I wnat to share my experience with Corel - CAUTION

[blueliner31]

I want to share my experience with Corel, and warn potential future customers:

I purchased Paint Shop Pro on line on August 15
I had a problem installing the product. Computer freezes at each attempt
I asked for technical assistance on Corel support site same day
No response fro three days
I decide to ask for refund and open a RMA on Aug 18
No response
I try to contact Corel by phone: answering message telling me that they are on training, so no response. I call the US number, they tell me they cannot identify my order and cannot help.
I finally receive a mail from technical support on August 28
I respond the questions, received a response that does not help, and confirm that I want to be refunded
No response, but I see that my RMA request has been closed. I haven't received any confirmation of refunding, and I have not received my money back.

So, clearly, lack of support from Corel, no response to my questions, no telephone support, no chance to be refunded. So avoid ordering Corel product.

[BrianCee]

Perhaps you should share your problems with the users on this forum - this is a user to user forum where questions are posted and answered by users - NOT Corel - many people have problems with installing various programmes but if you explain what exactly happens , what error messages you get etc. then it is possible that another user has had the same problem and knows how to solve it.

We do not object to factual complaints like yours and I'm sure it has made you feel better, but it hasn't moved you towards a solution to your problem - so give us a chance and tell us your problem with some details please.

[blueliner31]

You are absolutely right on your comments and I appreciate it. I just want to be sure that other users are aware of the lack of support of this company when they decide to purchase a software. The behavior of this company is not acceptable, and everyone should be aware of it.

[dwalby2]

Perhaps you should share your problems with the users on this forum - this is a user to user forum where questions are posted and answered by users - NOT Corel - many people have problems with installing various programmes but if you explain what exactly happens , what error messages you get etc. then it is possible that another user has had the same problem and knows how to solve it.

We do not object to factual complaints like yours and I'm sure it has made you feel better, but it hasn't moved you towards a solution to your problem - so give us a chance and tell us your problem with some details please.

The OP paid for a Corel product that won't install, it seems that Corel should provide installation support or refund their money. The response time and activity level on this forum (1 or 2 posts per day) is not adequate to provide an alternative solution. If s/w doesn't install I don't expect the company to spend hours on the phone solving my problem, but I would expect them to at least answer my inquiries, apologize for the inconvenience, and refund my money.

[Ken Berry]

The response time and activity level on this forum (1 or 2 posts per day) is not adequate to provide an alternative solution.

I am not sure that I completely agree with this statement. A search of previous posts should reveal the (many) posts about installation problems and their suggested solutions. The most common one appears to be to set up a new user profile in Windows and install PSP while logged into that profile. If that works, then you can later delete the new profile.

[hartpaul]

I have at least 5 non technical friends from a camera club group that have installed PSPX4 on their computers. They have installed it on XP Home, XP Professional, Vista, and at least 3 Windows 7 machines.
Many are senior citizens and do not have any expertise with computers. Yet they have been able to install the program correctly. Their machines (often laptops) are fairly recent (last 4 years) and they do not have any specialised software that may cause a conflict.

I suspect that a lot of the problems that arise with installing PSP whatever version, stem from impatience and from hardware, software incompatibility.
I have PSP 8, X2, X3 and X4 all installed on the one machine without any serious problems.
I use PSP 8 for its speed of startup and efficiency of simple operations, X2 is my main workhorse for processing lots of images recording scripts , X3 for ease of placement and working with text although as I get more familiar with X4 that will be my future choice. I use Irfanview for fast batch processing - renaming resizing images, Canon Digital Photo Professional for processing RAW files. I do not expect PSP to be the final all answers program that otthers seem to be seeking. Even photoshop users now go to Lightroom / Bridge .

I did have a problem installing the disk version of X3 on XP Home computer where it would hang part way though the installation process where it was registering modules.
I opened a trouble ticket with Corel, and while waiting for them to get back to me tried other solutions. I google searched , tried installing with all USB peripherals disconnected (printer, scanner etc).took internet off, turned off any programs (antivirus, firewalls, Spybot S D etc. )
I hate the thought of giving up and asking for a refund because obviously the program was working for a lot of other people so the problem must be with me or my system and configuration. .

After a lot of frustration I eventually found a suggestion to turn off the Hardware acceleration and that worked for me. After installation I was able to turn on Hardware acceleration again and the program still worked.
Meanwhile I had Corel get back to me with some suggestions which did not work. After I was successful I passed that solution on to Corel and closed that trouble ticket.
Too often we are ready to blame the program / company when it may be a conflict on our ancient machines, some specialist hardware or program that is causing trouble.
When you have a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) with any windows installation do you throw your hands up in the air and request a refund of your Windows program cost??

