For those orders which are fulfilled via expiring download link, (i.e., the paid customer can download the full version of a game for X days), is there a consensus for how to handle those customers who lose their installation file, and need to re-download after the link expires?

We haven't had that happen yet but so long as their details checked out I'd just issue them another link to download. We're with BMT Micro and it's easy enough to do.

I haven't started selling my game yet, but I registered with BMT Micro, and their system has a way of handling this. You can fake an order (normally used for testing) and put the customer's email address in there instead of yours. It'll send the customer an expiring link to your game, just as when he/she had bought it. The other thing you could do if you're feeling adventurous is create an automated system with expiring links using PHP (that lets the user type in their customer ID and email they used to buy or something). It depends on how much of a load you expect. When you get big enough, an automated system will be a must. But when you're starting out I don't think it's very necessary.

Get this one all the time. Typical is "our computer crashed and we had to reformat...". If the customer info checks out via a lookup with BMT's customer search, then I'll send a manual link from my server to download the full version. I also have to keep manual links for those customers that have errors using BMT's automated download, typically some aol users. To prevent abuse simply give the file a periodically changed set of characters on end of filename.

It's good customer service plus helps minimize chance of losing sales to refunds or chargebacks.

I've actually been thinking of automating this procress ... the user could fill out a form with their email address and the site would send them new download links and reset everything for them. There would be some abuse detection code built in to make sure this is not happening every day from the same user.

I have not done this since It is not really a big enough problem yet. I get requests but not that often. My store keeps track of the number of times they've attempted a download, along with the actual date and time of each attempt, and IP address. So I can check the log before I let them redownload.

Here's some advice:

1. Make sure you write your store so that it's EASY to reset the download expiration. For my first game it was a nightmare.

2. Make sure that you can extend the download period for longer than just a few days. I find that when I comp a reviewer a copy of a game, they don't always download it right away, and so I can easily go in there and just set the expiration to 2 weeks or something like that.

~Hanford

I had to tackle this early on with the frequent updates to the game and after tiring of the mechanical stuff of resending download information. My take is basically similar to what Hanford suggests:

- All downloads are through the site, each user has a personalized 64 character long client "token" that they receive when they purchase. Aside from the client table there is a separate subscription table that tells how long they are able to download updates for.
- If the client misplaces the original token email there is a form they can fill out to get it remailed
- Most client accounts are created as a result of a purchase, but I can also add a reviewer or somebody else to the database and just mail them the token-link.

My subscription periods run for over a year in answer to your original question. The only contacts I get about token recovery is basically when someone has changed emails (jobs) and can't receive email at their old location. I think this system saves me from about 5-10 emails/week.

Here is an example link (non-working):
http://www.mistaril.com/my/?user_ID=b136a6890bc8586024745d83d8d811229b65173d7c0231ae9f16601f10ef17b7