Sunday, August 12, 2007

Digital River: 6 years of suckage and still going strong!

I just read this article in Ed Foster's Gripeline about yet another Digital River customer getting ripped off.

Back in 2001, I had my final, terrible experience with Digital River. I wrote the whole thing up on my website.

Ever since then, I've received countless emails from frustrated people tearing their hair out over the bizarre, terrible, and perhaps fraudulent misbehavior of Digital River.

No doubt I receive these messages because a) they can't get anyone at Digital River to respond to them and b) my rant is the #1 google result for "digital river awful", #2 for "digital river sucks" and #4 for "digital river terrible".

As for me, I've refused to purchase any software online if I find myself staring at Digital River. This has directly resulted in thousands of dollars in lost sales for vendors who choose to use DR.

Sad to see it hasn't changed at all in 6 years.

For your reading pleasure, here are just a few of the many, many, many DR emails I've received. Names obscured to protect the innocent.


I needed to read your website BEFORE digital river took $164.00 twice out of my bank account, while sending me nothing! I am a college student and needed to update my trial version of microsoft office so I could finish my internet class assignment. I ordered the update only to receive a message saying that "there was a problem with your payment". After checking my bank account, I saw that there should be no problem. So I naively backed out and placed my order a second time. There was still a payment problem. After checking my account the second time, I notice that Digital River had secured $164 twice out of my available funds in my bank account, and yet I had received nothing from them!!! No email, no way to contact them! I immediately sent an email to customer service, telling them that they better not take that money out of my account and that I want a full refund.
Anyways, got a zero on my assignment (received no product), Digital River took both transactions of $164 twice out of my bank account, after I sent a refund request, and all I got two days later is an email that says they will send me a refund within 5-7 days. Meanwhile, I have no money left, no software program, and will fail another assignment or two before they refund me my money! There goes my GPA!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sincerely,
Amber W.



I also was duped in the same manner, only the software I purchased totally crashed my PC. Now I am unable to even get through to D.R. to talk about a refund, but I have in fact found a better way to deal with there incompetence, I just called my Credit Card provider and was assured that they would receive none of the $ 61.00 that they charged me for software that neither worked, but did manage to crash a brand new notebook. I have tried as you did to solve the problem without being rude or argumentative, but all I received in return was errors on the website and absolutely no customer service what so ever. I would suggest to anyone even thinking of buying from “Digital River” to close your browser and go to the local software store and never look back!
Regards, Steven M.



I just found your article on the internet re Digital River and your experiences with them. I'm having similar problems with DR in that I purchased a MS Money program, unknowingly through them or not understanding at the time that this is a 3rd party vendor, and now that I had a computer breakdown, had to do a restore, and need to re-download my copy of MS Money, what a nightmare? Can't reach them, can't get a response, no acknowledgment of anything, and if I had seen your article first, I would have known better. It appears to me that they are no better than when you had your experience in 2001. Now it appears I will be forced to re-purchase the program to get it on my "restored" computer and for obvious reasons, I'm very unhappy not to mention the number of hours I've already spent trying to get through to them.

Just wondered if you have heard from others with similar experiences, and I would like to get my story out on the internet for others to see, however I'm not sure how to do that. Maybe you could clue me how to do this. These people (Digital River) should be out of business. This is rediculous.

Thanks for listening.

Sincerely,

Tim A.



I have just finished reading about your travails - a mild term in view of the frustrations you encountered - while trying to get some help to download pc cillin internet security 14 from Digital River bought on 10 March 06. I have spent some 12 hours trying to do this over and over again because I figure with my lack of computer sophistication that I was doing something wrong. Finally, four days ago I gave up and sent for help via the attached email. I have received NOTHING in response. And of course I have paid for the product and have an order confirmation, serial number. Oh, how I wish I had read your long painful message first.
Any advice would be appreciated as I am not protected at the moment from viruses and the like.
Sincerely,
John C.
PS I am sending a copy of this to Digital River but I am not expecting any thing will be done.

25 comments:

  1. Digital River is still USELESS!!!! as of 7-17-2008.

    There order support number is 1 800 656 5443. But it is useless, they just say, "It may take up to 4 or MORE hours to process your purchase."

    It has been MORE for me. There response to my, "It has been 16 hours." was to say, "That can happen, you will be notified when we complete our processing."

    STAY AWAY

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  2. Oh, crap! DR just withdrew 174.84 for a download of Microsoft Home and Student from my checking account, but the 20-digit product key they sent was wrong. Funny how they withdrew the funds almost immediately, before I could cancel the order. I have asked for a refund, but only God knows if and when I'll receive it. Now I'm scared to death that I trusted them with my debit card number. Based upon the Microsoft interface and familiar look and feel of it, I assumed it was legit and that Microsoft was at the head. What an ass I am!

