Unable to Install and Lack of Support

[BellaDonna]

I cannot believe a company who have provided such worthwhile products over the years have now produced such a frustrating upgrade version - I have purchased the upgrade but I am unable to run it - I get an error message which makes no sense at all:-

"Limit Users can not try this product.
You can use normally after successful activation"

I have contacted the support centres in Taiwan, Germany and the UK - the UK support guy was particularly frustrating saying it was a new product they had lost their database blah blah blah unfortunately I did loose my temper with him - I am the customer who was paying 60p a minute to listen to him - not one word of sorry or how can I help you - just blah blah blah

I am extremely unhappy with the new upgrade and I would advise anyone contemplating buying this release to think again - it is not upto the standard of previous products.

[swampy]

I totaly agree with you below is an email i sent to ulead today after trying to contact support several times but you never get an answer all i got was an automated email saying have 5% off our software (that does not work)

Email
I would like a refund please I have upgraded to photoimpact 11 from 10 there are more bugs in it than windows, smart download does not work and numerous other bugs with keys on the keyboard crashes etc I am not happy paying for software that never works and also I sent an email to tech support a week ago and I still have not received an answer only an email saying 5% off any product either you call me or I will contact my credit card company and have your payment reclaimed I am not calling your tech support no at a cost of 60p per min for you to sort your problems out I have been a ulead customer for years I have purchased all of your photoimpact products all of your web razor products and cool 3d products with out much trouble but this takes the biscuit I have never had so many errors in a piece of purchased software I am going to inform our local trading standards office as this software should not be on sale in this condition.

If I have not had any response in 24hrs I am contacting my credit card company

This product is not fit for the purpose it was purchased for.
Under the UK rules this product is in breach of the distance selling act and you are entitled to a full refund inc postage if you purchased a cd version as well

Swampy

[heinz-oz]

Hi BellaDonna,

I can't understand why you can't understand the error message. The downloading site clearly states that you need internet connection to activate the program. You cannot use it before you have activated it properly. Not that I agree with that approach, but that's how it is.

Try your installation while connected but disable the firewall and virus scanner prior to that because they can interfere with the activation process.

I'm not surprised that you did not get a response from ULEAD. They have had so much oposition to this activation process that they possibly do not reply to you or your fellow complainant just to state the obvious.

Sorry

[mistergee]

BellaDonna, it's good (if that's the right term) to see that someone else is having the same problem that I'm having both with PhotoImpact and MSP8
Just wondering what version of Windows you are using.

Heinz-Oz, I don't think this has anything to do with the activation process - the program seems to stop and generate the error message well before the activation routine. It doesn't get to the activation stage.
Perhaps someone who does understand the strange error message can offer some usefull advice. As observed by others, Ulead support is of no value.

[BellaDonna]

MisterGee: Thanks for your response and I too am glad that someone else is experiencing this problem I am running Windows 5.1 SP2.

Heinz: I have been in IT for over 30 years and yes I am that old the patronising support responses stating the blatently obvious really do annoy me. How the hell do you think I downloaded the product? I must of had an internet connection so please read slowly a message box appears :-

"Limit Users can not try this product.
You can use normally after successful activation"

I will repeat this so I am extremely clear

"Limit Users can not try this product.
You can use normally after successful activation"
The application does not start and yes when starting the application I turn off my firewall and my anti-virus so this is nothing to do with my firewall any novice knows that that can cause installation problems.

Please refund my money forewith!

[BitRot]

Heinz: I have been in IT for over 30 years and yes I am that old the patronising support responses stating the blatently obvious really do annoy me. How the hell do you think I downloaded the product?

LMAO! This release has gone from annoying to damn right ridiculously funny after reading the responses on here.

After reading about some people not being able to type certain characters ('e' and 's' come to mind), I tried it and I didn't seem to have the same problem (though I didn't test the whole alphabet). But now for some reason, I can't type certain letters - typing 's' (lowercase) exits typing mode. I wonder if PI 11 objected to me installing the Paint Shop Pro demo yesterday? Lol.

I myself am a programmer / Web developer and would like to point out that software like PI 11 should have gone through a rigorous testing program before being released. This process should have began with unit testing and ended with beta testers reporting back problems (any bugs found with testers should then have their own unit tests written to trigger the problem if possible, to make sure later builds don't re-introduce the problem). Given how good version 8 is, I would've thought the Ulead development team would know this - but perhaps they were fired and marketing managers are now doing the developing.

[Thalys]

@BellaDonna

I feel your pain - I've the same problem.....
Have contacted the support as well but no answer yet.
Sounds like to me to a Registry corruption/bug during the installation process but didn't get any error message.

