Roxio, Roxio ...

... Wherefore Art Thou, O Roxi-O-O-O?

I have groused and grumbled about mail-in rebates before, but really now.

Roxio makes a product called Easy Media Creator. They have just emailed me to tell me that I can pre-order version 8. Because this would be an upgrade for me, they have most kindly offered me an upgrade rebate — for a limited time! That's gripe #1 folks. Why is an upgrade discount limited to a restricted period of time? Once you have bought software, you should always be able to upgrade for a reduced amount. Even the supposedly-evil Microsoft does that, and so does Adobe with its expensive but wonderful Photoshop. In fact, Photoshop upgrades are always tremendously reduced compared to the initial purchase price.

This, alone, has somewhat put me off Roxio. After buying version 5, I had reneged on version 6 for just this reason, and later on version 7. However, when I bought my current computer which has a DVD Writer, I decided to update my software and purchase version 7.5. I don't have any particular complaints with the software although for CDs, at least, I think that I prefer the old and unimproved version.

But that's all background filler and not my main grievance right now. You see, when I did purchase version 7.5, it came with an upgrade mail-in rebate. It wasn't for a whole lot of cash — about twenty dollars on software that was worth sold for about a hundred bucks. And to obtain said rebate, they made things as difficult as possible. I had to find my original, several year-old package and cut the bar code out of it. (For whatever reason, I had kept the package, and miraculously enough could find it. Do you think that maybe they weren't counting on that?) Of course, there was also paperwork to be filled in.

I did it all — in May! It's mid-October now. No rebate in sight. Isn't that ridiculous? Hardly a way to build customer loyalty, is it?

I don't love mail-in rebates overly much. I think that they exist to induce us to purchase a product, but they make it as inconvenient as possible in an attempt to discourage us from actually sending in for it. Then, they keep us dangling for as long a time as possible. That has always been standard procedure, but, apparently, it has now become a complete ruse — in some cases at least.

The mail-in rebate was not the deciding factor in purchasing this product; nevertheless, I am irked by these questionable practices. I can't seem to find a way to justify Roxio's neglect or incompetence (whichever it is).

No Roxio, I won't be purchasing version 8 or any other version. And I don't suppose that any of the ten or twenty people who read this blog will either. And who knows how many accidental surfers will end up here as a result of a search and also refrain from purchasing your product? Was it worth it, Roxio? Was it?