Need a refund

First of all, I think that your AOEII not working is not a WindowBlinds problem. I know several people who run both, with no issues. I would suggest you reinstall WindowBlinds again to fully determine if its the cause of your problems.

As for Stardock support, you should make sure you are emailing to support@stardock.com, since that is the correct address. Normally they are very good at responding within a short amount of time. Did you recieve an immediate reply saying that your request had been recieved? Also, did you provide them specifics on the apparent problem that WindowBlinds was causing? You know, stuff like OS, WindowBlinds version, exact details of when it crashed, etc., along with video card information?

Simply demanding your money back is *occasionally* acceptable, but in this case, it would be extremely beneficial to try to work through this problem, so that a fix can be worked into future WindowBlinds builds, assuming there actually is a problem. I understand your frusteration at a lack of support, but lets make sure that everything is being done properly before we jump to conclusions.

A quick way to get excellent help would be to join #stardock on the stardock irc server. For simplicity, its built into Stardock Central. Just open that up and go to Chat, then type /join #stardock. Good luck!

Thanks for the reply. Windows Blinds was the problem. Game worked fine without it and did not work at all when it's running. They told me to exclude that application. But that was too late. I do not want to deal with a company that takes a week to reply to a simple email request. Yes both times I received a confirmation email. Tonight I have sent a 3rd request and received another confirmation email. Communication seems to be the problem here.

Either way I want my money back. Don't want to use Stardock's software. As simple as that. I noticed a significant improvement in my computer's performance after removing OD.

At this point I REALLY don't care about Stardock and have zero interest in helping them to provide a fix. After I get my refund I'm done with this company.

BTW my computer is

AMD Athlon 64 3500
2 GB DDRAM
nVidia 6600GT
360 GB of total HD space
Windows XP Pro SP2

So no it's not some old piece of junk.

Also I do not use IRC.

Still no reply.

Still no reply.

Did you email sales@stardock.com to get your refund (if you are entitled to one)?

Did you contact support@stardock.com to determine that the software was at fault (therefore entitling you to a refund)?

This forum is NOT an official channel.

sales@stardock.com process refunds.  If you contact them they will be able to lookup your details.

I am curious which version of WB you had installed.  WB 4.6 or the beta (at the time) of WB 5?

Stardock support has been slightly more backlogged than usual due to the recent release of WindowBlinds 5 (end of November) and one of the support staff leaving.

Regarding your Wincustomize serial, it looks fine here.  A renewal doesn't change the serial number so your existing one should continue to work just fine.

Have you contacted sales since you contacted support?  You can contact sales and state that support was not able to resolve your issue.  Please provide your support ticket number so that they can verify that you attempted to resolve this issue.  They will then process your refund.

OK I received a reply from them. They want me to troubleshoot it even though I stated several times that I no longer have their software installed.

They offer a 75% refund otherwise. They won't explain why should I give them $13.72 for no reason. I know this is a holiday season but I'm not in that much of a giving mood right now.

I did email sales AT stardock DOT com tonight and will see what will happen. Also I received another Wincustomize serial but never tested it because I don't have any of the software installed on my computer.

Also once I purchase something I expect some support to be provided. Waiting for days to get a reply doesn't do it for me.

They want me to troubleshoot it even though I stated several times that I no longer have their software installed.

They offer a 75% refund otherwise. They won't explain why should I give them $13.72 for no reason

Read what you signed up for. Stardock support policies and refund policies are pretty clear.

What is your refund policy?

https://www.stardock.helpserve.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=356

I wish you had some of my mom's Christmas cookies instead of popcorn. That would be nice.

Well I don't really care about their policies. Normally I use my credit card and duspute the charges if neccesary but I made a mistake and used my debit card for this purchase. That makes things more complicated. Already contacted my bank but it will take more time.


Either way I'll leech some bandwidth and share some links if I get 75% refund.

Did you even try adding the exe of the game to the exclude skinning list? Please do try this. You will be up and running again

Hello Jason. Thanks for the suggestion but for almost a month now I did not use Stardock software.

I'm reinstalling it now and will use it for some time and after that I'll request 75% refund. That way at least I'll have something for paying $13. Even if this time everything is perfect there is no way I'm giving them $54. It's personal now. Stardock is the worst company I ever had to deal with. After my initial purchase I had some speed issues and it took them about a week to reply. That was over a year ago. It's not much better this time. A guy named Mike keeps sending scripted replies. I have other things to worry about than to deal with this company.

With all the activation stuff and logins what's the point? Why bother paying for it? It's not like they have half decent tech support but a bunch of people sending scripted replies without even reading your emails...and on top of that you need to wait 4-5 days to get a reply. The only reason I spent some money was the support. I'm not paying for a digital copy. Support is #1 thing to me. If something goes wrong I know there are people who can help me. But not with this company.

I'm a member of many online forums and will make sure people hear about this and even if they lose one customer it will be worth it. Not only that but I will point poeople interested in Stardock software to warez websites (and there are many) where they can get working files for free.

