Ripped OFF! - Oliver Breidenbach

Mark,

I am very sorry to hear that you feel ripped off and that you have trouble with your project. We do our best to serve every customer as good as we can and have certainly no intention to rip anybody off. Since we got no purchase record from Kagi, I am sure that your purchase was not completed and that therefore you will not be charged any money. (If, by "being billed by Kagi" you mean that you got a purchase record, it also contains your serial number, BTW.)

As for the contacting us at Boinx, there are several email addresses noted on our website (boinx.com/contact) as well as a contact form at boinx.com/fotomagico/support. While we might be a bit behind in answering all questions following the launch of FotoMagico 2, I am sure that all emails and requests are answered. The team is hard at work to get everyone helped as soon as possible.

But I can find no trace of you trying to contact us. I am upset that instead you choose to publicly discredit our company and our product because of some technical problem you apparently have with the reseller.

I hope you don't mind me asking why you rate the product with just one star and still obviously use it in project for customers? And why you feel ripped of by a $30 update fee when you apparently use the application to make money? I am sure that there are more significant costs associated with your project. We design our products to make it as easy as possible for you to get your work done and I think we deserve our share for that and the new possibilities with FotoMagico are worth the update fee.

Best regards,

Oliver Breidenbach
Boinx Software

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Tuesday, March 13 2007 @ 01:40 AM PDT

Ripped OFF! - hueco

Were you equally upset by the guy who wrote a 5-star review without even trying the software? (1+5)/2 = 3 so you're still ahead of the Versiontracker Karma curve.

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Tuesday, March 13 2007 @ 02:00 AM PDT

Ripped OFF! - David Smith333

Dear hueco,

I am the reviewer to whom you referrered as not having tried the product and gave it 5-Stars.

For your information, I have been a user of the product "FotoMagico" for 1-2 years now so your comment about not using the product may be misleading. My review was based on the fact of the quality and ease of use of the product and the new features so noted in the upgrade which I deemed to be significant.

I have since purchased the upgrade for $30, have used it and remain extremely pleased with the product. In case you are wondering, no I am not an employee or affliate of Boinx but just a very pleased customer.

In my opinion the $30 upgrade price is insignificant when taken into consideration the value and benefits derived from use and finished work of your projects.

You wrote "Given that Express is pretty much like 1.8.1 minus the OS 10.4 look (look, ma, no brushed metal)"

I beg to differ. Perhaps you should re-read the improved features re: speed, standalone etc. Yes, even in the Express version. From my understanding the only 2 features not included in the free Express version are Custom Export and Aperture Library Support. All else is included. Whether you choose the free Express upgrade or the $30 pro upgrade depends on your needs I would imagine.

All in all still 5-Stars in my opinion.

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Wednesday, March 14 2007 @ 06:43 PM PDT

Ripped OFF! - hueco

1. Your "review" was based upon version 2.0 (see that 2.0 right next to your 5 stars?) and included a conclusion that you were reviewing software you had not used. I was simply quoting you. Instead of finding my quote misleading, you may examine the logic of your own statement.

2. If, then, you simply "reviewed" the new version based upon the new features list, perhaps you should have opted for commentary or feedback instead and ditched the 5 stars that belong to a rating/review? Those are additional options provided by Versiontracker.

3. May I suggest that you also read the product pages to increase your own comprehension? You are wrongly informed. Express has WATERMARKED Player and Screensaver features. For most intents and purposes, this is demo mode. If you upgrade from 1.8.1 to Express you basically gain very minor changes and announced under-the-hood improvements, some apparently earmarked for future updates, but you lose the ability to set sizes and codecs in your QuickTime exports. You are left with idiot labels like "Web." Which is more important? My opinion is that the Express version basically serves to strip out _crucial_ functionality already included in the software and thereby force an upgrade path to restore those very same functions (along with any actual new features). This free Express "upgrade" is thus a net loss. Again, this is not a criticism of the software per se or its ablities, but the promise of something that actually takes more important things away.

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Thursday, March 15 2007 @ 04:51 AM PDT

Ripped OFF! - David Smith333

hueco, your comment that I ought to have defined my original review as a "Comment" instead is well noted. My bad. Perhaps I shall have to write an updated review. Following your comments above I went to do some more homework. This is what I found out:

FotoMagico 2 Express has many new features that FotoMagico 1.8 did not have:

(1) more speed, especially when browsing your fotos

(2) improvements for stability

(3) new user interface with many new little things that make authoring a much smoother experience

(4) Standalone player, great for sharing the slideshows with your friends and family

(5) Mac OS X Screensaver, another great thing for sharing slideshows with your friends, family or the Mac community

(6) Spotlight support

Having said that, as you quite rightly pointed out the watermarking of the player and screensaver aspect to me is a no-no. I don't want no godforsaken watermark on my movie or whatever. That don't make no sense to me. Additionally I prefer most times to export my quicktime mov as a bigger size (eg 640 x 480) to share/display to recipient. The default size for "web" is just too small for me and doesn't cut it. I went with the Pro because I like to have all my options.

But don't you think the improvements in speed, stability, the standalone feature aren't worthy enough to warrant the $30 upgrade price? And then again there's the improved user interface. I thought so specially in light that most upgrades of other software do attract a difference in price.

I could understand your disappointment with the Express version re: watermarking and non-ability to custom size. As I said that just won't cut it for me either. But to be fair the $30 for the upgrade isn't too much. JMO.

Anyway, I don't want to belabor this cause I don't want to come off as tho I'm a Boinx employee or whatever, which I'm not. It's just that this application has served me so well that I'm proud to support it.

Thanks for replying and giving me the opportunity to discuss with you. All the best to you and whatever you decide.

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Thursday, March 15 2007 @ 04:17 PM PDT

Ripped OFF! - David Smith333

hueco, your comment that I ought to have defined my original review as a "Comment" instead is well noted. My bad. Perhaps I shall have to write an updated review. Following your comments above I went to do some more homework. This is what I found out:

FotoMagico 2 Express has many new features that FotoMagico 1.8 did not have:

(1) more speed, especially when browsing your fotos

(2) improvements for stability

(3) new user interface with many new little things that make authoring a much smoother experience

(4) Standalone player, great for sharing the slideshows with your friends and family

(5) Mac OS X Screensaver, another great thing for sharing slideshows with your friends, family or the Mac community

(6) Spotlight support

Having said that, as you quite rightly pointed out the watermarking of the player and screensaver aspect to me is a no-no. I don't want no godforsaken watermark on my movie or whatever. That don't make no sense to me. Additionally I prefer most times to export my quicktime mov as a bigger size (eg 640 x 480) to share/display to recipient. The default size for "web" is just too small for me and doesn't cut it. I went with the Pro because I like to have all my options.

But don't you think the improvements in speed, stability, the standalone feature aren't worthy enough to warrant the $30 upgrade price? And then again there's the improved user interface. I thought so specially in light that most upgrades of other software do attract a difference in price.

I could understand your disappointment with the Express version re: watermarking and non-ability to custom size. As I said that just won't cut it for me either. But to be fair the $30 for the upgrade isn't too much. JMO.

Anyway, I don't want to belabor this cause I don't want to come off as tho I'm a Boinx employee or whatever, which I'm not. It's just that this application has served me so well that I'm proud to support it.

Thanks for replying and giving me the opportunity to discuss with you. All the best to you and whatever you decide.

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Thursday, March 15 2007 @ 04:19 PM PDT

Ripped OFF! - David Smith333

Sorry for the double-post hueco. Not intentional. Page wasn't loading at the time.

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Thursday, March 15 2007 @ 04:28 PM PDT