[ale] Ubuntu One music store is a disaster!

[Jim Philips]

I am now on Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 2. I was thinking the Ubuntu One service was a
cool idea, because it allows you to buy songs directly from Rhythmbox. Well,
the experience has not been good. I understand about betas and all of that.
But services that take your money ought to work right, beta or not.
Yesterday, I bought seven songs through the Ubuntu One music store. After I
sent my credit card details, Rhythmbox showed a message next to each song,
saying: "Transferring to your Ubuntu One storage." That wasn't too helpful,
but I remembered there was space for file storage on my Ubuntu One account
on the Web, so I went there. For about fifteen minutes, the files didn't
show up. Then Rhythmbox indicated that all but two had been downloaded.
There is an Ubuntu One directory in my home directory, but they weren't
there. Then I noticed that there was also a directory called .ubuntuone.
Five of the files were there, but the other two were not. In my e-mail, I
got a receipt 7Digital for the purchase of seven songs. 7Digital is the
company that operates the actual music store. The receipt includes a URL for
opening a case with them if you're having trouble. So, I go there and open a
case. The response says that these issues can usually be solved by logging
in to your 7Digital "locker" and retrieving your songs from there. A URL for
the locker was included. I go there. But it isn't the Ubuntu One site, it's
the 7Digital site and it doesn't accept my Ubuntu One login credentials. So,
I create a login to 7Digital's site. But there is no way to link your Ubuntu
One purchases to anything on 7Digital's site, so I am still lost. I opened a
case with Canonical on this. They pointed me to a bug report to let me know
they are aware of it. It turns out the bug is several weeks old. There was
no warning about this when I created my Ubuntu One account or when I went to
buy music.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think this loosey-goosey beta thing
translates well to the world of financial  transactions. I think Canonical
ought to pull this service until they can resolve the bug. Or at least give
people a reliable way to get all of the music they paid for. Right now,
nobody can tell me how to do that. And that's supposed to be okay.
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