By You have only used your new software 3 or 4 times and everything worked the way it was supposed to work. Now it doesn’t work, the program starts to install itself all by itself, or the software does something else that it should not be doing.
Call Customer Service
You call customer service; they take you through various steps to identify the problem. First, they check your computer and Microsoft Windows software, to make sure you have the minimum system requirements. You have all the requirements. Unfortunately, the customer service representative cannot get the software to work correctly on your computer. They try to uninstall it with Microsoft’s “Add or Remove Programs”; that doesn’t work. Next, they take you into the internet and guide you through downloading another program to uninstall their problem program. This program doesn’t work either!
Email Files
Next, customer service tells you to email them several files and the error message that their program generates. The next day, they reply to your email with another set of instructions for a different repair process to try. This doesn’t work either! By this time you are getting pretty frustrated. You have talked to the customer service person on the phone, corresponded several times with email, and still the software doesn’t work.
Customer Service Cannot Fix Software
After going back and forth with customer service for a week or more, you decide they do not know what the problem is and you want to return the program and get your money back.
It is true that some software programs do not work well together or are incompatible. Another possibility could be if other programs were downloaded and installed shortly after installing the problem program and some internal settings were changed.
What is the Cause
What happens when the software works, then doesn’t? What could cause a problem with a currently working program? Incompatibility!
Warranty
By this time, the “In Store” warranty has expired. Many of the “In Store” warranties only replace defective software or broken CD’s. Yours is neither, so you cannot return it to the store where you purchased it. Always keep your purchase receipts, even when everything works well. It’s a good idea to have a box or a notebook that can hold everything you purchase for your computer for future reference.
Get a Refund
- Call another customer service number for return instructions
- Mail or email your purchase receipt to the new customer service person
- Waite for customer service to email you the return authorization
- Mail the defective software program and return authorization to the software company
- Waite several more weeks for your refund check
- Receive your refund check from snail mail
- Make a new decision; “Do you buy more software from this company?”
Problems like this seldom happen, but it is a chance most of us are willing to take for that special software.