They can keep my $13 but will lose more I promise you that.

Im not very bright when it comes to constructiing paragraphs and forming sentences that makes sense but here goes my best to explain this :

Bad tech support? Thats not true. In fact they have the most wonderful tech support ive ever encountered in a professionally run company such as Stardock. They do care about their customers , and no they are not paying me to say this either. I speak from experience. I had a few issues with WB one time , I sent them off an email , and 2 hours later they responded! I almost you know what in my pants ... that was a quick response!

I assure you these are not scripted replies!

About those speed issues you have been encountering : Have you worked with people in these forums on your issues? Many people here help others out of the goodness of their hearts , not because they dont want to , its because they are passionate about the software like I am and are happy to help others so they can use the software without problems. In otherwards , Please dont act like there isnt any help.

On the activation thing : Its there to prevent casual copying. Your further discussion of this topic belongs in the "Please read if your UI is painting black , etc" thread.

Dumpa ....just a quick question....if, as you say, these Stardock programs 'don't work', then what, pray tell have you been doing with your 117 megs of downloaded content.  Tiddlywinks?

Since it is stated that 75% refund is available for those who will not at least attempt an appropriate communication for resolution I doubt very much that the offer remains on the table "if this time everything is perfect".

I doubt, also that the people who provide skins for these particular programs will much relish the idea of having those skins offered to someone who apparently shows so much disdain, and not everyone is as generous as Neil Banfield [WB's coder] to be offering actual SUPPORT and ASSISTANCE to people who have screwed themselves and their systems with stolen/warez property, so going 'down that road' isn't the most wise.

Most will make references to 'doors hitting butts as you leave....etc'....instead.

Stardock Support, with the additional [where possible] Community User-support [Wincustomize.com is BY FAR the biggest community source] is an invaluable knowledge-base, and CANNOT be replicated elsewhere.

OK, so cracks can be sourced elsewhere...as can pre-pubescent coding-idiots who, as we already have seen will wreck your system faster than you can type Astala...etc.

A sensible, moderate person would persevere with the correct approach, and not treat each and every issue as 'disaster central'.

Posting these tirades via email to support@stardock.com  would be one course of action....likely to evince a response, whereas posting them here on a community forum is nothing more than a flame-fest [ b.y.o. popcorn] designed to do nothing more than denigrate the efforts of others..

Anything can be 'fixed'.  Sometimes it takes YOU to do the right thing as well....

...to be offering actual SUPPORT and ASSISTANCE to people who have screwed themselves and their systems with stolen/warez property."

This does not aplly to me, does it? I paid for it. Also he should probably stop doing that and provide timely support to people who actually paid for his software.

Your refund policy states 75% refund within 90 days w/o contacting tech suppot (or in other words no questions asked obviously). That's what I'm going to do. It's funny how some poeple are willing to point to a refund policy but after that someone can say it's an offer on the table. No it's is not. It's a policy.

And yes I did download it last night (as stated above) and will keep downloading if I feel like it. I have a fast connection with no caps and average about 25 GB of used bandwidth a month. I also have svereal computers so I just might dedicate few of them to download stuff using a download manager.

You see I wasted a lot of time trying to get my money back, so I might as well waste some more and make you pay for $13 you are going to keep.

Jason you have no idea what a good tech support means! Try nsclean.com. A reply with 10 minutes most of the time. Just awesome! But for me within 24 hours is good enough.

And few other companies. But Stardock is not even close.

Also about warez, well I hope it's obvious I paid for this software.

Order number VZVN0E28D8EE-1127051053 if anyone working for Stardock is interested to look into.

With your kind of extreme behaviour it's doubtful you would ever be satisfied. You have a minor problem which most people would get round and which can be sorted by support anyway (if you give them a chance) but instead, it's a case of uninstalling the software, declaring never to use it again and demanding a refund.

Perhaps if you behaved a little less immature life wouldn't be quite so disappointing for you. Have a nice day.

This does not aplly to me, does it?

Not "yet", it seems....from your prior comments.

As for suggestions of leeching bandwidth as some sort of spiteful conduct I'm sure there's solutions to that as well.

Much more can be had from life through polite, considerate interaction,  Foot-stamping just makes your feet sore....

Life sure looks different at 40 something, than at 20 something........(stated from experience)...

You may find that some of the "I'll show them" comments are less sophisticated and more in-appropriate as you grow older.

I was polite but I have my limits. To me it's unacceptable to wait 4-5 days to get a reply. Maybe it's OK for you guys so you can stick with this company but not me.

Is it being polite sending scripted answers over and over again?

I don't think so.

PS Jafo did you notice any changes with my bandwidth usage?

Most will make references to 'doors hitting butts as you leave....etc'....instead.

Saves me from having to type it....

I wish you had some of my mom's Christmas cookies instead of popcorn. That would be nice.

Always one.