Patience and some research may solve many problems.
When I suspect that a program installation disk / program is faulty I would attempt installation on other computers first , and even a computer with a minimum of other programs.
There are so many different configurations of Windows, AV and firewall programs and other peripherals and software that it is amaxing that any complex program installs without any trouble.
Unless your problem is a common one, then you may have difficulty in obtaining Corel's attention. If a problem is common or prevalent (eg the Crop with multiple images on edit workspace in X4 that pre Service Pack 2 (SP2) caused it to default to tabbed documents.--I gather this was solved with SP2 )

And remember PSP X4 does work with and for multitudes of people.

[gkeenan43]

I have used Paint Shop Pro from Version 5 long before Corel ever took it over, I have every version and just ordered V x5
Most of my problem have been my system settings and compatibility.

I have only had one problem i could not fix and that was on a friends computer using Vista.
He was not willing to let me fix his problem because of what I would need to do to fix it.

[MatsW]

I agree that one must be patient and try different workarounds when using computers and any kind of software. There are always problems. Windows, in itself, has been replete with bugs. Back in the Win98 days it crashed all the time. My WinXP pro computer still dies with a frozen screen, sometimes. I have to unplug it. All softwares contain bugs. Missions to other planets have crashed because of software bugs.

As modern science has shown, the ground for nature is chaos. All the complex systems of nature have a chaotic foundation. I believe that this chaotic aspect of nature is essentially what we see in the computer business, too. The systems are today so vast and complicated so we cannot expect them to be perfectly stable, anymore. Like in nature, the system suddenly collapses, like in a forest fire. But it has the capacity to reorganize swiftly, because it is prepared for those collapses.

So such a hot temperament is not compatible with the modern age of computers. I am a software developer myself, educated in computer science. Problems and failures is what computers are all about. I just patiently try different workarounds, just like somebody suggested, changing settings, etc. And I immediately ask somebody, of course. People tend to be very helpful. I nearly always manage to solve the problems, except when I dabbled with the kernel in my Android tablet, and happened to kill it (I "bricked" it, in popular language).
/Mats

[dwalby2]

I agree that one must be patient and try different workarounds when using computers and any kind of software. There are always problems. Windows, in itself, has been replete with bugs. All softwares contain bugs. Missions to other planets have crashed because of software bugs.

So such a hot temperament is not compatible with the modern age of computers. I am a software developer myself, educated in computer science. Problems and failures is what computers are all about. I just patiently try different workarounds, just like somebody suggested, changing settings, etc. And I immediately ask somebody, of course. People tend to be very helpful. I nearly always manage to solve the problems, except when I dabbled with the kernel in my Android tablet, and happened to kill it (I "bricked" it, in popular language).
/Mats

Mats, what you say is basically true, but here's another perspective on it that I believe is completely valid as well. I've been working with software since 1972, and written/debugged code in probably 20 different languages, so I'd say I'm computer literate.

In my own experience installing software on Windows I've never had a program that wouldn't install. So while I'll admit that there are often problems, I would not say its something I expect to happen when I purchase a new software program. Perhaps you don't value your free time, or you actually prefer solving software installation problems to doing other things with your time, but many other people don't feel that way. If I were in the situation where I purchased a program that wouldn't install, I'd feel obligated to check out a few obvious things, but that's about it. I'd expect the manufacturer to understand that these things do happen from time to time, but not expect me to troubleshoot the problem, and give me a refund. I guess part of the problem is preventing people from installing s/w and then claim it wouldn't install and request a refund, but that could easily be prevented with a Web-based registration process like some other companies use. Since I've never been in this situation I'm not sure how its typically handled, but the OP's report of how he was basically ignored by Corel customer service didn't leave me with a good impression. I seem to be the only one defending him, so perhaps all the rest of you are more familiar with how these conflicts are typically resolved, apparently the customer has to figure it out for themselves.

I spend my workdays debugging code that I know and understand (hardware design languages these days), and realize how complicated that process can sometimes be. Trying to troubleshoot an installation process that I have absolutely no knowledge of, no insight into what's happening, and no documentation for, isn't something I care to do in my spare time.

[MatsW]

But you could have some process running that destroys the installation process. My point is that, today, it is not possible for a software manufacturer to foresee all the problems, because Windows is a joint venture, with thousand of manufacturers of hardware and software, and thousands of configurations in several versions of Windows. I have created Windows programs, too. There are also viruses causing problems. That's my point about the chaos example. We have together created a chaotic condition. It would be different if MicroSoft had created all the software themselves and had full control over hardware, too. But now it's like a chaotic habitat in nature. We simply have to adopt the same attitude as when we relate to nature. Things are bound to go wrong sometimes. Then we must improvise. I think we overestimate the machines. We expect them always to function, and get very irritated when they don't fulfil their promise.
/Mats