Re: RANT about Dragon Naturally Speaking

[Bonnie Granat <bgranat -at- LYNX -dot- DAC -dot- NEU -dot- EDU>]

I don't know if this will be of any help, but I offer it to you with that
hope:

I had responses from McAfee to a problem I had with reinstalling VirusScan
software (and ultimately updating it with something I had purchased from
McAfee on the Internet and couldn't use) that led me to believe McAfee had
me in a hellish circle of unhelpful machine responses.

It was clear to me that no human had read my succession of messages until
several days later. They sent me what I needed, although their words were
still clearly generated by a machine. At least a human knew the problem and
solved it.

Keep trying; sooner or later, the squeaky wheel gets heard. If you like the
software, it's worth it to be persistent.



-----Original Message-----
From: Malcolm Barnett <mbarnett -at- NETVISION -dot- NET -dot- IL>
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU <TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>
Date: Monday, July 05, 1999 9:27 AM
Subject: Re: RANT about Dragon Naturally Speaking


>O.K. I am very angry so will any one who thinks that this is off topic
>or not relevant or ought to be posted to <moan.complain.com> just
>shuddup and get out of my way.
>
>Two weeks ago I purchased a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred,
>for quite a lot of money. I did so because I thought it would help me in
>my tech writing and translating work. The nice big box had a Hebrew
>sticker on it proudly proclaiming that this software was totally
>compatible with Windows 98 Hebrew enabled (this allows the lucky owner
>to work in Hebrew and/or English; I wanted Dragon NS only for English
>dictation - I didn't expect and don't need the software to work in
>Hebrew).
>
>Tearing it out of the nice big box, I inserted the nice silver-colored
>CD ROM into its appropriate slot and installed. After doing some speech
>volume and clarity tests the software informed me that we were now going
>to build a database as part of General Training. It then died, leaving
>an error message pointing to a
>"general exception c0000005 (EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION)".
>
>So I called the software support here in Israel, PF1 (which once upon a
>time, many years ago, used to be a serious company). To cut a long and
>irritating story short ("we only give support, we don't know what's
>wrong"), they have no idea what the matter is and care somewhat less,
>and I should talk to Dragon.
>
>I got into Dragon's site and sent them email according to their
>instructions, whereby they want to know just about everything about you
>apart from which side of the bed you sleep on. I also sent the log file
>they requested.
>
>Time passes.
>
>After a week I received the following reply (and I swear that this
>exactly as I received it; remember, we're talking about a company whose
>software is supposed translate English speech into English text):
>
>"Dear Sir or Madam:
>>
>> Thank you for using Dragon E-mail support.
>> Your e-mail has been assessed by a technician, who advises the
>following
>> actions:
>>
>> Dragon software does not work with non latin alfabet programs i.e.
>Hebrew,
>> Japanese, Hindi, etc,etc
>>
>> Kind Regards
>> Dragon Technical Support"
>
>And that's it. Nothing about the problem; no hints as how to make it
>work; no awareness that the company sells its product as being Hebrew
>compatible. No notice taken of the fact that I went on at length
>explaining that I was working in English (I even asked whether the
>difference between the British and American English versions concerns
>input (I speak BE) or output (I write AE for most of my clients)).
>
>PF1 have said that they are prepared to consider refunding the money I
>paid.
>
>Despite this I feel very angry; perhaps I am too much of a
>perfectionist, but I would have expected Dragon to make at least a minor
>attempt to come to grips with the problem, instead of giving the
>impression that their clients are only a bunch of idiotic pains in the
>fundament.
>
>Anyone know of any voice to text software that works (Even in unusual,
>although legitimate, language environments?) Sold by a company that
>regards its clients as partners and not enemies?
>
>Advice to those about to buy Dragon products - don't.
>Advice to those in Israel about to buy products serviced by PF1 - don't.
>
>One very very fed up
>
>Malcolm Barnett
>
>From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000==
>
>

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=