Re: RANT about Dragon Naturally Speaking

[Malcolm Barnett <mbarnett -at- NETVISION -dot- NET -dot- IL>]

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=