Complaint Review: SharewareOnline.com

The following is a cut-and-pasted copy of the interaction I had with this company on 1 and 2 May 2003. I began with my complaint to them:


I have been a registered user of both Mem Turbo and Net Turbo for a few years now. In the last week or two, I began to notice a screen popping up on startup that stated something to the effect that "the server was busy" and to either click the "retry" button or "switch to" button shown on the screen. There is no identity on the screen that identifies what program is generating it, but it cannot be removed off the desktop by the "X" in the top right corner. And when you click on either of the options I listed above, you get an ad for something or another.

The reason I am writing to you is two-fold: according to your FAQ, Net Turbo does not need to start up when the system is booted, yet there is an entry in my startup folder for it that I certainly didn't place there and has been there since I began using the program. As long as it was doing no harm, I left it there.
Which leads me to the second question: in order to try and identify this pop-up ad screen I explained about, I checked each of my startup processes upon boot up and found that the problem screen closes when I end the netturbo.exe process in the Windows Task Manager.

My system is clean of any ad-ware, spy ware, viruses or trojans as I have excellent programs that run in the background to check such things, along with doing regular manual scans.
Why is Net Turbo starting up upon booting? And why have I been able to identify your program as being the one that is apparently trying to connect to a server and placing ads on my system?
The annoying window does not pop up upon every startup or reboot. It appears to come and go. Tonight, I returned my system back to its default network settings using Net Turbo and uninstalled and then reinstalled my registered copy in the hopes that this was just an anomaly of some sort.

However, I would like your feedback as to what I have written here. Also, should this ad screen appear again, I will be glad to provide you with a screen shot of it.
Thanks you for your assistance in this matter.


Here is the "professional" response I received back from these clowns, typos and grammatical errors included:


NetTurbo is merely checking for an update. You said "placing ads on my system"... that's a paranoid exaggeration. The Switch To dialog is part of the OLE subsystem. What did you think it was trying to sell you, retries or switches?


And here was my response to the idiot that wrote the above:


To the writer of the response sent to me below:

Point #1: I don't know who you are, but let's get one thing straight right off the bat, friend: I do not appreciate what you wrote here, and don't give a d**n whether you own the company, created the software or are a flunky. Do you read me loud and clear on my first point?

Point #2, wise-a*s: you did not answer my question re: why is Net Turbo is my start-up menu. I want the answer. Do you comprehend that second point?


Point #3: then you admit that the screen is indeed related to your software? Or are you denying it? And, yes: you ARE placing ads on my system, even if they appear on my desktop as a pop-up that terminates. Do you understand THAT, friend?

Since you choose to be a jerk about it, then I will share your response with a few others that I am sure will be interested in it from a customer service point of view. And that is particularly bad for you and your company, as I work in the IS field in, of all things wouldn't you know, tech support for a major hospital.

Or perhaps you thought I was a brain-dead AOL'er? Your mistake, friend.
You need to clean up your act and quickly. And you need to be relieved of your duties as a support person, because you apparently are clueless as to what the title means.

I also forwarded a copy of this entire interaction to every e-mail I could find with an @shareware.com extension.


Steven
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.