Software problem

byIanCampbell

324 followers

9 years ago

PRODUCT REVIEW – ANONYMOUS SITE BUILDER

I came across what looked to be a very interesting piece of software a few days ago. It promised to do everything that I required with a minimum of fuss and it promised to solve a very tricky problem that I was facing.

I was brought up to believe that #1 ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’ and my life experience has shown me this many, many times. Whereas younger people can be full of ‘get up and go’, age encourages caution.

I happen to have a partner whom I love dearly and she is stuck in the middle of an immigration problem because she is the citizen of a non-European country and we’ve been trying to bring her here to the UK for 6 years now and there are still problems. She needs an income and a week ago, during one of her daily chats she challenged me to teach her how to build a web site so that she could earn commission and these lessons were to be taught to her through a Skype/Messenger link with her using her iPhone. Ugggghhhh! ‘A little knowledge’… sprang to mind. Then I came across this piece of software which promised to do most things for you.

In fact, if you enter the niche topic into the software, it will go to Amazon and find the top number of best-sellers in that niche; download their details including pictures; enable you to write a review of the product and automatically link to the product on the Amazon site so that your commission would/could come rolling in.

#2 ‘If it looks too good to be true it probably is!’

Now this is not a review of the actual software because I haven’t yet got it. I have paid for it to get the benefit of a price reduction to $17 from $67 (at least this was the price when I made the purchase).

The presentation was top quality and the ‘front man’ very persuasive. The software was marketed through JVZoo and everything seemed to be above board, until I tried accessing the software. It was unlike any software I have ever purchased over the internet because there was no download. YES YOU HEARD RIGHT! No download!!!

I logged in again to my JVZoo Purchases and pressed the ‘Access your purchase’ button. Same thing again. Fascinating instructional video about what the software could do but no actual instructions on how to do it. I read through the site’s notes again and the software was referred to as a Wordpress Plugin so I opened my website, went to the Dashboard and then Plugins and then download new plugin. The plugin was not listed and therefore could not be downloaded. Then I spotted a clickable banner which read something like ‘FREE PLUGIN SERVICE’ which took me to another video where a salesman with a smooth voice explained that ‘plugins were very expensive to include in the software package’ and that this was a problem they had been trying to resolve for a very long time and wonder of wonders they now had the solution… they had linked up with Hostgator and together, if you took out a new Hostgator subscription the two companies would download and set up your plugin and include it in the cost of the monthly Hostgator subscription. The first month would cost $0.01 but the following months would be according to which hosting package you bought… from $5.95 upwards.

There was an alternative however, for people who already had their website hosted elsewhere. For the princely sum of $75… a one-off fee, you could do all the work yourself. So now my all-singing, all-dancing software would effectively be costing me $17 (original purchase) + $75 for the plugin or $92 total and this without the upsells. WHAT A RACKET!!!

It’s like ordering a meal at a quality restaurant and discovering that everything apart from the main selection is charged as an extra:

Filet steak $30

French Fries $7.50

Petit pois $5.50

Broccoli $5.50

Cauliflower Cheese $5.50

Total $54.00

And suddenly your already expensive filet steak has more than doubled in price and this is what this software company is doing and they must be stopped!

Now, I suspect that they not breaking any laws but at the point and time of purchase I actually had nothing to show for my money and that smacks of a scam. I would rather believe that somebody has persuaded these people that it is SMART marketing and if you agree with me, they need to be discouraged before the idea becomes rife.

I have taken care not to name the software because of the libel and defamation laws but if and when I receive my ‘plugin’ instructions and get the software working, I will review the package in its entirety. In the meantime, fellow WA members… ‘be careful out there…’

Ian Campbell