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  3. As a former employee of Digital River, I have to agree. They suck dick. I hate them with an undying passion. They don't just screw customers, they screw their own employees. They look over people who bust their ass, staying late working doubles, do overtime everytime. I thought I was gonna be a supervisor there and they pick someone who not only had been there for only 3 months, but has NO managerial experience and CRIED EVERY OTHER CALL!! But to the related topic. Someone with your same situation called one time, I asked my supervisor at the time for advice. The jerk shrugs his shoulders and goes, "Well, that's just the way it is. Hehe!" DR IS USELESS!! So I know where you're coming from. You can blame 2 people for how Digital River is towards everybody: Curt Baisden and Joel Ronning.

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  4. Yes - as of 1/12/09 DR is still in business. I cannot understand how companies like norton continue to use them. I have tried to purchase and run norton antibot two time. the codes DR gives me is accepted but the program will not start. The next day, the program tells me my key has expired. This seems like fraud. Why a company would want to sell through DR confuses me.

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  5. I'm a publisher that DR processes payments for. Digital River is not sending customer info to my key generator lately. Its a tech problem. Janette Peterson at DR wrote: "We don't provide technical support for key generator issues; the SDK
    documentation is, in effect, the technical support." I have asked her to put her tech person in touch with my web developer to fix the problem. I have faxed a letter to Joel Ronning, CEO. No results. Its going to cost me a lot of money (in my unique security developer costs) to switch to another CC processor. How can I get Janette Peterson to put her developer to work on my problem?

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  6. They say they offer "extended download protection". What they actually do is only offer you part of the file you need to install your software and then make you wait a 2 weeks for their "customer support" to contact you about where to get the missing files (if you're lucky). This company truly sucks and DOES NOT CARE about its customers. I urge anyone who has ANY PROBLEMS with them to immediately contact the BBB and file a complaint. Maybe once their BBB rating goes down the toilet they will start paying attention.

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  7. this Digital River is so embarrasing ! I really do not know why Microsoft counts on such a suckable partner to sell their student versions of Windows 7. I registered two student email adresses and the thing do not let me buy it. I am always getting funny messages like: "some positions of your order are not accepted which we deleted" ok, then i am going to the checkout and its saying me the same again and again and again. If Microsoft does not even get it managed to get in contract with a serious partner to deliver Windows 7. Why should I think Windows 7 is a serious product ?

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  8. Yep, they absolutely suck. I am also in the camp that wonders why any legitimate software company would use digital river to process payments for them and provide downloads... they just plain suck and make things worse. Worse yet, customers have to try to figure out which customer service rep to speak with (purchase download related, etc)... but if you get no response from DR, then what? Digital River is off my list. If you use it, I won't be purchasing from you, they have pissed me off for the last time.

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  9. NO HOPE ........publicrelations@digitalriver.com ...still didnt receive my win 7 after one month of ordering....ordered oct 25th....today nov 29th 2009....i dunno how this company exist still...and microsoft screwed up big time giving it to them....customer service comes up with the same answer....is there no consumer protection, cant we legally pursue this idiots and shut them up and save all other consumers

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  10. D.R. Prevents me from using advertised sale coupons for several products of a designer.The maker thinks the coupons work after I contacted them. The products are excel add-ons, with not only a MS seal of whatever, but the product is pointed to on a MS Excel site! Good thing I looked into this and as it turns out the makers of Norton pulled the plug on DR last October. DR stock is being watched-it is making the sucking sound,... won't be long and there will will be a new kid on the block. BOYCOTT DR! Free-up the imprisoned honest designers!There are other options to sell their products and DR should not even be considered. They have false income and the the true value of the stock is pennies.

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  11. I didn't know DR existed until I tried to purchase Sims 3 through EA. I saw the digital download and went, "sure why not?" Well, so far the order was 'processed' and gave me no confirmation, nor did it record as an order in the EA account, nor did it provide a download link. I've been sitting here reading all of this and wondering wtf i'm going to do. Looks like I'd better start calling EA to find out what can be done..

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  12. DR uses a slave-labor mentality to drive their employees, routinely 'requesting' 60-70 hour weeks that quickly burn out the brightest minds in the e-commerce world. They recently outsourced their customer support to Tennessee, and they consistently use overseas contractors to fill vacancies left by folks who just can't work 70 hours a week anymore. The secret to DR's failure is a fundamental disrespect towards their employees. They are currently suffering 'brain drain' as their employees discover that other companies pay more, have better benefits, and leave no whip marks on their backs. Don't do business with DR; I refuse to anymore.

