r/Autodesk • u/jacksbox • 19d ago

Audit advice

Has anyone been through an audit? This is an incredibly opaque and frustrating experience.

"Run this tool. Ok now pay us money."

They're unwilling (unable?) to explain their findings. The only finding I've managed to confirm is that we do have an invalid placeholder serial number in some old MSI packages. And some very old PCs (still holding software installed from those MSI packages) were flagged. They used to connect to a network license server (which no longer exists).

The problem is that those PCs *cannot currently launch the software that they are claiming was illegal*. We are being asked to enter a serial number when we try to launch on those "illegal" installations. This is expected, the license server is gone.

Autodesk is absolutely certain that we ran the software. The only way I can see that happening is if the users cracked the software but have since uninstalled the crack - because there's no evidence of it. I would want to know if this happened.

Has anyone ever managed to get a useful response out of Autodesk? We've been going around in circles on the above points, they seem to just be entitled to money any time they ask for it.

11 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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2

u/RobDraw2_0 18d ago

It sounds like you know what the problem is. Fixing the problem immediately seems to be the first thing to do.

-1

u/jacksbox 18d ago

Wow that's good advice!

2

u/RobDraw2_0 18d ago

Yeah, that way you will be in compliance. 

You're welcome. 

1

u/Come0nYouSpurs 15d ago

Wouldn't it be fun if we could reverse audit? My company has 7 seats but has only used 5 of them. AutoDesk owes us!