Gold version Marketing strategy mistake or fraud???

[stehno]

I don't know what to make of MediaMonkey's Gold version upgrade marketing strategy. Last week I decided to upgrade to the MM gold version. In so doing, I was enticed to a website hosted by Trialpay I believe which redirected me to other websites where if I became members there I'd get a free upgrade to MediaMonkey's gold version.

I could have paid the gold version upgrade amount or opt for a membership to one of these other companies. I selected Columbia House DVD club even though I really had no desire to join any of the selected companies.

Well, after a few hours of fumbling around MM finally provided the gold version license key. I deleted my old 3.x version, upgraded to the 4.x version per the instructions.

I entered the license key and I get the message that the license key entered was for version 3.

So I deleted version 4 and reinstalled 3.x and the lic version was invalid there too.

After about 3 or 4 hours of bullcrap I contacted MM support Russell and Michael I think and long story short, they would not give me the gold version license key that I obviously paid for and even proved to them.

When I forwarded my Welcome to Columbia House emails to both of them they immediately stopped responding.

Does this seem like an honest mistake or marketing fraud?

[Lowlander]

Just contact support with your order number to have this figured out: http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/inde ... &_a=submit

[stehno]

As stated above, I did that and received one reply from 2 guys. When I forwarded to them proof that I had just become a member of Columbia House DVD they never replied after that.

What chaps my hide is that it was MM who provided me the invalid license key: **************************

Apparently this key is for Gold 3.x version, when I should have received a gold 4.x version. But it's an invalid 3.x key anyway.

Talk about a frickin' waste of time. I use MM maybe 10 hours a year. No big deal. But when MM sends me a wild goose chase and cause me to spend my time and money by enticing me to engage in a phony upgrade is what pizzes me off.

[jiri]

I don't quite understand what's the reason of this forum post. You got a reply 10 days ago in your support ticket that your original purchase is from Dec. 2008, clearly for MM 3.x.

Jiri

[stehno]

The reason for my posting this is because you're flat out wrong. I've never purchased anything for MM. Last week I decided to upgrade my free version to the Gold version and hence the subsequent little nightmare you and your affiliates have generated.

Get it through your head. I may well have been using the free version since 2008 but all the events to upgrade to gold were about 10 days ago. Last time I checked it's 2012.

I would think this is not too difficult to understand. But I've been wrong before.

Did it ever occur to you that MM's relationship/interface (eg a 2-phase commit process) with Trialpay and Columbia House may be f'ed up at least on this transaction?

Or do you think after 4 years of using MM for maybe 50 hours total I decided to make this story up, generate false emails from Columbia House DVD welcoming me into the fold, and then forward those emails to you because, well, because in the past 4 years I couldn't think of anything better to do with my life?

Jeepers.

[rusty]

Hi John,

We may very well be wrong, but we need your help to figure out what's going on. We only have a record of a purchase made via Trialpay from your e-mail address in 2008.

The last correspondence in the ticket that you'd opened is an email from me to you on Jan. 10th. We haven't received anything from you since--no proof of purchase.

Please log into eSupport, and send me your purchase order number so that we can look it up and straighten this out .

Thanks.

-Rusty

[stehno]

Thanks for your reply, Rusty.

If I paid in 2008 for MM, then I would have had the gold version since that time, is that not correct? Had I possessed the gold version we wouldn't be engaging in this tearful dialogue. Why? Because all I wanted about 10 days ago was a faster disc burning time to save my time. And if I already owned and used the gold version I never would have sought a second gold version upgrade.

So I think it's save to assume that I never actually purchased the gold version back in 2008, but yes I've owned the 'free' version since about that time.

Since I never purchased a gold version in 2008, nor did I purchase the gold version 10 days ago, I have no MM monkey purchase order to provide you. I already sent to you 2 Columbia House DVD confirmation emails from 10 and 9 days ago but obviously to you they do not suffice. I have nothing more to provide you except perhaps the movies I ordered.

Below is a list of info I had obtained that night (that would be 10 days ago, not 4 years ago). Most of which probably came from your biz associate Trialpay.

------------------------------------------------------------------
V39-**************** MediaMonkey license key
MediaMonkey Gold 4.x
Download link
MediaMonkey Gold 4.x
Activation key
(Keep your MediaMonkey Gold 4.x license key in a safe place)
V39-******************
Instructions
To activate "MediaMonkey Gold 3.x" features:

1. Install the latest version of MediaMonkey Gold 3.x: http://www.mediamonkey.com/MediaMonkey_Setup.exe
2. Run MediaMonkey by double-clicking the icon. On the menu bar click 'MediaMonkey Gold', and then 'Register MediaMonkey Gold'.
3. When prompted, enter your Username and License Key. Once you click 'OK', all MediaMonkey Gold features will be enabled.

