Am I being ridiculous?

[crispeto]

A little over a month ago I purchased some upgrade software from Handango for $11.99. Since then my hard drive has gone kaput and now I have a new laptop. I went to download the software to my new computer from Handango and was told that because I purchased it over a month ago, I have to pay an additional $6.99 to download it again. Olive Tree, Laridian, and Revolution Software don't charge me anything to re-download software. If it's my account, why can't I just download it when I want? Am I missing something here?

[mv]

why don´t u download the trial and use your current serial number?

[Sven Johannsen]

I've seen that silly download manager thing they try to tack on to every purchase. Never have left it on. If they are levying a $6.99 charge to enable downloading of any (all?) previous purchases, then I would probably go for it. I appreciate (or appreciated) being able to go back and get things I bought from them darned near forever. Often getting an updated version if there was no charge. If they are levying that fee for each purchase, then I think I will be making every effort to not use Handango. Over time, I think I have personally made some impact on their success. This would not be a wise thing to do to loyal customers IMHO.

[crispeto]

With this particular software I have to have the full install. Luckily I just found the original one and can use it. I just think their so called "protection" is a big rip off.

[applejosh]

I haven't seen that before. If this is the new Handango, then I guess they lost my business. That's absolutely ridiculous. First they gouge the developers with their extremely high "cut" and now they gouge the customers, too? What a bunch of :bad-words:

[JPD6825]

No! You are not being ridiculous. This consumer doesn't want any of that crap. My money will go elsewhere if there is a viable alternative. Have you also gotten the new feature - software registered to your device? That really pissed me off when I purchased my last app. Normally I'd buy a piece of software and install it on my PPC and on my wife's PPC. Come on... a two-for-one for his-n-hers PPCs seems pretty reasonable to me. (I think there system may be a bit weak and may be easily defeated - but I haven't even tried to do that yet. I usually have more important things to do than mess around with crap like that) :evil:

[crispeto]

Get this. I wrote to them complaining about all of this. I told them that if they charge me $7.00 for trying to download software I legally own, I would contact my Amex and try to dispute it. They replied that if I try that, they will cancel my account and I will not be allowed to purchase anything through them or anyone they are affiliated with (whatever companies they are). I have all of this in writing by the way. Wow!

[Janak Parekh]

Get this. I wrote to them complaining about all of this. I told them that if they charge me $7.00 for trying to download software I legally own, I would contact my Amex and try to dispute it. They replied that if I try that, they will cancel my account and I will not be allowed to purchase anything through them or anyone they are affiliated with (whatever companies they are). I have all of this in writing by the way. Wow!
Chances are, the fine print when you buy software says they are not obliged to provide you with another download. :? I don't like it, but this protection scheme has swept much of the download industry, both Pocket PC software and otherwise. I find that most companies don't enforce it (e.g., if you remove it they still let you download the software), but I guess that's changing. :(

In this case, I'd contact the developer first as a worst-case scenario. I believe most Pocket PC developers are small-scale folks and would consider bending over backwards to keep their loyal customers satisfied.

--janak

[Guest979]

It seems to me that if you make a credit card charge, knowing in advance that you intend to dispute it, that would constitute fraud.

On the other hand, Handango's threats of retaliation for a dispute sound incredibly unethical to me, and I sincerely hope that there is a law against that, for nonfraudulent disputes at least!

I've seen Handango's plan to offer re-downloading insurance, and it looked incredibly stupid to me. I was mainly bothered that, for me at least, it was added to my cart automatically, by default, and I had to go out of my way to get rid of it. I don't mean to "nag," but the old adage is still the best option: BACKUP as much as you can, especially data that is valuable and/or irreplaceable.

[crispeto]

I agree with you that knowing you're going to dispute a charge is fraud. But it seems that they are putting people in the position of "considering that" if they want to re-download software they have already purchased. I'm not really trying to condone fraudulent behavior but I would like to see them change their policy.

[juni]

What? I thought you could download software you bought as much as you wanted?? And when your download counter is full they reset it for you if you ask.

[angler]

What? I thought you could download software you bought as much as you wanted?? And when your download counter is full they reset it for you if you ask.

Yes, I have same experience. You are prompted for credit card number when you reached certain number of re-downloading. After you re-confirm the credit card number, the downloading link appear and you get the software. Ocassionally you have to email Handango ask them to reset your number of download. There are software quite often release update in short period of time such as Journal Bar, you will easily reach the number of redownloading set by Handango. I remember there is a security setting about ActiveX can override the prompt for credit card number but I forget what the setting is. I can now redownload the softwares purchased from Handango for many times without any issue and no need to contact them to reset the downloading time.

[Guest979]

What? I thought you could download software you bought as much as you wanted?? And when your download counter is full they reset it for you if you ask.

I'm guessing that it's been at least a few weeks since you bought anything from Handango... this downloading "service" is quite new.

Either that, or you live in a country that has better consumer protection laws than the US, and you are using a different version of the Handango site.

[Phillip Dyson]

First they gouge the developers with their extremely high "cut" and now they gouge the customers, too? What a bunch of :bad-words:

I hear a lot of developers complaining about PocketGear and Handango. But my question is are there enough dissatisfied developers to make any difference.

