Statement on TimeTrax Forum Status

[Scott Greczkowski]

As many of you have noticed today the TimeTrax forum was gone for a bit and now it's back (at least for now)

Also some of you might have noticed that the Official TimeTrax website now redirects you to XM Satellite Radios Homepage.

Since we host the "Unofficial" TimeTrax Support Forum we have been getting questions all day at what happened to TimeTrax. The honest answer is we don't know.

So what happened to the TimeTrax Forum today? One of the TimeTrax folks went through and deleted every message in the TimeTrax area. Then they sent me a PM asking me to close the TimeTrax Forum which I did.

However in thinking about things and doing some checks I was unable to verify that this person from TimeTrax was who he says he is or if the person is still an employee of TimeTrax.

I went in and undeleted all the messages from the past 30 days. (When the TimeTrax folks delete a message they are still on the system they are just hidden from view, I can actually undelete every message back from day 1 at the TimeTrax forum (or the rest of the site for that matter.)

I got a message from this "employee" scolding me (or at least thats the way I took it) for undeleting them. I have a problem with that, as it's not TimeTrax Forum, it's SatelliteGuys Forum, and in addition per our user agreement all postings made to SatelliteGuys become property of SatelliteGuys.

So having no idea if this employee is an actual employee still I have reinstated the forum and will keep it online until I hear directly from Elliot. And even then I may decide to keep it open as I feel that TimeTrax customer deserve to know whats going on with the software they purchased.

The entire reason I invited TimeTrax here was because I believed in the product, when TimeTrax became an outcast from the other XM forums they were welcome here because this was indeed great technology, Tivo for your Satellite Radio. While I have not aggreed with some of the ways that TimeTrax has done business I have stood by them because of the promise and vision of the product.

If TimeTrax is sold off or if the source code is made public I do hope we can keep the support here at SatelliteGuys, I would even be willing to host the files if someone else picked up this product. This was a great product (which could always have been better) and if I can do anything to keep it alive I will.

What does the future hold? That I don't know I am in the dark as much as you are about whats going on. I do hope to hear from Elliot to hears whats going on. And if we do decide to close the TimeTrax forum remember you can discuss TimeTrax in our main Satellite Radio forum.

 

[Albert123]

Scott,

I just wanted to say thanks for the statement and for reactivating the forum.

 

[spt72]

I also thank you for keeping this open....
Its so unfair when a company just bolts like that without any explanation.

They scold you for months for daring to question their software's liability and then THEY end up being the ones bolting. Great!

But thank you to Satellite Guys for standing behind "the people" here and realizing the POTENTIAL of the software which was never reached and the use for people who shelled out the cash to be able to discuss issues they are having with it.

Thank you SatGuys!

 

[AMG_Roadster]

Thanks for reposting the messages and posting what little information you do have. It is a shame that TimeTrax appears to have sold out. I recently purchased a radio receiver specifically to use TimeTrax to listen to several programs on my daily drive to and from work.

My guess is that you will not be seeing the source code nor will any other company be picking up where TimeTrax left off. I believe it has now disappeared into the XM vaults never to see the light of day.

 

[src666]

If TimeTrax is truely gone, please consider reinstating _all_ of the deleted posts, back to day 1. There were many posts deleted based upon their questioning and or bucking TimeTrax's reputation and authority, and it would be nice to have the complete record reinstated.

Thanks!

 

[dalec21]

Scott
many thanks, you have always been the greatest for looking out for the users
tnx
..Dale

 

[TT24]

Wherever Time Trax has gone, they have taken my money with them. In May I purchased one of the XM kits and I have yet to recieve anything. I sent in a couple of trouble tickets before the site went down and I didn't recieve a response. I tried calling their 1-800 number today and it seems to be out of service.

I feel totally ripped off. I called my credit card company today to reverse the charges. I am not surprised that Elliot would delete all of the posts. Seems to me that Time Trax is trying to cover their tracks.

 

[kingsman]

Scotty,

Did anyone at timetrax take you up on your offer to host the "mothership" functions?

Cheers,
Tony

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have heard nothing from TimeTrax, which unfortunately is very telling. However by the same tolken some things still do not add up.

I do hope we hear something soon.

 

[Leslie]

Thanks for the post --

Les

 

[minorthr]

Seems kind of odd they would disappear and give you no real reason. It's even odder that the site forwards you to XM. Wasnt Timetrax getting along better with Sirius then XM? I thought I read a while back that they had some sort of agreement with Sirius.

 

[pretzelboy]

Seems kind of odd they would disappear and give you no real reason. It's even odder that the site forwards you to XM. Wasnt Timetrax getting along better with Sirius then XM? I thought I read a while back that they had some sort of agreement with Sirius.

I took the forwarding to XM as an indication that XM now owns TimeTrax.

 

[Juan]

I took the forwarding to XM as an indication that XM now owns TimeTrax.

Or a disgruntled ex-employee playing games

 

[philhu]

Or worse.

When the hacker directv sites were forced to shut down, they were forwarded to directv so hackers got a surprise.

Maybe that happenned here.

XM got an injunction and Timetrax shut down quickly, site pointed to xm.

 

[pretzelboy]

Or worse.

When the hacker directv sites were forced to shut down, they were forwarded to directv so hackers got a surprise.

Maybe that happenned here.

