I just paid ~$16 to the excellent Robosoft folks to renew my subscription to their updates for the submission service, and lo and behold, it seems that Regsoft is now doing the same scam that SWREG got into hot water for earlier:
To add insult to injury, they put my order through extended verification because they’re afraid that I’m trying to scam them. (This happened when I purchased Robosoft the first time — IP address in Japan + billing address in America = fraud screening. I need to remember to use my US proxy server next time, so that my profile looks like a smart crook rather than a dumb, legitimate customer.)
(For those of you who haven’t heard of this before, the scam is that if you hit that Continue button or the link right next to it, your credit card gets charged $9 a month until you call up the number on your statement to cancel it.)
And if it were anybody but Robosoft, and would probably have called Visa already to report a probable fraud in progress.
Good ol’ fashioned corporate greed. Well done on the heads up. The list of scamming payment processors is growing. Perhaps they know there are a hell of a lot of uISV owners who wouldn’t notice or give a rat’s ass.
It’s about time software vendors kicked DigitalRiver (Regsoft, SWReg etc) right up the proverbial ass and switched to independent payment processors, or PayPal or anything that starves these corporate wack jobs of funds. Thanks for the notification, Patrick. I hope it spreads like wildfire, I’ll link to your article directly on this on my own blog as well as notify the public newsgroups I moderate.
Scott Kane
Moderator comp.software.shareware.*
I just renewed my Robosoft a few weeks ago as well, and I almost clicked the button. Luckily, a warning light went off in my head. If I hadn’t have known about the Digital River scam, I’m sure I would have clicked the button by sheer reflex.
This is outrageous. About month ago I tried to renew Robosoft but never get a chance to actually see this scam. Problem was with my IP (their database returns a country that doesn’t exist anymore) and e-mail domain (!) IP. As a returning customer, I was frustrated explaining them what was the problem and waiting for days to resolve this. Anyway, they finally decided that it *was* a fraud attempt (!) and that someone will get back to me shortly. Needless to say, they never got back and, at the end, I used v2v transfer via another payment processor. And now this… I would definitely stay away form RegSoft.
Absolute scumbags!
I renewed my Robosoft subscription about 5 weeks ago, and I didn’t notice the scam button then, but no doubt I’d have blindly clicked it if it had been there. I’ll certainly be checking my next credit card statement carefully anyway…
Regsoft actually did this earlier in Summer 2007. I immediately severed ties with them and switched to Plimus. Digital River earned tens of thousands of dollars in commissions from the sale of ExpertGPS over the years, and they won’t see another penny now.
Yup. The same problem exists with RegNow as well. I think every processor in the DR network is doing this!!
I don’t know who to switch to? :(
I second Plimus – I’ve been with them for years and they’ve always given me fantastic service.
I use ShareIt which is a part of the DR network, it looks like I need to switch to another payment processor.
They got me!!!
I bought a WPF theme via SWREG last Friday and clicked the ‘Continue’ link as I thought it was the next logical step.
If I am charged I’m going straight to MasterCard to complain – this just has to be fraud!
I recently purchased a round of Rudenko’s excellent registration service (something I do on a very regular basis) and I think I might have clicked this button. I didn’t even realize the implications, and I consider myself to be fairly cautious.
I’m furious about this. I just sent Rudenko an email letting them know I would never purchase anything else through RegSoft / SWREG again, even it if means abandoning their services. I hope they consider making a payment processor change soon.
I’m really disappointed at what has become of these services since being acquired by Digital River. I personally stopped doing business through eSellerate after they were acquired by DR, and have been very happy with my new payment processor (Plimus) since having done so.
A quick correction to my previous post. My recent purchase through RegSoft was actually related to a different product / service from a different company (not Rudenko).
It appears that Rudenko uses Share-It to process their submission service purchases, while they use RegSoft.com to process purchases of their RoboSoft product. I don’t recall whether or not I received a similar offer during my Share-It purchase experience (though they are also owned by DR).
This doesn’t change anything posted here by Patrick (or the fact that I was indeed scammed by RegSoft) – but I did want to clarify that it was in fact *not* through the Rudenko software submission service (which, in my experience, has always been excellent).
Hrmm. Right now I’ve got ‘did I click continue’ going through my head when I purchased robosoft.
You mentioned on BoS forum long back that you would be increasing the price. Would you mind dropping by again there and letting is know why did you not do that? The price is still set to 24.99
Two answers: #1, I simply ran out of time in February to worry about it. #2, the major website redesign took much more time than I expected, and I didn’t want to do the price change until after my stats had settled a bit, so I could see whether an increase/decrease in sales was due to one factor or the other.
I hope you’ll use this as an opportunity to explore FastSpring. FastSpring is a fresh alternative to existing commerce solutions. We put the software vendor first, in charge of his/her own customers and order forms.
We do not make any unauthorized changes to your account. In fact, when it comes to the cart’s upsells, you determine everything – display method, price, etc. We figure it only makes sense for you to be in full control because as we see it, it’s your customer, not ours. We also provide the highest level of customer service for our vendors, responding faster and more in depth. Try us if you don’t believe me, or ask some of our existing vendors what their experience has been like. I think you’ll like what you learn. We also offer a highly flexible system, built from the ground up to be as configurable and adaptable as possible, growing right along with you.
