When you purchase a car advertised as with a 3L engine but it actually have a 1.4L engine or purchase a 21" screen that's actually a 15" screen, then MOST people would regard it as at least moral fraud while it's also illegal and fraud in most countries to mislead customers with false information.

With that said, WHERE do you think should the line be drawn for software where many defects/misleading information can hide behind the word "bugs"

Post Affiliate Pro for example advertise the program as a "Multiple Merchants" system but in reality it's complete false. It's merely a multiple admin system where there is absolute NO "multiple merchants" difference between them. (You can assign permissions in the mutliple admin system, but ALL of them have the same level of (unchangeable) access to ALL the campaigns/merchant functions)

They are in fact busy to build a "real" multiple merchant network system that will cost almost 10 times more than their current and advertised "Multiple Merchant" system.

Omnistaretools.com also sell inter alia an affiliate program and guarantee speedy support etc, but it's now several days and I still struggle to get them to fix important problems in their software because it's still USELESS for me in it's current state.

Both of them are "reputable" companies but MY problem is that, if we as customers and eventually the legal system don't draw the line somewhere, even "reputable" companies will just continue to mislead customers with false and misleading information.

Post Affiliate Pro is for example listed on a few places as the "best" affiliate program but HOW MANY of that "oh-so-good" features are fact or fiction and it's us, the customers, that allow companies to come away with murder.

Not likely anytime soon: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare/top-ten-reasons.aspx:peace: (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare/top-ten-reasons.aspx)

Microsoft is a bunch of .... but I think even you will agree that at least their software works out of the box and that they provide automatic updates to fix issues.

It cannot really be compared with for example the affiliate program from omnistartools.com where I now several days after purchase STILL cannot USE their software because the manage affiliates page don't work.

Microsoft at least also clearly advertise cheaper solution x can do this but not that and expensive solution y can do this and that while Post Affiliate Pro claims to be able to do things that it CAN'T and they are not even yet able to provide such functionality.

I see your point...mine was that as long as the big dogs are doing this, expect the little guys to follow.

Actually, I almost find MS's methods to be a little more insidious. It's one thing if you say, "My software does X." If it clearly doesn't, then it won't take long for your customers to leave you and trash you via word of mouth. Now a claim like "Windows 7 is more stable..." Equally untrue, yet with just enough vagueness to keep most people from seeing behind the curtain.

Either way, I'm truly sorry for what you're going through. Best you can probably do is demand a refund and steer other people clear of them...

Your analogy for physical, tangible products hold true. But, for software, there are always End User Licenses (EULAs) that protect companies such as Microsoft as playing it off as a "bug".

Post Affiliate Pro for example advertise the program as a "Multiple Merchants" system but in reality it's complete false. It's merely a multiple admin system where there is absolute NO "multiple merchants" difference between them. (You can assign permissions in the mutliple admin system, but ALL of them have the same level of (unchangeable) access to ALL the campaigns/merchant functions)


Mmm; their site says:

"This is optional feature of Post Affiliate Pro, which gives you option to have more users with role merchant in same affiliate program. For each of your merchants you can define role with rights on different application parts.

"e.g. if you like to have merchant user, which has right to communicate with your affiliates, but not define campaigns, you can define special role and assign to this merchant user role you defined for this type of affiliate."

The thing that strikes me about this is it is not written in fluent English, and I do not understand what it is trying to tell me.

So I wouldn't rely on it meaning anything.

If you got different people to read it, and then asked them questions about how the software would behave in various circumstances, I doubt they would all give the same answers.