Computer

Man With A Headache
Graphic Source: Said To Be In Public Domain

We have a tendency to be very hard on companies. Why is this? Basically because we have a human need to have someone, or something to blame if something goes wrong with a product. We also feel that we have to blame companies because of the way some of the really big ones have treated us lately. All one has to do is look at the price of oil and gas to realize that we haven't been treated fairly. The same goes for drugs and a lot of other things. How many times has one of us bought a piece of software, only to find out that the support that was supposed to come with it, wasn't what is was advertised. The problem might have been that we were connected to people that barely spoke English and just couldn't understand us, or we them. I know that I had this experience myself when I had to contact Microsoft before Windows XP would let me reinstall it. The first thing that I was asked was, what was my serial number. You would think that this is an easy question to answer wouldn't you? Well it is not so easy when the party on the other end of the phone line can not understand what you are saying.

Other times I had to contact the support section of different software companies for various reasons, most of which were with issues about the software that I had purchased from them. In a couple of extreme cases, I was not able to get the software to even work. Sometimes people would not get back to me when I had an installation issue and I had to call them several times, or they did get back and they were of no help what so ever. It is a very aggravating thing to purchase software and spend hour upon hour trying to figure out why it won't install, or why after installation it won't work properly. I remember a particular backup program that would only partially perform what it was supposed to do and after weeks of correspondence with representatives and various service people who made me repeat the problem from the very beginning each time, I finally abandoned the software. I now use a free backup program that is excellent, it is called Drive Image XL.

You would think that someone like myself, who has been around for a long time, runs a website and has been involved with computers since the early 1970s would not have too many problems with software, wouldn't you? Well this would be wrong, since I have just as many problems as most people. I had a really bad problem in December of 2008. I wanted to update my version of Dreamweaver MX 2004 to the newest version. I looked around the Internet for a bargain and I found one on a website that I wasn't familiar with. I didn't want to be involved with those counterfeit copies or anything like that, so I checked out the website and found no complaints against it. Because of this I decided to take a chance and I purchased the software I needed, Dreamweaver CS4. Those of you that know Adobe Systems realize that the software was expensive. Adobe is expensive but makes great software and as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.

I have been using different versions of Dreamweaver ever since I had the website and even before, it was great. Well my purchase was through PayPal and this allowed me to download the software suite. I was immediately sent a serial number. I installed the software, put in the serial number and everything worked great, FOR ONE DAY. After that Adobe, rescinded the serial number. I was very upset. This had never happened to me before. I contacted the company where I bought the software from and they apologized and sent me another serial number. Again the software worked great for one day and then Adobe rescinded the second serial number. I always buy using a credit card, so I contacted my credit card company and put in a dispute on the payment. I then contacted Adobe and told them what happened and to my surprise they told me that they might be able to help.

The site that I purchased the software from seems to have been running some sort of scam. The scam was to put up a copy of the software suite and then let you download it and give you a stolen or fraudulent serial number in hopes that Adobe wouldn't catch it. I can not be angry at Adobe for canceling my serial numbers, because it was the right thing to do. Counterfeit serial numbers or stolen ones have no place being sold, after all that was what this really turned out to be, the selling of phony serial numbers. I must tell you the site I bought the software from looked genuine and comprehensive.

Here is the silver lining in all this. I was just notified by my credit card company that they are refunding the money I paid for the software. That is always a nice message to get. You will never guess what happened next? I got a call from Adobe and they gave me a serial number for the software suite, even though I told them that I put in a claim with my credit card company. It was a more than generous act by a company that is top notch. I never mentioned to them that I was the webmaster of About Facts Net and never expected them to give me a free serial number. What I secretly hoped for was that they might sell me Dreamweaver CS4 for the same price I paid on the website. When I spoke to them I told them that I was very surprised at what they were doing and never expected a free serial number for what now has become a free Dreamweaver CS4 software suite worth hundreds of dollars. I want to salute Adobe as a true class act and I will remember what they did and the fact that not all companies are out to take advantage of us and that some are even sympathetic when we run into trouble.