Winzip tricked me. I will never buy theirs again.

[Hagen]

A few days ago…I received an email from Winzip saying I was eligible for a “special” upgrade to Winzip 14.5 for a 70% discount.

Sucker that I was I fell for it and immediately took advantage of their upgrade. Little did I pay attention to the wording of their upgrade promotional only saying you get the Ribbon interface upgrade ONLY if you have either Vista or Windows 7. Poor me…I only have Windows XP as I can’t afford the upgrade to that shiny new OS. Since it may be my fault for not spending the time to read their advertisement more carefully…I’m still stunned they mention the Microsoft Office Ribbon interface…which I have on my Windows XP system even though I’ve never upgraded to either Vista or Windows 7.

I couldn’t believe it when I received their tech support email replying to my query about why I’m only seeing the old interface in Winzip…even though I have a Ribbon interface on Office 2007 and in Power Archiver 2010.

I made sure their tech support knows I will never buy another Winzip license from them again as I told them to their faces I have Power Archiver 2010…which gives me the Ribbon interface even though I don’t have Windows 7. I immediately told them to refund my money for the purchase of their “sham” upgrade offer.

Needless to say Winzip will NEVER get my money again. Not after this shoddy treatment. But thanks to PowerArchiver 2010…their developers took care to notice not every one upgrades to the latest Windows OS…and I have Power Archiver 2010 with the shiny new Ribbon interface. Good riddance to Winzip. Forever. So good job to the people who developed Power Archiver. I’m glad I made that switch a while ago.

[spwolf]

thank you

[Hagen]

@spwolf:

thank you

Your welcome. There is only one minor flaw in PowerArchiver 2010…the Extract Dialog button takes too long to load. Can you guys look into this?

[spwolf]

is the network drive default saved location by accident? it might depend on what folder is it opening, as it needs to scan the folder so if it is bigger, it will be slower. It also uses Windows control for that, so it is as fast/slow as Windows itself.

[spwolf]

p.s. I dont understand why they didnt explain the interface issue properly. It is probably some technical implementation issue, but they should have put remark somewhere on the site that it is only for Vista/Win7, and then nobody would be angry.

Well thats another company I guess.

I have to admit that due to what we are working on right now, I have been using Classic for the while, and Modern was quite an breath of fresh air when I changed back

[PBMCMLXXI]

Wierd why the don’t support the ribbon for XP installs.
I do like the ribbon interface, espicially the ribbon in Office 2010. Looking forward to the next version of PA.

[RJWaring]

Using an application like Power Archiver compared to Winzip, Stuffit etc “of which I have used professionally” I can categorically state PA is the Best for tools and ease of use.

I would never go back to those lesser applications.

The second good thing is the customer interaction that Conexware support! You don’t get that from any of the competitors either!

[Micke]

@Hagen:

Little did I pay attention to the wording of their upgrade promotional only saying you get the Ribbon interface upgrade ONLY if you have either Vista or Windows 7.

It’s always hard when you have paid for something and then feel that you didn’t get what you expected for the money. After reading your post I actually looked at the information about WinZip 14.5 and I also missed the small information that the ribbon interface was only for Vista/7. When I looked through the text once again it was still very hard to find out this information since its mentioned as “an entirely new user experience”.

I guess we all need to remember how important it is to try the evaluation first before buying the software.

The good thing with PowerArchiver is that it delivers above the customers expectations, well for me PA was well above my expectations and I’m very satisfied with it and I have no plans at all switching to a different applications for doing this, because PowerArchive is IMHO the best archive software on the market today.

Kind Regards
Micke

[Innuendo]

Interesting that every company in the world can bring a ribbon interface to Windows XP except PKWare.

That company has never been the same since it left the control of Phil Katz.

[gan]

I just have to add that i used to be a winzip user with a upgrade assurance. I also had a license for the self extractor with a upgrade assurance there as well. One day i reported a bug where winzip would crash when compressing a certain kind of wav files. This kind of wav format are used a lot for IP Telephony and that’s part of my job so it was a pretty annoying problem. After several mail and replies they confirmed the bug and told me they would look into the problem. I never heard from them again of course, but after a long time they released a new version. I installed the new version , but the problem where still present. So i sent a new mail and asked them about this bug and referred to my previous mail. They replied that i was the only one to report this problem so they basically figured it was not worth to fix. For the record this problem still exist in version 14 (not tried with 14.5). I sent my first mail about this problem in November 2008.

