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What a racket...
Nov. 13th, 2008 02:36 pmI had mentioned previously how some programs I own have been "designed" to work only with XP, requiring one to buy another version of the program in order to install it on Vista. Dragon NaturallySpeaking, published by Nuance, is one of these.
I installed Version 10 a little while ago, but it did a pretty lousy job of recognizing speech once the "training" was complete, so I tried to delete my profile and try again, this time employing the more extensive training module. I managed to do this, but upon completing the initial checks of sound level and quality, NaturallySpeaking threw an exception, complaining about kernel32.dll. I tried to repair the installation, with no success. I then completely deleted the application and reinstalled it, which didn't solve the problem, either.
Time to turn to technical support.
I had forgotten how genuinely lame Nuance is in the technical support department. Despite having provided the usual information during the registration process, I was asked to re-enter it yet again for the technical support process, almost as if the sales and support ends of the business are on different planets. I also had to enter my product's serial number, which only reinforced that view. More alarming, it turns out that if you have a problem that requires technical support, it'll you cost you $9.95 per "incident," a small "feature" that is not listed on the product package.
I wonder, does the charge come with any sort of guarantee? There's a part of me that wants to risk it; there's another part of me that doesn't want to throw good money after bad.
I've registered with the "community discussion" board for the product, to see if perhaps I can get this issue resolved without shelling out shekels, but it takes some time for one's registration to be slipstreamed into the system (why am I not surprised?). Meanwhile, while one can read individual entries, one cannot search through them. Also, tantalizing links on the page, such as "Dragon NaturallySpeaking," "Hardware Compatibility List," and "Latest TechNotes" are all broken.
Shame on me for buying a Nuance product after having been treated so shabbily after my purchase of Version 8 (about a week before Version 9 was released, which - according to their customer "service" department - entitled me to... pay full price for the new version, had I chosen to do so).
Cheers...
UPDATE: Upon registering for the community forum, I was informed "your account should be active in 30 minutes." It's been about 4-1/2 hours, and I still don't have access. Not complaining, just documenting, in case any reader might be tempted to throw their money away on this product.
I installed Version 10 a little while ago, but it did a pretty lousy job of recognizing speech once the "training" was complete, so I tried to delete my profile and try again, this time employing the more extensive training module. I managed to do this, but upon completing the initial checks of sound level and quality, NaturallySpeaking threw an exception, complaining about kernel32.dll. I tried to repair the installation, with no success. I then completely deleted the application and reinstalled it, which didn't solve the problem, either.
Time to turn to technical support.
I had forgotten how genuinely lame Nuance is in the technical support department. Despite having provided the usual information during the registration process, I was asked to re-enter it yet again for the technical support process, almost as if the sales and support ends of the business are on different planets. I also had to enter my product's serial number, which only reinforced that view. More alarming, it turns out that if you have a problem that requires technical support, it'll you cost you $9.95 per "incident," a small "feature" that is not listed on the product package.
I wonder, does the charge come with any sort of guarantee? There's a part of me that wants to risk it; there's another part of me that doesn't want to throw good money after bad.
I've registered with the "community discussion" board for the product, to see if perhaps I can get this issue resolved without shelling out shekels, but it takes some time for one's registration to be slipstreamed into the system (why am I not surprised?). Meanwhile, while one can read individual entries, one cannot search through them. Also, tantalizing links on the page, such as "Dragon NaturallySpeaking," "Hardware Compatibility List," and "Latest TechNotes" are all broken.
Shame on me for buying a Nuance product after having been treated so shabbily after my purchase of Version 8 (about a week before Version 9 was released, which - according to their customer "service" department - entitled me to... pay full price for the new version, had I chosen to do so).
Cheers...
UPDATE: Upon registering for the community forum, I was informed "your account should be active in 30 minutes." It's been about 4-1/2 hours, and I still don't have access. Not complaining, just documenting, in case any reader might be tempted to throw their money away on this product.
