ProScan: Good Software but worst customer service ever!

Status
Not open for further replies.

WA1LMC

Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2009
Messages
49
I purchased Proscan and the software is good. But after a computer issue that required a restoration, I lost my activation key. So on Sunday i sent an email expecting a reply on Monday. Well it never happened so I sent another and with no reply I copntacted through Paypal. Well he answeered and began to rant.

Finally he sent this email:


The problem is you didn't wait till Monday evening when lost keys are sent. Your email came in Sunday. I haven't seen anyone with your childishness in years. I don't want your business.

Now maybe I got antsy when he didn't answer email. His excuse was he was away on Monday for customer service training. Like I am to know. So here is the sequence:

I sent:
I sent you an email yesterday regarding a missing activation key due to a computer issue which forced me to restore my system. I have restored my other scanenr software but am waiting for you to resend my activation key for WA1LMC purtchased thruogh Paypal on 9/25/15.
��
Customer service is�� important and from some postinga on Radioreference, your customer service is not as good as it should be. I hope you will reply to this email by the end of the day today (9/28/2015) or a claim will be filed through Paypal since I can not operate the software without it.
��

His reply:

I just got back from customer training. Lost keys are always sent on Mondays. I wish you would just chill.


Me:
I will hang on but an auto reply would have been helpful if no one was there to answer emails.

Thank Yuo

His response:
The problem with auto reply is it reply's to the Yahoo groups and no one wants that and also reply's to my work emails and that's not too good.

My response:
Understand. I can plan on receiving my key next Monday? If that is the day then I will make do since the nag screen is really annoying as they are meant to be. :)

Larry
WA1LMC

And finally he wrote:

The problem is you didn't wait till Monday evening when lost keys are sent. Your email came in Sunday. I haven't seen anyone with your childishness in years. I don't want your business.

Now I don't think I was out of line during the communications. BUT I will not be talked to like that from a short tempered person. His software is good but not worth this abuse. My only fault was being concerned about getting burnt as I have been in the past. TRUST me, USE BUTEL software. NEVER have I had a problem with their support.

I did call Paypal and intialized a claim for a refund. Proscan abd Bob Arne are just not worth it.
 

mule1075

Member
Feed Provider
Joined
Jan 20, 2003
Messages
3,956
Location
Washington Pennsylvania
Dealt with Bob a couple of times over the year never a problem. As a side note create a folder in your e-mail and save all your software keys in it.

Sent from my Z750C using Tapatalk
 

RaleighGuy

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 15, 2014
Messages
13,134
Location
Raleigh, NC
Perhaps he just needs more customer service training, he definately needs to ask for a refund for yesterdays training. :}
 

KR3LC

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
178
Location
Pasadena, Maryland
I've dealt with Bob over the years about the key and activation matters. Never had a problem either. But I understand it only takes one bad experience, particularity if it is the first experience, to sour you on a business. Happened to me with a furniture store and with a car dealer.
 

WA1LMC

Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2009
Messages
49
I Agree And That Was The case

I did archive the software and my usual process is to use my Brother Label Printer and print a label and place it in my password book. But while trying to find a diagram of the audio output of my BCD996T scanner I got redirected to a site and got bombarded with tones of software. The computer was so bad and my fear of leakage of personal information forced me to shut it down and reload the drive image. Sadly there was no time to pick through files to save.

Bob wrote a good program but he needs to folow Butel's lead and upon registering, print out a copy of the key. Not mandatory but it would have been helpful.

I can take abuse but I REFUSE to pay that joker 50.00 to get my *** chewed out. Payment constitutes a contract and his responsibility is to provide support. Facts like Monday evening emailing of keys is bull, but if it is the fact, then it should be posted on his site.

If I am guilty of anything it is to be a bit antsy. But never did I get out of line with him. I've worked in Public Safety communications for 35 years and if anyone working under me treated a customer as he did they would have been fired on the spot.
 

mule1075

Member
Feed Provider
Joined
Jan 20, 2003
Messages
3,956
Location
Washington Pennsylvania
Well I don't know.On the bottom of my emailed receipt.It clearly states save this email as it is a receipt and contains key so pretty straight forward.I also use butel products and if you lose your key you get charged $10 for it to be resent or at least that is how it was in the past.

Sent from my Z750C using Tapatalk
 

WA1LMC

Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2009
Messages
49
Please REAd What Led Up To This. In the end, BAD customer svc

I did get the email and placed it in m,y PURCHASE folder on Outlook BUT THE COMPUTER GOT ATTACKED and was in such bad shape it had to be shut down and rebooted with my emergency disk so I could reload the image. I do a backup every week but this fell in between backups.

The point here is it would have been easy for Bob to look up the sales receipt since I SENT him my PAYPAL receipt as proof of purchase. Rather than flap his gums and tell me I am a childish adult GOOD CUSTOMER service was to promptly reply and just deal with it.