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  13. A game company Her Interactive, just began doing business with Digital River. Today, their newest game (and first to download through Digital River) was released. If you head to the Her Interactive website, you will find 20+ people all complaining about the same download issues. One of the issues is a glitch the disallows you to download the software you purchased for attempting too many times....after only attempting once or twice on their slow glitchy server. Even if you spent an extra 6 dollars on extended download, it doesn't help.

    And as of yet, nobody has heard from them to rectify the situation. I wouldn't be surprised if this effected Her Interactive's business. I wouldn't be surprised if getting a refund or a fix is like pulling teeth... I wish i had found this first....

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  14. I will never again purchase a software program from ANY vendor who uses Digital River. Ever. Tired of getting screwed OVER AND OVER AND OVER.

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  15. Alan Suger (no, not THE Alan Suger)November 22, 2011 at 8:08 AM

    Utter Planks! I shudder whenever a website uses them for payment processing.

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  16. Every time I order software with them it fails, i'm ordering IT and software for a 50 person IT company all the time and never have an issue unless DR handle the transaction. Just had a VMware order fail - only £26. They handle transactions for Microsoft as well and that failed for me last month, customer service put the phone down on me as I was telling them how rubbish they are! Why do vendors use them, most of these people could just run it themselves.

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  17. Digital River handles the billing for Mattel Toys' Mattycollector.com website which sells He-Man & DC Comics Superheroes action figures. For the past three months I have been begging them to change the credit card that I have on file. They simply won't and keep trying to bill my old card.

    I have changed the credit card on the website, called Digital River every day for over a week, faxed them a five page detailed fax showing screen shots from their own website as well as credit card statement print outs, and still they billed the wrong card again.

    I HATE Digital River

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  18. I purchased a game from Atari's website, only to find out that it is serviced by DR as a third party biller and download service. I have used a dozen other online software download vendors and DR has been the worst. I placed my order and got nothing, then I was unable to cancel my order after calling again and again.

    I filed with the BBB of Minnesota (their HQ), hopefully time will degrade their rating for what its worth. Meanwhile, I content myself with the thought that other more competitive companies will put them under soon.

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  19. Suddenly DR does not accept any of my 3 valid credit cards. No help from customer service, can't purchase my security software. They are a bunch of f******* a************!!!!!!!!!!!

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  20. Digital River was also (ir)responsible for the distribution of the limited Wizard Edition of the PS3 game, Ni no Kuni. Apparently they oversold copies and have been sending the few they have to customers randomly, so even some of those who pre-ordered last year didn't get their copies. The only compensation to customers is a twenty-dollar coupon for use in the publisher's online store, and a voucher for an unofficial strategy guide (distribution of both STILL handled by Digital River).

    My girlfriend pre-ordered a copy for us, was billed twice, and had her order cancelled. Luckily she was refunded, but seriously? Being charged twice for a product that doesn't exist? Isn't that criminal?

    The fishiest thing is that this eBay scalper, Play Canada pre-ordered and received over 200 copies. They've been selling them for over 300 USD...

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  21. Ditto on the above. I am yet another customer who was royally screwed by Digital River on the Ni No Kuni Wizard Edition. My order was confirmed, invoiced, and still has a pending credit card charge weeks later after they suddenly "canceled" my order. Their pathetic offer of a $20 coupon off ClubNamco's website is quite ingenious, seeing how all 8 items available are listed at inflated MSRP prices. I myself will never do an online transaction with any manufacturer or publisher using Digital Dump... people need to wise up and use Amazon, as they obviously know how to handle online transactions in the here and now.

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  22. Digital River has made it frustrating/impossible to purchase a great deal of software. Anything from Electronic Arts' Origin platform, and right now I'm unable to purchase a Creative Cloud subscription from Adobe because Digital River's transactions just fail. It's amazing to me why people keep giving them business.

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  23. I placed an order with SWREG (Digital River) for purposes of resale. The SWREG site pops up with instructions on how to fax in a tax exemption certificate with a notation that the amount of tax would be refunded. Well, the fax number doesn't work. I emailed customer service and, after several days I received a reply indicating that once an order is placed it is too late to get a tax exemption. The amount of money involved is small but that SWREG/Digital River has defective instructions on their web site is another indication of the level of SUCKAGE that they have achieved.

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  24. 2014, Digital River has been horrible for over a decade! Why are they still in business? Why haven't they learned how to do better? I want their business to go down in flames. They stole over $200 from me.

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  25. I just cannot understand how this company is not under investigation; and, equally shocked at the number of companies I would do business with. Something, thankfully that is something I can change.

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