I bought the mpeg4 plug-in, but the activation code they sent didn't work. I've sent three messages to Ulead tech support and have gotten nothing but automated acknowledgements. (Element5, the "mall" administrator is useless; all they do is refer you to Ulead.)
It looks to me like the tech support folks are out to lunch or away on vacation or something. Not very good for a product like this. But then again, why do they push this board so much--because it's cheaper than honest-to-God tech support maybe.
I'm looking for other video editors; I've had it with Ulead. Anyone have any suggestions?
On the few occasions that I needed tech support from Ulead, I had an answer back within 24 hours.
No problem here. In the recent past we found out here that some people never got their reply from Ulead because it was considered SPAM by their e-mail provider. I would check this out too.
I actually asked tech support today for help with PI 11, let's see how long it will take for the reply.
I was interested in the comment re no action from the Tech People there is even more problems with their sales, it doesn't exist.
I ordered MSP8 through element 5 but nothing happened except my wallet is now much lighter
Any email to sales does not even get an acknowledgement from ULEAD and if you follow the threads you end up back at ELEMENT5 who refer you back to ULEAD, really cunning!
I have given up and gone to Canopus EDIUS Pro 3 who did a deal once i told them of my problems and for HDV it is brilliant compared to MSP7 and even reads the files i have on the hard drive captured by MSP7 so no real loss.
The talk here in Aus is that ULEAD are going broke! i dont see how when they take money and don't give anything in return that has to be a surefire way of making money
BarryS wrote:
The talk here in Aus is that ULEAD are going broke! i dont see how when they take money and don't give anything in return that has to be a surefire way of making money
Regards
BarryS
That is sheer rumour-mongering. Ulead is a robust company, as is their parent company. Please do not post unsubstantiated gossip.
[b][i][color=red]Devil[/color][/i][/b]
[size=84]P4 Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz/Elite NVidia NF650iSLIT-A/2 Gb dual channel FSB 1333 MHz/Gainward NVidia 7300/2 x 80 Gb, 1 x 300 Gb, 1 x 200 Gb/DVCAM DRV-1000P drive/ Pan NV-DX1&-DX100/MSP8/WS2/PI11/C3D etc.[/size]
BarryS wrote:I was interested in the comment re no action from the Tech People there is even more problems with their sales, it doesn't exist.
I ordered MSP8 through element 5 but nothing happened except my wallet is now much lighter
Any email to sales does not even get an acknowledgement from ULEAD and if you follow the threads you end up back at ELEMENT5 who refer you back to ULEAD, really cunning!
I have given up and gone to Canopus EDIUS Pro 3 who did a deal once i told them of my problems and for HDV it is brilliant compared to MSP7 and even reads the files i have on the hard drive captured by MSP7 so no real loss.
The talk here in Aus is that ULEAD are going broke! i dont see how when they take money and don't give anything in return that has to be a surefire way of making money
Regards
BarryS
Shooting from the hip is easily done, but you can shoot yourself in the foot at times
I also live in Australia and I don't have an issue with element5 or Ulead sales/tech service. One thing I noticed again yesterday, when I got my reply from Ulead tech support, it went straight to "Bulk" mail, filtered by my email provider Yahoo. At least I still get to see it. Some folk have email providers that don't let such mail through at all. Maybe that's the reason why you don't get nothing.
Did you check your "Bulk" or "Spam" mail folder, if indeed you have one?
I don't think we should hold Ulead responsible for the way email is handled by certain providers.
The other cheap shot was your remark "how can they go broke if the take money and deliver nothing in return". Any software provider, indeed any supplier of goods or services, will quickly disappear if they cannot get people to come back for more.
I'm not saying you didn't have problems, it may well be true, but I don't think the true story is/was the way you present it here. If there is any truth in what you say, take it further, there are consumer protection agencies around you know. One think is for sure though, they would require proof.
I'm not passing on rumors, I'm just saying that I have sent in three inquiries and have not heard form either element5 or Ulead, except for automated "we'll get back to you" replies.
I understand how you can call a company robust, but I don't see how you can call it ethical when they take people's money and don't give them the product. That is what they have done to me--nothing less.
As to the bulk mail/junk mail filter issue, I noticed that and have been monitoring my junk mail closely to make sure I don't miss their reply. That said, they're supposed to be the tech wizards, aren't they. You'd think they'd get a clue and tag their responses as something other that just "tech support". (I even wrote back to them point that out--no response to that either.)
Bottom line, look at the poll figures at the top of this thread. This is not a good tech support record; small "n" as we say in stats, but still not good news.
As I suggested to BarryS above, I'm sure you do have an issue and can prove it. Take it further, get your money back.
If what happened to you was common practice at Ulead, you would need hours just to read through the new posts each day. I don't know what happened to you or to Barry, but rest assured, it is not the normal way of doing things at either Ulead or Element5. I have ordered new software from Ulead through Element5 at least 5 or six times. I never had an issue.
I know that's no comfort to you and I regret that I cannot be of any more help. I would take it further if I were you. There must be consumer protection agencies where you live, find them and get them onto this.