How a day earlier I had a problem with communications and sent an email which he did not acknowledge..

The ONLY time he replied was when he got an email through PAYPAL.

In my years of interfacing with Public Safety customers, business and military I responded to email promptly 7 days a week even when I traveled to Schaumberg for Motorola training. I may have bene impatient but that does not deserve such RUDE emails.

Now no more discussions. What happened happened. I will get my refund and PROSCAN is gone forever.
 

derevs

Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2001
Messages
152
I have been using Proscan for many years and prefer it over Butel which I also have. It is nice to access many models of scanners without having to buy several programs for different scanners.

There is probably an onus on the purchaser to keep track of keys which I have almost always done. I print at least 2 copies of my keys and I just checked my records and I purchased my Proscan in 2009 and still have 2 copies of my key printed on the the same date of purchase.

By the way I have installed Proscan on a few new computers since 2009.

Proscan is a small company with 1 employee, and Bob has had to adjust his program a few times lately to keep up with technology changes, so have some patience. These days even larger companies take days to get back to customers.
 

WA1LMC

Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2009
Messages
49
And Why Not Say That On HIs Web Site?

It would be nice if Bob made that point about being 1 person on his web site. If he specidied Monday replacement key mailings and the fact that he is a 1 man show, it may have avoide some of this. But the end of the day the guy has a short fuse and maybe needs to find a friend to handle customer relations. He is not well versed.

Listen. I was an on call technician who on my 1 week duty serviced Rhode Island and Connecticut. We managed Police, Fire and data networks. On call was brutal. One Friday night during a week and weekend I was on call a front moved through and devastated most of Central and Eastern Connecticut communications. I worked straight through from Friday afternoon to close to 3 AM Monday morning with NO SLEEP.
I traveled through heavy snow and ice storms at all ungodly hours to service customers under contract with a 2 hour response time.

Now my point is this. As exhausted as I was many times I was cranky but NEVER unloaded on my customers. IN 35 YEARS NEVER!!!!!!

If I found the demands too much to handle I could quit and take an easier 9 - 5 job. But communications was in my DNA. So my point is this, if he is stressed out, QUIT!! But you NEVER PISS off the customers who are your bread and butter. NEVER!!!

Now Bob has many friends and I can see he pissed off a few as well. I have no rteason to hate the guy but his behavior was unprofessional. Like I said I am old, tired and impatient but if you read hte back and forth of email no my original post, NEVER did I jump ugly with him. Impatiernt yes, rude and unprofessional NO! I vent my anger as one would expect of a mature individual. BUt at the ned of the day, NO ONE GETS ABUSIVE LIKE THAT. I payed for a licence not for his line of crap.
 

fxdscon

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
7,162
Now no more discussions. What happened happened. I will get my refund and PROSCAN is gone forever.

It's unfortunate that you see it that way.... Bob is a first rate guy with some of the best scanner software out there.

But the end of the day the guy has a short fuse and maybe needs to find a friend to handle customer relations. He is not well versed.

Sounds to me that your fuse may be quite a bit shorter than his.

I have no rteason (sic) to hate the guy but his behavior was unprofessional.

I find it peculiar that you should refer to his actions as "unprofessional"...

I don't see Bob bullying and belittling you in a public forum.

.
 

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
And this is why we bootleg software. no more issue with designer, or sales reps.

"I am just kidding"
 

Ghstwolf62

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 23, 2006
Messages
1,377
Location
Clifton Forge Virginia
I wasn't even a customer and he was very nice and supportive of issues I had. I find it hard to believe he's suddenly a d*ck.

It sounds like you're impatient and because he didn't jump instantly on your email you got mad. I don't blame him for not taking it. He is under no obligation to do so.

The idea that someone provides something free or paid and that requires them to put up with whatever is ridiculous.

People are way too demanding and impatient these days and completely lack understanding of anything. He isn't under any obligation to tell anyone what he's doing and how he feels at any given moment.

I see this all the time with scanners too. Complain, complain and complain or as we used to say whine.

Sometimes I wonder why anyone even tries anymore to do anything for anyone with all the grief they get.

There is another software on here and they couldn't be bothered to resolve a huge issue so I just walked away. Didn't cry and attack them in a public forum for it.

Also a lot of these software now tell you point blank save your keys or you are SOL because they won't resend them. Be thankful he was willing to do so at all.

If I ever get the free money I'm going to get it from him because its a good software and he responded and helped with issues. I just didn't demand he do it in five minutes.

By the way using Paypal for something like that isn't Kosher. You got your product and YOU lost the keys. He did respond just not instantaneously so you really shouldn't be able to get a refund. You got the product you paid for, it worked and its not his fault YOU had issues unrelated to his program.
 

