completely on charity)
I want to let T.V know I am an ardent Fan , want to pay for the Gratitude I owe them but do not want to get into complex licensing Issues because I use it only for Family purposes( while the AI thinks I am not)
but that chat with the owner some 15 yrs. back ...when T.V was not what the T.V is today , who allowed a son to help his parents , has brought me here after all these years to vent it like it is(& the ever-pesky A.I !).
I want to pay , but a token ammount to T.V .Main Question: so how do we go from here ?
Would Love to hear from the real T.V guys here .( as I suppose contacting the 'owner' today is a Bridge too Far for me)
* at the end of the day, Maybe I shouldn't be here at all !....or shall I keep my mouth shut and just carry on the way it is .
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@Closed account wrote:I'm surprised to hear anyone say they'd return if a reasonably priced package was offered for personal use after being treated like the dust beneath their feet.
I'm happy with my new arrangement which is faster and easier to use.
I agree 100%. If you have a happy base of free users, they will automatically recommend your product whenever the requirement for such a product comes up in conversation. Some will become free users whilst others may require commercial use. To attack your loyal free user base is to score an own goal!
And, as I mentioned previously, instead of having an army of influencers spreading good news about your product, you now have masses of people dissing it. In the short term, the company won't feel much pain but given 6 months the chickens will come home to roost. The company should have used this opportunity to exercise damage control via repair of the damage done and a public apology. Instead, they chose to double down on the damage they were wreaking. The price for that will be dear.
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Here's something else to consider:
A basic Google search will reveal that TV is the most popular app in its category which means it has more users than all its competitors. That also means that it has an enormous base of free users who are experiencing the same thing. Only a tiny fraction of them will take the time to register to use this forum and post anything.The majority will try the support route. Once they have received TV's typical FU response, they will end up extremely frustrated and move on to an alternative (the exact opposite of TV's desired upgrade to a paid license). Their anger will remain and all the happy memories of using TV when it worked as advertised will be converted into hatred with a longing for revenge.
I wonder what the blogs and social media networks will look like in relation to TeamViewer over the coming months?
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Yes, this is it. I have only ever used TeamViewer in the past to access my friends' computers, as it is a simple and secure way to see and be able to interact with their screens. I'm going to have to find something better, which is a shame. It's only recently that I started using it regularly to access my own computer, as I found it the simplest way to access my Linux desktop remotely.
Now I'll be moving to something like X2Go and back to using RDP for my Windows systems. The convenience of using one piece of software doesn't matter when they block you for using it completely within their free license's terms. The customer support is also appalling. It has been days, and no progress, or even an email confirmation that my message was sent.
Furthermore, the lack of dialog from a large company to its users is shocking. Many companies understand that free users help them and hence deserve support. There is no way TeamViewer would be the most popular app without the free users backing it.
I'm very pleased to find this topic too. Finding so many pages of people angry at this awful system makes me feel much better.
Rant over. Bye TV.
(Sorry if this was supposed to be a new topic instead of a reply. I was too angry to try and understand the forum...)
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It's annual price, but is called monthly free REMEMBER! Like many, I have been the promoter of this program, now it is time to start recommending something else. 0
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I have had a free license for teamviewer for years. I use it mostly to monitor my own computers, located at different places in my own home and sometimes when I am not at home for a longer duration. Only now and then I use it to help a member of my family or a friend strictly non commercial, I never get any money or otherwise for it.
Why do I suddenly get time-outs and orders to buy a licence?
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Business use warning and Im using it on 2 laptops connected on my home network and disconnected from the internet as a test.
then I spend 5 minutes trying to make an account to vent here with all the dumb captcha stuff
I see 57 pages of the exact same complaint
Free = frustration and time wasted.
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I wonder if someone can connect a thread on some non-TV forum (such as reddit) to this thread that lists alternatives and experiences others have with alternatives? It has been surprisingly difficult to find a reasonably priced alternative that does the main selling point of TV - i.e. no port forwarding stuff and what not needed. I have found one, but we are not allowed to name competitors in TV's forums.
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Hi all,
I fired up TeamViewer this morning to apply some upgrades to my Ubuntu Plex server, and I received a notification stating that TeamViewer had identified me as a business user and that my connection would be terminated after 5 minutes. Further to this, after disconnecting and trying to reconnect, I was blocked from reconnecting for 10 minutes.
I am absolutely a personal user of this service, how do I go about ensuring this doesn't happen in the future?
Thanks
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So, i just got the following mail from them after trying to contact them (remember, i already got a mail reply to my form request for resetting to free, telling me:
Thank you for getting in touch with us. We are happy to inform you that your TeamViewer ID has been reset to “free”. After reviewing your request, we decided that your use case can be qualified as “personal”.
This is the mail i just received..
Dear User ,
Thank you for your email.
In this case TeamViewer has detected commercial use, to continue using TeamViewer you would have to acquire a TeamViewer License.
Which license would you be interested in obtaining? The Business, Premium or Corporate? As currently I can offer you a license for a discounted price.I have a separate Business/corporate account that i use for work related connections, and i never mix and match them. But for my private usage, i got a free account. Guess it's time to cancle my subscription work account and find something else that we can use for remoting our clients.
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Welcome to the club. They are massively pushing free users to paid membership with **bleep** fake commercial use claims.
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Just came across this massive thread after posting mine. I've just switched to **Third Party Product** (how dare TV censor competitor titles when their software is fundamentally flawed) and uninstalled TV
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@krugern wrote:Welcome to the club. They are massively pushing free users to paid membership with **bleep** fake commercial use claims.
And instead, i'll be removing my paid subscription..
Guess that didn't go as they planned ^^
Temporary solution for me until i find something usefull: I setup a server with OpenVPN at home, that i connect to, and use RDP/NoMachine to remove all machines i have access to (even added my parrents machine to my vpn to be able to control them).
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I'm testing [removed per Community Guidelines] Do the math and get the name
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Just came across this massive thread after posting mine. I've just switched to **Third Party Product** (how dare TV censor competitor titles when their software is fundamentally flawed) and uninstalled TV
My replies are being edited manually to ensure that third-party app names are removed, even when concealed. TeamViewer, maybe you should be more focused on fixing this issue, instead of this futile damage limitation that you're trying to do on your forums.
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