For me, tech support back in 2003 was next to useless. Getting only content-free answers to queries and issues. Once a patch came out, it fixed some of the problems I had flagged with MSP7 and DVDMF2.
Recently on some issues with MSP8, tech suppport has been very good. Good on you Ulead.
heinz-oz, that's exactly what I'm doing. I've stopped my Amex payment to element5 and I'm just giving up on Ulead. Apparently this is a common enough problem that ulead/element5 aren't even contesting these charge-complaints. Amex checked while I was on the phone and issued me a credit right away.
I started this thread for two reasons. First I thought maybe someone from Ulead might be monitoring this board and they might be able to jump-start the customer care process and second, I thought that other users ought to be warned before the plunked down their money.
I understand you haven't had the problem, but I don't see where you get off saying that those of us who have had problems are somehow not being truthful. I'd much rather be a happy Ulead user, they just didn't hold up their part of the vendor-customer relationship.
And I don't see where Heinz accuses you of not being truthful.
Let me tell you guy something. I have been using e-mail from the time when I knew only one other person who was able to receive it. Over the many years, I have seen it evolve, especially with the advent of spam and viruses. For many years I have used firewalls, anti-spam, anti-virus and anti malware software from various sources.
What I have seen is that many e-mails are not read nowadays. There are several reasons for this. Many ISPs ruthlessly eliminate them. I had to fight hard to stop filtering by my ISP. I discovered they were doing this by accident, because one message I knew about went missing and I started investigating: as it happened, it originated from one of their own clients, so they couldn't accuse third parties. I duplicated all my messages to a second ISP and found that they were depriving me of ~100 messages (mostly spam) per day, but a careful comparison showed that I was losing 1 - 3 wanted messages/week. I raised hell, but they would not budge. I investigated other ISPs, and found that ALL the local ones did the same. I eventually took it up with the Minister of Communications and he forced the ISPs to filter only on request. Their spam filtering was hopeless, anyway, as it also let through about half the spam.
I've seen people who use spam filtering like Mailwasher complain because they have blacklisted a company's mailing as spam and then, when they sent a request for service, they never see an answer. Worse, some of the central spam origin blacklists do contain perfectly respectable companies. I've seen something similar with Bayesian filtering. When it reaches 99.8% or more, users tend not to look in the spam box carefully enough and it is all too easy to overlook a good mail. One way to reduce thhis risk is to make sure that every e-mail you send contains a subject that is very specific and easily recognisable with know speling errers (misspelling is a spam characteristic). The text body should be to the point and without expletives or profanities, using simple language. so that Bayesian filters are not misled.
Also, it is by far better NOT to use HTML in e-mails. >85% of spam uses HTML and many spam detectors weight HTML tags quite heavily. HTML is not necessary for messaging.
Then, when complaining, be precise and complete in the details. It is no use saying the MSPro does not work if you don't say what you are doing when a problem happens and if you don't even say what hardware and OS you are using. Don't allow the guy at the other end to say, to hell, I don't even understand what he is complaining about. He is NEVER clairvoyant and he cannot guess what you don't tell him. Messages like, "MSP is always crashing, what can I do?" can never be answered.
My advice is therefore put all the chances on your side when you ask a question of a software maker, if you want an answer. Be polite. In the past, I wrote a lot of scientific software and have been on the receiving end of requests. It was rare for me not to have to ask questions to clarify a problem - this should not be necessary. If you take this advice to heart, you will have a better chance of a) the guy at the other end receiving your message; b) your message being read; c) your receiving a useful answer. If you don't, then, yes, there's every chance your message or the reply will fall by the wayside and you will be an unhappy customer because of your own errors.
Note I'm not accusing anybody of anything: my spiel is generalities.
[b][i][color=red]Devil[/color][/i][/b]
[size=84]P4 Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz/Elite NVidia NF650iSLIT-A/2 Gb dual channel FSB 1333 MHz/Gainward NVidia 7300/2 x 80 Gb, 1 x 300 Gb, 1 x 200 Gb/DVCAM DRV-1000P drive/ Pan NV-DX1&-DX100/MSP8/WS2/PI11/C3D etc.[/size]
Heinz-oz, devil is right--you didn't accuse me of being untruthful and I'm sorry I implied that you did.
devil, your point about the unreliability of e-mail is good, but someone should point that out to Ulead too. Their tech support seems to be only available via e-mail. Plus the confirmation messages I get from them seem to include something that provokes my spam-blocker. That said, i've specifically put them in the deliver category since my second request for help and that didn't get me a response to my third request.
the main point I was trying to make is made much more clearly by the poll results than by anything else I could say.
I didn't take offence when you accused me and no apologies are needed. It is your right as a customer to get fed up with certain attitudes, even percieved ones, and shop elsewhere.
I wouldn't put too much emphasis on the poll results either. We have a few disgruntled users here, possibly in their full rights to be, definately in a similar position to yours. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to get every happy customer out there to participate in this poll. If we could, the poll results would look very different. I don't think Ulead has survived in a very contested field by the support of the few happy users posting here, while everybody else has nothing but problems. They would have gone broke a long time ago.
I do hope you will find a software out there that does what you want on the system you have got. Do stop by once in while and let us know how you go.