XM got an injunction and Timetrax shut down quickly, site pointed to xm.

There is a bit of a difference here. Court judgement against those sites was achieved by DirecTV and those sites became owned by DirecTV.

An injunction doesn't force someone to point the site to XM. It would merely force them to suspend operation. If there were an injunction I think that would have surfaced by now. It's a court action. Also, if it was an injunction then you'd think the included requirement would be to cease operating the validation servers.

I'm still of the opinion that this was willful. They entered into an agreement to sell the assets of the company. There were no products available at all on their website except for the software immediately prior to the disappearance. It sounds like housecleaning to me. We've seen enough instances right here of attempts to conceal or control information regarding TimeTrax. Just look at the first post of this thread. He was asked to delete all the evidence by someone who is or was a TimeTrax employee.

 

[rwj10]

I contacted xmradio tody since timetrax has redirected all connection to their website. I was told by a senior vp that xmradio has nothing to do with timetrax, I then said it was very strange that when ever you go to timetrax it take us to xmradio. Someone had to program the domain to handle this, I was then told they are looking into it.

 

[Albert123]

Someone had to program the domain to handle this

Well, that has nothing to do with XM. Whoever owns timetraxtech.com decides what it points to. I could easily make my personal web page redirect to XM.

 

[philhu]

There were no products available at all on their website except for the software immediately prior to the disappearance. It sounds like housecleaning to me. We've seen enough instances right here of attempts to conceal or control information regarding TimeTrax.

I beg to differ.

The google cache from the weekend shows clearly that there were products/kits/software for sale

 

[pretzelboy]

I beg to differ.

The google cache from the weekend shows clearly that there were products/kits/software for sale

You need to go back and look at that cache again. You didn't read very well. I'm looking at that cache right now. The products are there but each hardware item is listed as currently unavailable.

TimeTrax Recast XM
Available for download now
Full Price
Regular First 12 Months $44.99
Your First 12 Months$34.99
You Save $10.00!

TimeTrax Recast SIRIUS
Available for download now
Full Price
Regular First 12 Months $44.99
Your First 12 Months$34.99
You Save $10.00!


TimeTrax Connect XM
Currently Unavailable
List Price: $99.99
Full Price
Regular First 12 Months $79.99
Your First 12 Months$59.99
You Save $40.00!



TimeTrax Complete Sirius Sportster
Currently Unavailable
Full Price
First 12 Months $299.99


TimeTrax Complete Sirius (with Sirius Connect Radio)
Currently Unavailable
List Price: $179.99
Full Price
Regular First 12 Months $169.99
Your First 12 Months$151.99


TimeTrax Connect Sirius Sportster
Currently Unavailable
Full Price
First 12 Months $139.99

REFURBISHED TimeTrax Complete SIRIUS (with SIRIUS Connect)
Currently Unavailable
Full Price
Regular First 12 Months $129.99
Your First 12 Months$111.99
You Save $18.00!

TimeTrax Recast SIRIUS
Available for download now
Full Price
Regular First 12 Months $44.99
Your First 12 Months$34.99
You Save $10.00!

This can be viewed at: http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cach...Cat=1+timetrax+store&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

The same thing was documented elsewhere in a discussion with the CEO of the company (the next to the last time he was heard from publically) that each and every product with the exception of the software was listed as "currently unavailable" next to the item on that order page.


The following was the statement made to him that day (June 23):

It's nice that you showed up here. We just expect to have to take everything with a grain of salt. I don't think there's a lot of confidence that your company will exist in 20-30 years to have to check back with you on that license expiration. After all, a simple viewing of your order page shows nothing available except for the software. Every single hardware item is tagged as 'currently unavailable.' When your core items are all unavailable that doesn't give much hope for items that are supposed to be released or, as in the case of the TraxCatcher, the date of availability had been passed by a month before it was finally removed. Speaking of which, what ever happened to the iPod-centric system? It just disappeared. I guess it's 'currently unavailable' too.

There simply wasn't anything available from them except for their software right up to the point of their disappearance.

His response?

This is my last post in any game of 'gotcha' with you or anyone else. I'm here to share information, answer broad, non-user specific questions and to say it like it is. I'm not playing a game of semantics.

And there you go. He got caught in the middle of what we now know was an abandonment of his customers but he's only going to answer 'broad questions'. He never did that either. He avoided a LOT of questions of which some were about the software calling home and what information was being passed.

 

[mjbcarlson]

Pressure from MPA or XM

I"ve always wanted to play Sherlock Holmes, so lets deduce the scenario from the facts.

Fact 1: Site is redirected to XM.

Why?

1) Perhaps a F#U to XM radio as XM radio may have filed suit in response to pressure put upon it from MPA, or perhaps MPA itself.

Evidence: Our reg codes still work. In fact, now I can run the software on multiple machines. This makes me think that the code writers must have put a statement that says, if you can't find the server, or were out of busienss, disable the verification procedure. I expect any day that either our software will shut off, or the MPA will be be knocking on our doors.

2) Perhaps a XM buyout? Not likely.

Evidence Against: The owners would have let us known this. Plus, XM has been under enough heat from MPA from my understanding

I choose #1.

-mjbcarlson


ps. I had made contact with the owners of Timetrax once or twice. They seemed really odd. But I like their product--except that it drops parts of songs.( I have a pretty fast connection, so I have no idea why.)