On Roxio, or How NOT To Do Electronic Commerce

My wife had a VCR tape converted to DVD-R. The tape itself was converted from reel that was filmed back in 1964! She asked me to make copies of those precious 15 minutes of grainy video so that we can pass them out to family members. “Sure honey, no big deal”.

I had used Roxio’s Toast several years ago and liked it, so I went ahead and ordered Popcorn 3 directly from their site. The ordering process was smooth, but that’s where “smooth” ended. I expected to see a web page with download instructions, but instead was advised that I’ll be receiving an email.

An hour later (an hour, I tell ya!), the email arrived. It contained a link to what looked like an FAQs page. Try as I may, I found no valid download link on that page. I went in circles for over 15 minutes to no avail.

Then I tried to “login” to my account. I never really created one, but why not try? After that failed, I requested that the password that I never provided be emailed to me. That turned out to be the same as the order number, but the original email never bothered saying so — and for good reason it turns out: that didn’t work either!

Then I signed up for an account at Roxio’s site, hoping that the download link will magically reveal itself. I didn’t happen, not even after I entered the “CD key”, you know, the one that Roxio had just given me and is blissfully unaware of it.

The rub in all this is that I could have ordered Popcorn 3 from Amazon.com and saved $10. It would have had to wait a few days before the physical package arrived but saved myself a lot of aggravation.

After more than an hour of frustration and surfing their site, I ran into the toll free number for requesting refunds. It’s 1-800-656-5443 for those of you sufferers having trouble finding it. After an additional 29 minutes on hold, I got my refund.

Now I’m trying to decide if I should trust Roxio at all and order Popcorn 3 from Amazon.com or whether I should look into other DVD copying software. I’d appreciate your suggestions.