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View Full Version : BEWARE OF LINGVOSOFT!


GadgetMan
02-14-2005, 11:26 PM
To all Pocket PC users considering purchase of any product from Russian company called LingvoSoft (www.lingvosoft.com). Please read the following record of my experience with them:

On Dec. 31, 2004 I purchased LingvoSoft Gold Talking Dictionary English <-> Polish version 2.6.07 for Pocket PC from LingoSoft's web site. I got receipt by e-mail shortly after purchase providing the product registration key and link to the web page from which I could download the purchased product. When I followed the link, I discovered that there was no way to download this product. I immediately sent e-mail to LingvoSoft informing them about this problem and asking for the working download link.

My e-mail was ignored by LingvoSoft (although I got automatic confirmation that it was delivered to their mail inbox).

On Jan. 14, 2005 I again followed the link provided in the receipt to the page where the download link was supposed to be available. To my great joy the link now was present there! I figured that although LingvoSoft did not reply to my email, they at least fixed the download problem. I then downloaded and installed this product. To my great surprise and disappointment, when I entered the registration key provided in the receipt e-mail, I was greeted by an error message stating that the key was incorrect. I tried several times making sure I did not mistype it, but it failed every time.

On the same day I sent another e-mail to LingvoSoft informing about the incorrect registration key and asking for a working one. Again, my e-mail was ignored by them, even though it did arrive in their inbox.

Another e-mail from me followed on Jan. 18, 2005 and was completely ignored by LingvoSoft as well.

As a last resort, I sent e-mail to Mr. Dan Feden, LingvoSoft's Sales Manager on Jan. 31, 2005. As before, this one was also delivered, but completely ignored.

I summary, I paid $24.95 US for a product for which LingvoSoft issued non-working registration key. All attempts to correct this problem were completely ignored, although I have waited for their reply and resolution for one and a half months now!

In view of my experience, I have concluded that this Russian company is simply a scam. They gladly take my money, but then leave me with a fake registration key and ignore all calls for help.

I would therefore warn all who are considering purchase of any product from this outfit, to stay clear of them. Otherwise you may end up with no money and not working product, as I did.

Cheers,

Islanti
02-15-2005, 12:58 AM
FWIW, I have successfully purchased 3 different software products from Lingvosoft on two separate occasions without these issues.

Darius Wey
02-15-2005, 01:04 AM
Gadgetman, please check your PMs. I may be able to help you out here.

LingvoSoft
02-15-2005, 09:32 AM
Dear Gadgetman,


We are sorry about this unfortunate mishap. LingvoSoft never ignores users' emails. Besides, we support a Forum on our website where all the issues are solved as they arise. The given issue must have been caused by a technical (server) problem. We have doublechecked all incoming email but there were no messages from you. Darius Wey will kindly provide you with the correct key code.

Again, we are really sorry about this situation.

Best Regards.

Kate Ashley.

LingvoSoft.

Gerard
02-15-2005, 09:38 AM
Since the developer has cleared up this situation, I hope the poster will revise his threads here and on Brighthand and wherever else he copy/pasted the above. It'd be nice for anyone reading these rather damaging statements to see the outcome, with apology from the developer. Online functionality in email, ordering, in lots of places is far from perfected. Processes like email are improving, I think, but mistakes happen for which neither sender nor recipient (or non-recipient) can be blamed. Time to smooth things over, yes?

GadgetMan
02-15-2005, 02:54 PM
I would like to publicly thank Darius Wey for generously providing assistance in resolving this issue. He indeed was able to obtain a working reg key from LingvoSoft and finally I am able to use the product, six weeks after purchasing it.

I am sorry, but I do not believe in Kate Ashley's explanation that LingvoSoft's (or rather Ectaco's) mail server malfunctioned for an entire month, as this is how long I kept sending my e-mails to them. I received confirmation e-mail from their Mail Daemon that every one of my e-mails was received and placed in recipients mailbox. I kept all those delivery receipts and will gladly forward them to LingvoSoft if they wish to verify their authenticity.

In summary, I am glad that the issue is now resolved and I can finally enjoy the dictionary. Once again, I thank Darius, as I am convinced that the issue would have never been resolved without his help.

And yes, I will post the above information on all other forums where I placed my original message.

Cheers,

billyevil
02-17-2005, 03:34 AM
I have to wonder if the emails got filtered out mistakenly by the spam filter. Email is great, but these kinds of things do sometimes happen. We use email, an online chat, and a forum for contacting us for support at our site, just so if something unexpected happens and you don't get through to us via one, there's always two more. I think it's important to have as many points of contact as possible to avoid misunderstandings like this. The last thing any developer wants is the customer to have a bad experience.