Robert
StrayCat
Still wondering why no one ever received a license?
"Unfortunately the software was only being given away to the first 5000 customers
It was on a first come first serve basis.We really apologize for the case
but the subscription was full within seconds.If you wish to purchase it we could offer you a discount..."
(Quote from a chat session with Stellar Support).
I suppose this calls for a rerun. :)
ChrisS
Administrator
Robert, your response differs significantly from what Stellar had posted at Giveaway of the day — Stellar Phoenix CD DVD Recovery 6.1
Dear All,We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you as you didnt recieve the keys timely due to some technical glitch at our end. We have resend the Registration keys on 20th October 2015 on the same email id registered with us. If you are still facing a problem and require any other assistance then please feel free to mail us at support[@]stellarinfo.com
Best Regards
Stellar Support
Reply | Comment by Stellar Support – Oct 22nd, 2015 at 10:50 pm
I suppose having been over-subscribed could be considered a "technical error" in the sense that they technically had to have ignored the GOTD staff when undoubtedly told "you're going to get a a lot more requests for licenses than that". But, if the explanation is true, it's a horrible business practice to have not simply stated early in the day "We have reached the limit for free licenses, sorry for any inconvenience, here's another discount offer". Instead, they apparently left everybody hanging in a "truth gap".
I didn't participate in the Stellar Phoenix circus. Freeware options like the Unstoppable Copier and ddrescue (available on most Linux rescue disks) take care of my needs.
ChrisS
Administrator
I must apologize, I was being silly with "it's a horrible business practice...". They gave away 5,000 licenses and probably got over a million "Likes" in the process. They made a bucketful of Social Media "Coin of the Realm" and just had to sully GOTD in the process.
Put away your shades, the future is dismal.
mikiem2
Moderator
I must apologize, I was being silly with "it's a horrible business practice...".
Personally I don't think you were being overly silly Chris...
There are if anything too many numbers, too many metrics that can be used to justify someone saying whatever they want.
Sometimes that doesn't matter -- if you're dealing on Wall St. & just made a ton of money because questionable metrics led investors to overpay you, it's unlikely you'll have to ever give that cash back. If you're talking about metrics that sound impressive, but don't effect the bottom line, it's OK if you're blowing smoke in the direction of your boss &/or investors, & they don't call you on it. [Not being called on it is getting harder however, e.g. all the criticism for Microsoft for their new reporting methods.]
But in the case of [not so] Stellar Phoenix, I'm thinking of Amazon, PayPal, & Ebay... Sellers freak at the mere thought of a negative mention. People that are willing & do pay actual money for goods are increasingly cautious, always looking for that all important rep. I'm not sure that WinX ever recovered from the fiasco where they turned off one of their giveaways -- EaseUS suffered an awful lot when they tried limited the number of licenses -- and while I could be wrong, I suspect Stellar Phoenix will now have to resurface under another brand name to be even mildly successful.
Edit: Wanted to add a quick blurp, something I just remembered re: maybe somewhat misleading metrics... Watch for a huge increase for anything Windows 10 in November -- the Xbox One's are getting updated, they'll now be included, but don't look for too much from Microsoft spelling that out.
ChrisS
Administrator
Sellers freak at the mere thought of a negative mention.
I really don't understand what (not so) Stellar was thinking. If they did limit the licenses to 5,000 then they must have said to themselves "people will see what our program can do and they'll buy it!" but all people would see is a non-functioning version that doesn't actually do anything but make empty promises when they're supposed to get "fully functional licensed software".
But, people will remember Stellar Phoenix, so they've got that going for them.
Invisible
Member
I received an email with the license key on the 20th (from the name Stellar Info I think). It said they had heard that some users hadn't received the key. It was in the spam folder (gmail account). I assumed everyone received the email, but I haven't seen anyone else saying they did? I had sent for the key about 5 hours after the giveaway started, so I don't know what was meant about "the subscription was full within seconds"...?
ChrisS
Administrator
so I don't know what was meant about "the subscription was full within seconds"...?
- There are a number of GOTD sites for the various languages. Assume that the licenses were allocated among those sites based on normal download volume so you're no longer talking about 5,000 but a much smaller number. The giveaway goes live at midnight and the smaller number is gone by 12:15 AM.
- Lastly, we have conflicting reports from Stellar Phoenix. We don't actually know that there was a limit on the licenses. Was the post on the giveaway thread about "technical difficulties" meant to obscure the real reason (the 5,000 license limit) or was the 5,000 license limit used to explain away the failure to properly handle the email traffic (perhaps in advance of the release of the Stellar Phoenix Automated Email Server?).
If your company has a problem a good crisis management company will tell you that your explanation must be both consistent and true; a poor crisis management company will tell you that your explanation must be consistent. Stellar Phoenix's response fails because by not being consistent at least one explanation cannot be true.
Invisible
Member
I guess there could be lots of explanations, but regardless of what it was, I still received a key. And I sent in my email apparently way past the time when those 5000 licenses would have presumably run out. I never corresponded with them. It just appeared in my spam box. I thought they were just trying to fix the mistake or misunderstanding or whatever it was. Here's the email, minus the key:
_______________________________________________________________
Auto Responder - Stellar Phoenix CD DVD Recovery
Stellar Info <autoreply@stellarinfo.com>
Oct 20 (8 days ago)
to me
Welcome (Name),
We got to know that some of our Giveaway Customers didn't receive the registration.
We apologies for the inconvenience caused, thus re-sending the registration key again.
Stellar Phoenix CD DVD Data Recovery
Activation Key :
Exe link:
Best regards,
The Stellar Team
Please do not reply to this auto-generated message
Stellar Information Technology Pvt. Ltd. Leaders in Hard Drive Data Recovery Software & Services
_________________________________________________________________________________
That IS what the comment from them quoted at the top says they said they would do (date included). I never saw the comment on the giveaway page, because I didn't go back. But it seems they DID send out at least some of the licenses. I only mentioned it in case someone else hadn't checked, and doesn't realize the key is (maybe) there.
mikiem2
Moderator
The problem is that some people will never return to Giveaway of the Day. The company offering their product on GOTD failed, badly, but with however many people it's GOTD that will get the blame, so they'll never come back. To many of the regulars a software company failing with their offer isn't a huge deal -- it's unfortunate but stuff happens -- but to the people who've only visited the site one or a few times, or maybe only occasionally, it could be enough for them to decide never to come back. Today when any site has to fight for every page view, that can matter.
It doesn't take much at all for someone to give up on a company or organization [or web site] permanently & entirely nowadays, because we [people] have a pretty high intolerance of failure. Our personal response to it can vary, just as some people pay more attention to failures than others, but regardless, life today is too complicated & we're too busy to even think about fighting back when we're slighted, even the relatively few times that's even possible. We just avoid putting ourselves in any situation where we expect that some failure might effect us. You buy a product that doesn't work, you don't buy from that company again. A company or individual doesn't deliver what they promised -- in this case free software -- you don't trust them to deliver a 2nd time.
It's come about in my own personal opinion, & totally FWIW, because failure is so rampant -- we often disagree with what any company feels is its job &/or responsibility to customers; the way they carry out that job is often questionable; many of the people working for any company [or just people in general] don't do their jobs or fulfill their responsibilities. If you own & use a cell or tablet running Android, odds are overwhelming that it suffers some degree of security vulnerabilities because the company that made it &/or your cellular carrier don't feel it's their job to keep it up to date. I don't know that anyone hasn't suffered poor service, & likewise I don't think that there's a person who doesn't come across people not doing their job properly, or just behaving irresponsibly, even if it's just their behavior behind the wheel of their car.
You must log in to post.