Your registration information follows:
Username: John Stehno
License key: V39-*******************

We recommend saving this information in a safe place for future reference.
https://www.trialpay.com/account/order/?oid=YWT5CN5
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now before go off about 2008 again, please bear in mind that 4.x probably did not exist in 2008.

Sorry Rusty, but I have every reason to believe at this juncture that one of us is frustrated and the other is just a figment of the one's imagination.

[jiri]

I already sent to you 2 Columbia House DVD confirmation emails from 10 and 9 days ago but obviously to you they do not suffice.

No, although we do have your request in our support system, there isn't any such confirmation e-mail included. Please try to sent the full e-mails again.

Your registration information follows:
Username: John Stehno

Sorry, just looked up the order again and the Transaction Date is listed as '2008-12-14 01:35:27'. Certainly, I can't judge whether it's correct or whether you are right and TrialPay made a mistake - we would need the e-mails from you to get better idea.

Jiri

[stehno]

"Certainly, I can't judge whether it's correct or whether you are right and TrialPay made a mistake - we would need the e-mails from you to get better idea."

Sorry, Jiri, but you have judged. You just judged poorly by refusing to apply any sound logic or reasoning or customer-oriented service to your judgement.

So according to your records I paid for MM back in 2008? Great, then what's the problem? Just send me my 2008 gold lic key (since I never received it in 2008) and a link were I can download that version and if everything works I'll be on my merry way and I promise you'll never hear from me again.

As for sending you the trialpay emails, I'd be happy to. But since you claim to not have received my previous emails that included the attached Columbia House DVD emails (even though I sent them twice) why not provide me your specific email address to send everything I have pertaining to this recent event? But you might want to check with Russell since I sent those emails immediately after receiving his emails to me.

BTW, there's no reason to edit/hide the license key I listed in my previous post above. It's an invalid lic key. That's the same lic key I obtained from MM/Trialpay 10 or 12 days ago and it's invalid for both 3.x and 4.x and that's why I'm running laps with you now. Actually, it seems that we're running laps because you're not reading any of the content in my postings. The invalid license key is: V39-********************.

I've now got more than 4 hours invested into this issue. Funny, isn't it, how I thought I'd be saving myseif time by purchasing the gold version? What's even funnier is I only download maybe 5 high-rez albums a year.

[jiri]

The license key you provided and received in 2008 _is_ a valid MM 3.x license key (just re-tested it). So, when you install MM 3.x and use this key, you really should be able to use MM Gold. It certainly won't work with MM 4.x, since it's 3.x key only.

We really don't have any attached e-mails here in the support system (which any person here, including me and Rusty can access). It really makes sense to try again, since it works well with any other support incidents we have. In case it doesn't work, we can try another method.

Jiri

[stehno]

I could play your game, Jiri, and in turn ask you why the f#$# did you guys send me an invalid v3.x license key 12 days ago? Or better yet, why did you send me this invalid key back in 2008 (which I never received)? Better still, why did you send me any license key in 2008, because to the best of my knowledge I never purchased anything from MM directly (which I never received)?

That's the real problem to begin with, isn't it? It boils down to the invalid license key that you claim I purchased in 2008 that I never received or the problem is the invalid license key I claim you provided me less than 2 weeks ago that is useless.

Yet, you'd rather play dumb and lay all of this at my doorstep to prove to you, .... well, I'm not sure what. But in either case it seems to me that MM owes me a valid (not invalid) v3.x license key from my purchase back in 2008 or MM owes me a valid v3.x or v4.x gold license key I claim to have purchased indirectly less than 2 weeks ago. I say pay up!!!!! so we can all work on other fun projects.

If that's the same key you claim to have sent me in 2008, why doesn't it work for v3.x today nor v4.x today? And why have all of my previous burns been at the slowest rate, and when I had previously tried burning at faster rates, it always told me I had to purchase the gold version for the faster burn rates?

See you guys have access to your MM software and you have access to the Gold lic key version in question. Yet, you won't even take the time to enter the key with a v3.x versiont to verify if it's a valid key. You simply look at it and can tell at a glace that it's a v3.x lic key and then you DROP THE BALL RIGHT THERE and blame me for your failures, ignorance, and/or laziness. Simply because you won't even bother to confirm whether or not the key is valid.

