aphexplotz

So, as promised, my tales of present day life.

1) Stupid software support people.

Now, I know the job is difficult. Hell, a large portion of what I DO is support on software. However, I'm only tolerant to a certain extent, then I become HIGHLY irritable.

Now, normally when I use software on a daily basis, I either find a free solution, or I purchase it. Its just one of my things. I have no issues with piracy, especially when the software is so absurdly overpriced that no average person using it in a non-commercial way could ever justify paying for it. Hell, Linux, one of the best pieces of software invented to this day, is still around and going strong; and its FREE. I see it as digital Darwinism.

So, when I actually pay for software, I expect a few things. One, is to get something for my money.

I, in the not TOO distant past, had several hundred DVDs stolen from me. It was a collection of movies that took a long time, and a lot of hard work to build. It was so comprehensive, I still have no idea to this day EXACTLY how much I lost on it, only that there is no way I can afford to rebuild it in any realistic timeframe. So, I procured myself a DVD Burner, a spool of DVDs, and attacked my Netflix queue. After queueing up several hundred of my lost movies in netflix, I began looking for a program that would allow me to rip and burn my DVDs.

I was reccommended CloneDVD and AnyDVD. I downloaded the 30 day trials, used them for a bit, and was very satisfied. At the end of my trial period, I decided to order them.

The followup email came almost immediately.

So, I download the keys, and run them on my machine.

The anyDVD key works brilliantly. So does the cloneDVD key... or so i thought.

Both keys ask you to restart the programs, so I do. I open up cloneDVD. No trial period expired message, excellent. I start up anyDVD. I get this:



Curious.

I try a few things, to no avail.

Bah.

My key is broken!

So, I email their support.

They email me back:

Ok, annoying, but understandable, maybe their tracker doesnt take images. I reply with the text from the box typed out, an explanation of the problem and another image (just in case). He replies back to me with this:

Now, at this point its taking 4-5 days for this guy to get back to each of my emails. I'm a little irked at his response. What makes me think it isnt registered? Maybe the fact that I cant run the program due to it being UNREGISTERED and the trial period being expired. I explained this in my email. Ok. I'm frustrated but determined. I open up the key, to see if i can manually edit whatever fields need to be edited. I see that its fairly simple, one registry entry and it should work. I fiddle with my registry for a while, with no luck. Frustrated, and sure I have an invalid key, I email him back AGAIN, and explain my issue AGAIN, hoping it will sink in this time.

He replies with this:

Ok, now I'm LIVID. Its taken 12 days to get this far in the conversation with this guy. He's either extremely inept, or doesnt seem to understand what planet he's on because
A) The problem I'm having is with anyDVD, NOT cloneDVD, as I stated several times in each of my emails.
B) I do not have any system restore, registry protection or anything else enabled while I am trying to do this, on top of the fact that I manually edited the key in to the proper entry, all of which I stated in my last email to him.
And C) I purchased two keys at the same time, that were delivered in a bundle, why would ONE work and the other not if something like system restore is preventing this? By process of elimination, I've come to the conclusion that the key is almost certainly invalid. If in my next email I do not get a working key from this guy, I'm going to ask for a refund, and just pirate the damn software.

Ironically, pirating the software would have gotten it working for me in just a few minutes, but being a good consumer, I decided to purchase it. The "honest" route has caused more trouble for me than it is worth, ending in me paying for software that hasnt worked for 12 days (and counting), and support that is almost non-existant.

Blah.