- Report: #481711
Complaint Review: AppFree - Internet
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AppFree
www.appfree.net Internet, United States of America
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AppFree bait and switch software download free freeware costs money now scam company on the internet Lawrenceville, Georgia
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I was trying to find a freeware program to convert some files on my computer from rmvb to avi format. I found such a program at http://www.appfree.net/ The program i downloaded was advertised as 100% free, and would never cost me a dime. So i downloaded the program, and it worked wonderfuly.
The problem however, is that after the first 24 hours of use, all of a sudden i had to register my freeware, or else it would not work any longer. However according to the pop up on the program, the registration was free so i decided to try to register and get my free registration code.
Upon registering at the website, no free code was received, and infact when i went to the website to look more in depth for the free code i discovered the scam. At the top of their products page, was a message stating that "The free registration has been closed for the huge website traffic" This is a classic bait and switch.
I have made several attempts to contact the company demanding a free registration code as advertised. They however, refuse to respond to my emails and provide no phone or fax number for me to contact them at. My advise to anyone seeking a similar program, would be dont get it from appfree, they claim their programs are "free" but they really cost about $20.00
1 Updates & Rebuttals
ReactorCore
Victoria,British Columbia,
Canada
Here's a tip....
#2
Tue, August 18, 2009
First, naming competitors is seen as a no-no on ROR. How far this extends in relation to what I'm going to tell you, I'm not sure, so I'm not going to mention any programs or apps by name here....
However, what I think I can do (and is allowable), is give you a nudge in the right direction.
Next time you're looking for a decent app for some task or another, don't use the wor d "free" in the search string on Google. Use the term "Open Source" instead. I have found so many good, solid programs offered under the Open Source/BSD and GNU licenses that it's pretty mind boggling. nice thing too, is that Open Source isn't as scary as it was "back in the day" where it was rather clunky or you had to trade off features for lack of bloatware. Much of it is very nice, well rounded, lightweight in terms of size and system demands and a lot of bugs, if any, are minimal.
As far as the type of software you were frustrating yourself over finding (audio conversion), there are some pretty damned decent Open Source ones out there. A good alternative to "Scareware", amirite?
I've been finding that more and more so-called "freeware" is just time trial limited "shareware" or what we used to call "crippleware"; the features that you really needed in the software were crippled until you pay the shareware fee.
Hope this helps.