A bit off topic since it’s not about ribbons, but just would like to add that neither i will ever pay for any of their products ever again. There is a lot of companies with bad support, but this one might be among the worst i ever experienced. Not to mention it’s probably the most expensive application of this kind available. Of course i no longer have a valid upgrade assurance:) even if i did like the self extractor product.

I’m currently a happy user of powerarchiver and winrar (Need winrar to create rar files).

gan

[RJWaring]

Now GAN, that is a typical example of how Lucky PowerArchiver users are. You have a grade A Forum where bugs and improvements can be noted. You also have an email service where you can be assured one of the team will get back to you.

And on top of that PA release minor Updates that fix issues that are either Minor or Major!

Then, PA have a Alpha and Beta team that constantly test the applications soon to be released for glitches and produce reports on possibly improvements the program.

Now who would you rather rely on on getting the job done? A company that relys on its group name to sell its brand or a company that relys on its own work to sell its applications.

[spwolf]

well as every company we always have something to fix as well, so hopefully we are doing it better than others ;-).

[PBMCMLXXI]

@Sir:

Now GAN, that is a typical example of how Lucky PowerArchiver users are. You have a grade A Forum where bugs and improvements can be noted. You also have an email service where you can be assured one of the team will get back to you.

And on top of that PA release minor Updates that fix issues that are either Minor or Major!

Then, PA have a Alpha and Beta team that constantly test the applications soon to be released for glitches and produce reports on possibly improvements the program.

Now who would you rather rely on on getting the job done? A company that relys on its group name to sell its brand or a company that relys on its own work to sell its applications.

Totally agree. It is always good to be part of a community that listens to it’s users and acts on any glitches/findings they come across when testing Alpha/Beta apps. Have tested apps with other companies, filed reports and nothing seems to get done, then they release the product with the bugs and wonder why others then find the same issues.

[RJWaring]

I should be a spoke’s person! Spwolf! if this was a relationship you would be hiting the spot each time!

[DKJones]

I beg to differ.

I do not like the way that Corel has used WinZip as a money maker for their inability to reinvigorate Word Perfect. So I desperately sought an alternative. Some were complete disasters. However, at first glance, PA had it all.

I was so anxious to help our company’s efforts, I bought a second license I didn’t need.

But try as I did, PA has never worked as well or as reliably for me as WinZip.

I spend countless hours on the forums and writing tech support. Often my questions were met with incredulity. If the problem was acknowledged, the culprit was always some setting in some other program. Perhaps that is true – although I doubt it. I have had similar problems on three rather different computers.

PA balked and belched in ways WZ has NEVER done in more than a decade. [Although your email companion works flawlessly and theirs never has. It is just that is a feature I don’t use all that often.]

So I was (and am) mystified by the raves. Does this baby have huge potential? Absolutely. But I want workability and reliability, not raw potential.

So finally after 9 months of efforts, I finally (and reluctantly) went back to WZ.

I will keep PA and may, in 6-8 months give it a whirl again.

Normally I wouldn’t even bother with such a post. But I happened to check your site and saw this thread; I decided to contribute my 2 cents worth.

[spwolf]

@DKJones:

I beg to differ.

I do not like the way that Corel has used WinZip as a money maker for their inability to reinvigorate Word Perfect. So I desperately sought an alternative. Some were complete disasters. However, at first glance, PA had it all.

I was so anxious to help our company’s efforts, I bought a second license I didn’t need.

But try as I did, PA has never worked as well or as reliably for me as WinZip.

I spend countless hours on the forums and writing tech support. Often my questions were met with incredulity. If the problem was acknowledged, the culprit was always some setting in some other program. Perhaps that is true – although I doubt it. I have had similar problems on three rather different computers.

PA balked and belched in ways WZ has NEVER done in more than a decade. [Although your email companion works flawlessly and theirs never has. It is just that is a feature I don’t use all that often.]

So I was (and am) mystified by the raves. Does this baby have huge potential? Absolutely. But I want workability and reliability, not raw potential.