If you’re open to an innovative e-commerce provider who will treat you like gold, I’d encourage you to give FastSpring a try. You can view a Flash movie showcasing our Java platform from our homepage at:
http://www.fastspring.com
We developed FastSpring as a higher quality service for the industry to address software vendor’s dissatisfactions. I hope you’ll take advantage of this opportunity.
Best,
Dan
—
Dan C. Engel, CEO
FastSpring.com
Email: dan@fastspring.com
FastSpring offers a next generation Java-based e-commerce payment & merchandising solution for software publishers which is focused on customer service, flexibility, and reasonable pricing.
Visit the website at: http://www.fastspring.com
I’m migrating my products from Share-it and Regnow to Plimus. I have not big experience with Plimus but I found it good and with more features.
Trust me, when you click to purchase a product and see SWREG – RUN!!!
If your an affiliate and your transactions are going thru SWREG – RUN!!!
These guys are a absolute nightmare to deal with. Customers can’t get anything done with them, and affiliates are being constantly ripped off by them. Their system is old as hell, and has more bugs than a rain forest. They cost me a ton of money before i caught the fact that their system was not catching sales i made as an affiliate. I had friends buy straight thru my affiliate site as a test, and the transaction was never recorded by SWREG. if you sale a product and use affiliates, do yourself and your affiliates a favor, when you see SWREG – RUN!!!
Hi,
I purchased DVD-Converter-Suite via SWREG back in early October, the program came with a thirty day money back guarantee. When I tried to get my money back, I have been given the absolute run around, where each company sends the details on to the next. I paid via Paypal, they are no better, as they also give a guarantee on unsatisfactory purchases, but no one will make the repayment. They all have the purchase datails, and also the repayment details for making the repayment, but it seems that once they have your money, it is gone. The software was faulty right from the start, and the thirty days are long gone.
SWREG absolutely stinks. If you are going to purchase through them, think again!!!
Could someone please give me the details of the Department in America that deals with Software Fraud. SWREG sold me software with a thirty day guarantee, when the software did not work they will not make the repayment. It has now been 3 months, they have all my details.
Are they crooks?
I would really appreciate the address of where in the US Government that I can make a legal complaint about them.
I will watch this site for any details please.
You paid through Pay Pal you can charge it back …..do a complaint through them
Hi Everyone! I just wanted to let everyone know that SWREG understands, cares and is very concerned about your complaints. I have been working with SWREG closely and we are making great efforts to resolve the issue. SWREG has just recently launched a customer service page (http://cs.swreg.org/) and a FAQ page (http://faq.swreg.org/) that will answer any questions and concerns that you may have. In addition, they also have a 24 hour customer service center for a very quick response. SWREG wants to clarify that once you reach the order submitted page, the transaction has already been completed. SWREG knows that the click continue button can be a little confusing and realizes that some have probably purchased extended coverage by mistake. If this is the case, SWREG will gladly give refunds for anyone that has done this in error. Please visit http://faq.swreg.org/#extended_coverage for more information
-John
SWREG is a pure ripoff! I bought a softwre package called PC Doctor. It simply does not work, and SWREG does not answer e-mail, nor forward to handle issues. Save your money. This place, and any of its affiliates are a PURE HOAX, AND WILL STEAL YOUR MONEY.
I finally got legal with SWREG, who then sent me an email to state that they had repaid the funds back into Paypal on 1st January 2009.
This of course had not happened. I contacted the Attorney General’s Department in Minnesota, also in Melbourne, and also took the matter up with the Legal Ombudsman here in Victoria, Australia. All 3 had stated that if Paypal had taken the funds from my bank account, then it was up to Paypal to return the funds. On speaking to Paypal, I was told that it would be easier to pay back SWREG their token charge and be not liable anymore, which was just a copout, so I got really legal. The law stands that the company who takes the money from your account is responsible for putting it back. Paypal got a stern email, and the funds were replaced the next day, roughly 5 months outside the 30 day guarantee that SWREG put on the software. I can bet that Paypal are not happy with me, but it was their name clearly on my bankstatement.
Something for the rest of you to keep in mind.
Regards
Ian Northey
In the same boat as many of you guys, bought PC- Doctor which is a cr@p piece of software ** DO NOT BUY ** it promises the world, but does not deliver..
Tried in everyway to contact SWREG and they cheekly let you fill in all the on line forms for a refund then the systems hangs on a enter your SWREG mail box login….you never get any further, they must be laughing their titis off on the 30 days refund gig.
And John above if its your e-commerce program that runs your customer service pages, it sucks.
Will try to refund though my credit card.
STAY AWAY FROM SWREG —- They are WWW theives—– .
The SWREG product “SmaltSoft PowerSuite 2009″ is a rip-off. Most of the product is non-functional. If you buy using “PayPal” then you may recover your loss. Stay away from SWREG. Their marketing is quite good, but their product is a joke. Run away from this product and company. Run very fast!
Here is a disk space manager named DiskSpaceFan to share.
http://www.diskspacefan.com
swreg=scammers avoid them, they know how to scam well, they scammed me with 5k keeping my money for 3 months then saying my country is on their black list then they said my product is invalid then they said they are verifying my account
they have lame excuses everytime i contact them