Can you not see that the key in question is the point here?

Part of me hopes that you're doing this just to yank my chain. But my fear is that you are sincere.

Why don't you have your supervisor review this correspondence exchange, because it really is just me running around in circles here?

I will send you anything I have regarding columbia house DVD membership and trialpay again to the support email account again.

But by now you should be coming around realizing that MM owes me some form of valid gold license key. Based on your own admission.

[stehno]

Jiri, I just sent an email to support@mediamonkey.com. In addition to the 2 Columbia House DVD emails, I also attached 3 Trialpay emails that should substantiate the extremely poor customer service and even the lack of even the most basic comprehension you, Russell, and Martin have given me or the situation at hand.

Just in case somebody claims they never received my latest email (like they did before), I'm also pasting the Trialpay emails below. Again, some of the notes/links I had gathered 2 weeks ago while jumping through hoops trying to make things work I had already pasted in one of the postings above.

Now may I please have my valid gold version license key? I don't give a frick if it's for the 2008 gold license key you claim I paid for back then or if it's the 2012 v4.x I claim I jumped through hoops for and paid for indirectly two weeks ago, so long as there is a working version of MM I can download that will accept whichever license key you provide me.

I cannot believe how obtuse MM support has been at every turn regarding this situation and for which their repeated blunders have caused much grief and wasted time. If this was not an April fool's prank, then surely it must be fraud.

p.s. If indeed the license key in question is valid for you as you say, then why did it say invalid with the v3.x I reinstalled after it failed with the v4.x version I also installed? I could not reinstall the v3.x because I could not locate it. Somebody in support sent me the link to the v3.x. Could you have sent me a link to an older v3.x?

Trialpay email 1:
-----Original Message-----
From: TrialPay Support [mailto:no-reply@trialpay.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2012 11:24 PM
To: jstehno@comcast.net
Subject: Contacting TrialPay Support

Dear John,

To contact our support team, click the link below and sign into your account. If the link doesn't work, copy and paste it into your Web browser's address field.

https://www.trialpay.com/i/?t=4&ae=8rsV ... 189c39b93c

Please DO NOT reply to this e-mail—it will not be received.

Thank you,

The TrialPay Support Team
http://www.trialpay.com/support

Trialpay email 2:
-----Original Message-----
From: TrialPay Support [mailto:no-reply@trialpay.com]
Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2012 9:51 PM
To: John Stehno
Subject: Accessing Your TrialPay Account

Dear John,

Please click the link below and choose a new password. If the link doesn't work, copy and paste it into your Web browser's address field.

https://www.trialpay.com/i/?t=1&ae=8rsV ... 189c39b93c

Thank you for using TrialPay,

The TrialPay Support Team
http://www.trialpay.com/support

Trialpay email 3:
Is a Trialpay promo emai for shoebuy.com. I won't bother pasting it but it is attached in the email I just sent.

[stehno]

I just removed the v4.x version and went to install the v3.x version from your website and from the link provided me 2 weeks ago.

Have you ever bothered to try downloading the v3.x versions from your website? They all point at the v4.x download executable.

That's why the v3.x gold license key YOU SENT ME 2 WEEKS ago never worked. Because no matter which v3.x version I thought I was downloading, it was always downloading and installing the v4.x version.

Now before you go into denial again, remember that 2 weeks ago when I opted to go for your gold license version I thought I was getting the v4.x gold license key when I joined Columia House DVD.

I have no problem with mistakes or people who make them as I certainly make more than my share. It's when people are in denial that they fxxx'ed up that causes much grief for all involved.

Amazing.

[khelsing]

Have you ever bothered to try downloading the v3.x versions from your website? They all point at the v4.x download executable.

Downloading version 3.2.5.1306 from here or by using the direct link works fine for me. Older version can be found on FileHippo.

[stehno]

Silly me. I was clicking on your v3.x links from I think your website's main page rather than from the back door link you provided above.

So I now have finally received my v3.x gold license key that you claim I purchased back in 2008. Thank you.

Of course you once again ignored my email sent the other night that included 5 attachments proving that I went through the exercise of aquiring a v4.x gold license key 2 weeks ago. So I'm concerned about the money and 5 or 6 hours of bullshit you put me through and still don't have that gold license.

But beggars ought not to be choosers and I did say that if you provided me any valid license key with any working release you would never hear from me again.

You people are..., well..., amazing.