@heinz-oz

It has nothing to do with the activation process, my PC is Internet ready, (have other ULead products running and activated here); have my activation code ready but no way to type it in.

Have just installed PI v11 (no error message)
Start PI, got a window "Select your Workspace Basic / Standard" and Bang a Warning Window with this message "Limit Users can not try this product. You can use normally after successful activation" and the program quits.

When re-started (even after a re-boot) same error message and program ends. No way to start the program (even in trial mode).....

Have un-installed and re-installed v11 - same trouble....

Need help!

[swampy]

Hi my upgrade has activated with no problems it just constantly crashes and I am unable to get any files from smart download.
smart download goes through the motions but no files are transferred then I get an error x amount of files failed

so how come support just ignore people then


Swampy

[heinz-oz]

MisterGee: Thanks for your response and I too am glad that someone else is experiencing this problem I am running Windows 5.1 SP2.

Heinz: I have been in IT for over 30 years and yes I am that old the patronising support responses stating the blatently obvious really do annoy me. How the hell do you think I downloaded the product? I must of had an internet connection so please read slowly a message box appears :-

"Limit Users can not try this product.
You can use normally after successful activation"

I will repeat this so I am extremely clear

"Limit Users can not try this product.
You can use normally after successful activation"
The application does not start and yes when starting the application I turn off my firewall and my anti-virus so this is nothing to do with my firewall any novice knows that that can cause installation problems.

Please refund my money forewith!

No need to shout BellaDonna in your original post you only mentined the error message you got, nothing else.

Since you are such a capable person, why did you have to ask in the first place?

I understand your frustration but, please, do not take an attempt by a fellow user, who is using his spare time to see if he might help others, as a personal insult of your inteligence. That was never my intention and, if you had asked an "inteligent" question and provided the detail you have provided now, the answer would have been different.

[BellaDonna]

Heinz I am going to be extremely blunt with you - please do not respond to messages on this forum if you are just going to add fuel to the fire. I do not need you to be rude to me - I am a capable person and if I had written the code I would have de-bugged it by now and it would be working - I however do not have the source code.

Also why make the assumption that a person is not capable if something does not work - what planet are you living on? Things go wrong and the most capable person cannot fix the problem if they do not have the resources.

I would also like to point out that the other people who have made comments on the forum have CLEARLY understood what is happening to my installation and have not made inane comments making me even crosser than I am I WAS NOT ASKING A QUESTION I was voicing my frustation on the forum which by the way is what forums are for!

How am I supposed to know you are an end user giving your time freely? If I were a clairvoyant I would have foreseen the problems I was going to have with the upgrade and we would not be having this conversation.

[heinz-oz]

Ok, BellaDonna,

we got off on the wrong foot and I would like to make one final attempt to make you understand what I'm saying.

I did not want to declare you incapable and I did not want to insult you.

All I was saying, and I may have used the wrong words for it (sorry) is this:

Let me use your words: If I were a clairvoyant, I would have known that you did already what I suggested and that you were quite capable of solving your own problems and, if it was your code, you would have de-bugged it by now and, last but not least, you were only voicing your frustration.

Since I didn't know all that, or was too stupid to realise it, I gave you a virtual person that you could really kick around a bit. Did it make you feel any better.

[BellaDonna]

I think your phraseology needs improvement.

[Xyzzy2]

This message ("Limit users") means in broken English that you need Administrator privileges to run the trial.


X.

[agiga]

to heinz-oz

It's bad enough to have tech support in the USA taken away from us loyal users or to have Taiwan not respond to esclated problem report for over a month and to come here for help to have some ULEAD mouthpiece giving the standard ULEAD LINE!

Give us tech support here in the USA!!!!!
That's what I PAID FOR!!!!
I'm mad as hell also!!!!!

[heinz-oz]

to heinz-oz

It's bad enough to have tech support in the USA taken away from us loyal users or to have Taiwan not respond to esclated problem report for over a month and to come here for help to have some ULEAD mouthpiece giving the standard ULEAD LINE!

Give us tech support here in the USA!!!!!
That's what I PAID FOR!!!!
I'm mad as hell also!!!!!

First of all, let me make one thing clear, we moderators are not a ULEAD mouthpiece, we are users like yourself and try to help as best we can. We do not get paid for this and voluntarily sacrifice our spare time.

Having said all that, let me say something else, if you paid for the software in the US and were promised local support and don't get it, I think you should ask for a refund.

How do you think we feel here in Australia? Do you think we get local support? We never did. But then again, we never expected it.

I understand your frustration and anger. That doesn't give you the right to personally attack anyone on this forum.

You did not come here for help, just to voice you frustration. Fine. You have done that. I hope you feel better now.