WA1LMC

Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2009
Messages
49
Well the way I see it, if I told a customer childish that is an insult plain and simple. And it IS unprofessional. PERIOD
 
D

darunimal

Guest
You are unethical and immoral, because as Newtons Third Law states .. ...... ..., you try to take someone's business down because he called a spade a spade, 'PETULANT' perfectly calls into mind your actions. GO with BUTEL and pay 1/4 of the price when you lose that key, Mr. Perfect, it was you that downloaded a virus on your computer not BOB OF PROSCAN. by the way you just were talked to "that way" by several people. +7 if my math serves me correctly
 
Last edited:

JoeyC

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
3,523
Location
San Diego, CA
I purchased Proscan and the software is good. But after a computer issue that required a restoration, I lost my activation key. So on Sunday i sent an email expecting a reply on Monday. Well it never happened so I sent another and with no reply I copntacted through Paypal. Well he answeered and began to rant.

Finally he sent this email:


The problem is you didn't wait till Monday evening when lost keys are sent. Your email came in Sunday. I haven't seen anyone with your childishness in years. I don't want your business.

Now maybe I got antsy when he didn't answer email. His excuse was he was away on Monday for customer service training. Like I am to know. So here is the sequence:

I sent:
I sent you an email yesterday regarding a missing activation key due to a computer issue which forced me to restore my system. I have restored my other scanenr software but am waiting for you to resend my activation key for WA1LMC purtchased thruogh Paypal on 9/25/15.
��
Customer service is�� important and from some postinga on Radioreference, your customer service is not as good as it should be. I hope you will reply to this email by the end of the day today (9/28/2015) or a claim will be filed through Paypal since I can not operate the software without it.
��

His reply:

I just got back from customer training. Lost keys are always sent on Mondays. I wish you would just chill.


Me:
I will hang on but an auto reply would have been helpful if no one was there to answer emails.

Thank Yuo

His response:
The problem with auto reply is it reply's to the Yahoo groups and no one wants that and also reply's to my work emails and that's not too good.

My response:
Understand. I can plan on receiving my key next Monday? If that is the day then I will make do since the nag screen is really annoying as they are meant to be. :)

Larry
WA1LMC

And finally he wrote:

The problem is you didn't wait till Monday evening when lost keys are sent. Your email came in Sunday. I haven't seen anyone with your childishness in years. I don't want your business.

Now I don't think I was out of line during the communications. BUT I will not be talked to like that from a short tempered person. His software is good but not worth this abuse. My only fault was being concerned about getting burnt as I have been in the past. TRUST me, USE BUTEL software. NEVER have I had a problem with their support.

I did call Paypal and intialized a claim for a refund. Proscan abd Bob Arne are just not worth it.


The mere fact that you wrote this LENGTHY rant after such a short period of time waiting, suggests to me that there is more to the "emailing" than written here. (Too much "story" always tells another story.)


But no, I don't want to see the exchange, its clear that you are bullying the software author because you are upset that you had to go through whatever you did with software restoration. I agree with Bob. Take a chill pill.
 

JPSan

Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2006
Messages
441
Location
Tucson, AZ
Always more to the story

I really agree that his lengthy story is to much.
I have Pro Scan software and have had for many years and had to reinstall it on new devices.

1 time I misplaced my notebook of software license serial #'s and Bob sent it to me with in a day. No drama.

Pro Scan is not a FULL TIME operation. It isn't a mission critical software.
It's a dedicated hobbyist writing, updating and answering questions by registered owners and others. It ain't his full time gig. Everyone is allowed to have a bad day, big deal.

Bottom line, He has a life, a job, a family. So you are making this big intense issue over scanner software, for your hobby radio? WOW!!!

To quote the drill sergeant from the movie STRIPES.......LIGHTEN UP, FRANCIS.

Take a deep breath, remind yourself it's just a hobby and all will work its self out.

Wish the moderators would lock down this thread.
 

eaf1956

Member
Feed Provider
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
3,351
Location
Evansville, IN
Bob has always helped me out several times with lost keys and resetting his server when my activation count was filled and a computer crashed. He has always been very courteous and helpful. He does have a full time job and ProScan is not it. It helps to be patient and not get all riled up if he doesn't answer the next day. My last incident happened when he was on vacation, no big deal. If I was on vacation I wouldn't worry about stuff at home that's why its a vacation. When he returned he took care of my issue. Not once did I even think about a refund but then I have used ProScan for years.
 

mikewazowski

Forums Manager/Global DB Admin
Staff member
Forums Manager
Joined
Jun 26, 2001
Messages
13,462
Location
Oot and Aboot
I think the OP has made his point and Bob's reputation has been thoroughly defended by others.

Thread closed.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top