I've wondered, and probably mentioned on some long lost post, why developers don't get together and form some kind of cooperative. Then put up their own distribution channel. Then let the market punish Handango.

I realize that I'm doing a bit of armchair quarterbacking ... but its a thought.

[r@dimus]

Get this. I wrote to them complaining about all of this. I told them that if they charge me $7.00 for trying to download software I legally own, I would contact my Amex and try to dispute it. They replied that if I try that, they will cancel my account and I will not be allowed to purchase anything through them or anyone they are affiliated with (whatever companies they are). I have all of this in writing by the way. Wow!

Well, if I wanted this stuff back bad enough I'd pay the $7, re-download everything, and then consider how badly I really want to continue to do business with these people.

In the meantime, you now know the importance of these two little words:

OFFSITE BACKUP

[Jason Dunn]

I'm going to be contacting Handango about this, stay tuned.

[applejosh]

What? I thought you could download software you bought as much as you wanted?? And when your download counter is full they reset it for you if you ask.

Methinks this new policy (if it is indeed a new way they are doing things) would put a crimp in the style of a few skinners who make their updates available by letting users re-download via these channels. You'd think they'd be happy with the 40+% they already take on each transaction.

[Sven Johannsen]

After reading through a bit, and having applied my 2 cents, I went to Handango and logged in to my account. I was able to see all my previous purchases and even re-downloaded one to see if I could. It let me. Don't know what the difference is for me, except possibly a good an long time customer.

I would just recommend to all to make backups of your downloads. I am reasonably organized in that I have all my purchased software in folders in one directory, along with the registration e-mails and receipt soft printouts (Repligo or pdf). Doesn't take long to write the whole directory to a CD or DVD now and again.

[Guest979]

Yeah, of course you can still download demos and most just need a regcode... now, I already thought this service was worthless, and I'm not defending them, but I guess the idea must be one or both of the following:

1) Maybe some programs require you to download a version that is specifically "tuned" to your device ID and Handango regcode. Not many apps are like this, probably because it's neither efficient nor ethical, but maybe Handango is planning to start doing this for everything they can (since they never cared about efficiency or ethics anyway).

2) I think maybe it is a local mirroring-type service, as in, you can still download it from Handango's servers even if the program or company vanishes (cough... PPC version of Dataviz Passwords Plus... cough). I'm not certain that this is how it works though.

I suppose they are welcome to try to sell any service they want, but the two things that reallly bother me are that they add a (non-free) item to your cart without permission, and that they may be using tricks like (1) above to try to force you to pay extra, although maybe they aren't.

But as for the poster above who said "just pay $7 and download everything"... the service is $7 per program. <Blech!>

[Pixelnose]

Well, if this is true, let's see what our options are (Juni and myself):

We can't move to pocketgear. Last time I checked, which was a few months ago, they only pay developers via check. Checks haven't been cashable in this country for some time, so that's out.

We can't move everything to Paypal: We're still a bit in the dark ages on our Paypal store. Sbsh.net is kindly hosting a download server and db for us, but the scripting is done manually. There's no automatic keygen and mass mailing system. We'd be swamped not only by existing customers demanding what's rightfully theirs, but new ones as well.

We could purchase one of the many ecommerce solutions meant for shareware developers, but the cost would mean we'd have to raise prices again, and come on, these are skins, not programs, so that's out.

Worse case, it could shut us down. Many customers blame the developer for these new policies, not realizing it's Handango. I know that's tough to believe but it's true. I answer a lot of support emails about things that are basically Handango. Customers aren't bothered about whether it's us or Handango. All they know is that now they have to pay for upgrades, even though we claim upgrades are free.

If this turns out to be true, we, meaning customers, developers, everybody, needs to make our displeasure known. :(

Handango's motto: Why do we do it? Because we can. 0X

[juni]

I was looking all over Handango for this and couldn't find a thing. If any of you ran into this, can you quote the exact text of this term so I can add it to my webpage.

People: Use paypal, you may have to wait a few hours for the key but after that - no additional "download" charges - ever. And the prices are cheaper.

[Pixelnose]

I know of two customers for sure who have encountered this. But wow, it's generating lots of news, isn't it? People in their 1's of 10's are really protesting this. :twisted:

Well, I can see how this would not only be bad for customers, but swamp "little guy" developers as well. Who knew Handango would get in the "protection" business?

For our part, there is a solution in the works, give us two-three weeks, and for goodness sakes don't purchase any "protection." ;)

[Guest979]

Did you try actually adding something to your cart?

Here's a screen shot of what happens when I add something to my cart:

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/7594/protection4pr.png

Notes:
1. Some irrelevant portions of the picture have been erased for privacy reasons
2. The window on the right is what pops up if you click "What's this?" in the window on the left
3. The "protection" was added to my cart without my knowledge or consent - I didn't even have the option to not add it
4. Yes, I'm a Mac user, and I have a small screen. Deal with it :)

[crispeto]

Has anyone heard any more about this ridiculous policy? I posted three different forum links to my correspondence with Handango. I'm interested to see how they will respond to our frustration. I'll post what they respond with.

[juni]

"Download protection", shouldn't it be named ""fork over the money if you want to download your software a month after you bought it "protection"?

:D

[Pixelnose]

Hey, I have a Mac too, so you're among friends. :)

Looks like Handango is now run by Tony Soprano. :evil: