What about the honest customers who pay for software and then cannot get it registered without going through a tangle of hoops because of a paranoid developer's fear of piracy?
This happened to me recently. I purchased Hardware Sensors Monitor Pro by AB Software. The owner did not send me a registration key.
The email sent from my "trial programme" to register the product contained a large encrypted list apparently describing my PC. I tried to send many of these emails but most of them errored with a "Mapi" error. I had to uninstall my second email programme (Outlook) which I reserve for another of my more private email addresses before the errors stopped.
Some of my registration request emails must have got through eventually because I then received loads of automated email replies stating:
"ATTENTION!!! All messages originated from unknown E-mail addresses will be silently REMOVED from the queue. Only messages originated from E-mail addresses registered in the orders will be processed." (You could not reply to this automated reply). As I was not getting any replies I assumed that my order had been lost and was not in the registered orders lists.
I won't go into any more detail here about how you have to register the software because it would make some people cry. Suffice it to say that I have never experienced anything so complicated.
I emailed many times to the contact email address on the website and was told that the key had been sent and I should check my spam filter. I replied that I do check my spam filter and if the purchase receipt had escaped the spam filter why shouldn't the registration key do likewise?
I tried to post a message on the forums in the registration issues section. But guess what - you have to be a registered owner to be able to view and post in this section! And I was still without my registration key! There was no address or telephone number on the site and nowhere to contact the owner apart from the contact email address and the recipient of this was not replying in a helpful manner.
Because I was getting nowhere I eventually sent a copy of my purchase receipt which showed my order number, name and address and telephone number. This did prove successful because I received the registration key shortly thereafter.
But to add insult to injury I receive another email from this company saying I had to acknowledge receipt of the key!
I feel that to inconvenience honest paying customers is counter-productive because, although I am normally such a person, with hindsight I would definately have downloaded a cracked copy if I could have found one.