So finally after 9 months of efforts, I finally (and reluctantly) went back to WZ.

I will keep PA and may, in 6-8 months give it a whirl again.

Normally I wouldn’t even bother with such a post. But I happened to check your site and saw this thread; I decided to contribute my 2 cents worth.

We still cant figure out what you meant with your post about 3 issues… Issue with date is understood, other too we can figure out and you have not followed through with explanation.

Unfortunatly there is no magic wand to fix any issue.

When we get report, and we can reproduce it, we properly enter it into our bug tracking database and then when we are working on new release we go through complete list.

If we can not reproduce it (for instance - i can open multiple files inside archive with PA, and so can Terry from that post of yours), and we dont get enough info, then it will certainly not auto-magically fix itself. I wish it would, it would make my life easier.

So sometimes it requires quite a bit of patience from end user as well, because otherwise we can not reproduce the issue. We understand it is sometimes not easy, simple and fast, so we are very grateful when someone takes their time to do report issue and follow up with it.

thank you ;-).

[DKJones]

I have two new computers, so I thought I’d give PA a whirl again.

I immediately see one of the same weakness I saw before.

I cannot OPEN multiples files in an archive. I can extract multiple files. But I cannot open them – which is what I want to do.

I have archives with multiple files. About once a month I need to add additional information to 5-6 of files within the archive.

With WZ I can open them all at once, make changes to each, and then get a messages asking me if I want to update the archive with the altered files.

With PA, I have to open them one at a time. This is not a huge time sink, but it’s neither as elegant for as quick as WZ.

And I could extract them. But that takes even more time. And since these files are sensitive, then I need to wipe them after updating them.

Now perhaps there is some setting someone that I am missing. But I have tried all the standard tricks for opening multiple files.

None work.

Not inclined to see if any of the other oddities in PA have been fixed.

So perhaps in another 3-4 months???

Sigh.

[PBMCMLXXI]

@DKJones:

Not inclined to see if any of the other oddities in PA have been fixed.

So perhaps in another 3-4 months???

Sigh.

Always nice when things do get fixed.
Shame there are these oddities in the product.
Be nice if there was continuity on the site as well.

(Main page has: Latest News PowerArchiver 2010 11.63 is here, download multicore optimized PowerArchiver now!)(Forum page has: Latest News PowerArchiver 2010 version 11.61 is now available to download)
(Blog has: Latest News PowerArchiver 2010 version 11.62 is now available to download)

I reverted back to Winzip some months ago, was waiting for the beta but nothing turned up. The integration in W7 in my opinion is a lot better.

[spwolf]

@DKJones:

I have two new computers, so I thought I’d give PA a whirl again.

I immediately see one of the same weakness I saw before.

I cannot OPEN multiples files in an archive. I can extract multiple files. But I cannot open them – which is what I want to do.

I have archives with multiple files. About once a month I need to add additional information to 5-6 of files within the archive.

With WZ I can open them all at once, make changes to each, and then get a messages asking me if I want to update the archive with the altered files.

With PA, I have to open them one at a time. This is not a huge time sink, but it’s neither as elegant for as quick as WZ.

And I could extract them. But that takes even more time. And since these files are sensitive, then I need to wipe them after updating them.

Now perhaps there is some setting someone that I am missing. But I have tried all the standard tricks for opening multiple files.

None work.

Not inclined to see if any of the other oddities in PA have been fixed.

So perhaps in another 3-4 months???

Sigh.

well since you didnt provide any additional info, i doubt it will auto fix itself, just as i tried to explain it last time around.

[spwolf]

@pjb:

Always nice when things do get fixed.
Shame there are these oddities in the product.
Be nice if there was continuity on the site as well.

(Main page has: Latest News PowerArchiver 2010 11.63 is here, download multicore optimized PowerArchiver now!)(Forum page has: Latest News PowerArchiver 2010 version 11.61 is now available to download)
(Blog has: Latest News PowerArchiver 2010 version 11.62 is now available to download)

I reverted back to Winzip some months ago, was waiting for the beta but nothing turned up. The integration in W7 in my opinion is a lot better.

those news sections are not live so they are not updated, it is kind of interesting that someone would point that as inferiority of product

what were you hoping to get from beta? i didnt see any wishes posted?