I bought a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking and was a very happy camper for about 8 months. At that point, I got a new computer. When I went to install the software on the new computer, Nuance rejected my license saying that it had already been installed on too many machines. I figured this was because my old computer was still registered.
The instructions for deauthorizing a machine required that it be done from the machine being deauthorized. It was long dead, so I couldn't do that. I contacted their customer service, explained my situation and asked them to delete all entries for my serial number, so I could start over. They refused and told me that my serial number had been registered in multiple states and asked for a copy of my receipt. As it had been by that time 9 months since the purchase, the receipt was long gone, and I couldn't remember where I'd bought it. I know it was December, and I know it was while I was Christmas shopping, but that only narrowed it down to pretty much every store within 50 miles and the entire Internet.
I scanned the original disks and their original sleeves and sent those with a note explaining that the receipt had long since gone by the wayside and once again asked why they wouldn't do the logical thing and delete any clearly bogus entries for my serial number. They once again sent back a bunch of stuff about authorized retailers, no eBay, no resales, yadda yadda.
I tried sending a paper letter to the president of the company asking for help. A month or so later, I got an email saying my customer care case had been updated. Once again, it was the same old saw about authorized retailers.
I'd like to know how a consumer is supposed to tell whether a box on a shelf in a store is authorized to be there. I'd also like to know why having the product in my hand doesn't mean I own it. Why does it make any sense at all to throw away a customer who would have happily paid for upgrades and evangelized the product when it would have been so simple to block the registrations of the people operating on my stolen license key?
Avoid these people. You deserve to be treated better.
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