paid $5 and its been 1 week (RANT!)

[tekmo]

i paid $5 for 10gb but i have NOT received anything from Zero..

i know she is ALONE,is a volunteer worker and blah blah blah.. but if VIP wasn't READY to be announced why put it up?

just sounds like you guys wanted to snag our money. i dont want to sound like a total douche.. this isnt professional at all.

but 1 week delay.. im not a very happy customer.

and i wont bother asking for a refund cause that will probably take another 1 week or even longer..

someone from tech staff or whomever can help ZERO with all these issues or aint got nothing to do in their "FREE" time should give her some hand.. honestly or get more VOLUNTEERS..

[kluelos]

No, we can't help her. She's in China. We're not.

Cassie's in Spain, Vasy's in Romania, I'm in Texas. We don't have any more connection with the whole VIP thing than you do, and have exactly as much administrative control over it as you do. We're all volunteers, but our time is not yours to claim, or to tell us what we should be doing with it. We can delete your posts or flip you off the forum altogether for rudeness, but that's it.

Shouldn't have been announced till it was ready? We all agree with you and have told them so. Wasn't up to us, still isn't.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

I can understand being upset, but all I can suggest is message her again, and send an email to support@bitcomet.com. You can also open a dispute with paypal, it may take them time to process it, but you'll get your refund.

[amaizenblueeyes]

I purchased a $5 plan to find out I couldn't use 10gb worth on a 37gb torrent. I then paid for the $20 plan. I have 4 torrents now downloading with VIP enabled, yet none of them in the past 12 hours have left the "preparing your download channel" status. I don't have a problem supporting bit comet with $5, however, I feel a bit cheated. I am new to bit comet and haven't been using it that long.

It SHOULD not be actively marketed. I requested a refund to support@bitcomet.com, however, I'm not sure after reading all of these posts if I should just open a dispute with paypal, or whether I should actually wait to see if bit comet staff refunds me. The way it seems, both may take over a month or two.

If they are aware of the VIP service not working 9 times out of 10, why are they taking money? Seems, learning late, that this has been an ongoing issue for months.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

I think a refund with paypal only takes a max of 10 days unless it's disputed, and I don't believe bitcomet has ever disputed any refunds.

I do know that the service has many repeat users who are happy with it, but obviously they don't run here to register just to tell us it works. My guess is that is why it's still offered, but I don't know why it works for one person and not for another and it seems the development team doesn't have any answers that aren't posted already.

All I can tell you is to request the refund and feel free to continue to use it if you like, until the refund is processed by paypal.

[amaizenblueeyes]

For anybody interested in obtaining a paypal refund, this is what I did. I started the dispute process by contacting bitcomet through the paypal dispute process and I wrote this:

"I purchased your $5 service to find out it wouldn't work with a large download. I then proceeded to purchase your $20 service to find out that the service did not work at all on multiple items. None get past the "preparing your download channel" stage. Additionally, since purchase, I have determined this is an ongoing problem with numerous people and that the product should not be actively being sold in the first place. Please refund as soon as possible."

I waited about 3 days and then escalated the dispute to show paypal that I gave bitcomet, the seller, a chance to respond. In my escalation, I wrote the following:

"I purchased this service to help me speed up Linux distribution downloads. The service is supposed to substantially increase download speeds. The service has an indicator which informs the user as to whether the service is working. The service should work on most downloads. Thus far, the service has not worked once on any download. The following is a forum for other customers reporting a problem with the service as well:

http://www.cometforu...-acceleration/.

I have contacted the seller through paypal, email, and through the above forum with no response. Because the service is not functional, and because support seems to be absent, I am requesting a full refund. I am happy to provide any information within my power necessary to expediate this refund.Thank you, (my name)."

I wrote this for two transactions because I actually purchased two VIP packages (the first was not enough bandwidth for my download). On both of them I received my refund about 10 days later.

So if it's not working, like the admins/mods/support people have said, request your refund, you will get it!

AND, though VIP has never really worked for me, I have the ability to keep trying VIP until it is removed from my bitcomet account, and even then, with the devs seemingly so busy, I'm not so sure it will be. THOUGH, if the service does ever function as it is supposed to, I will be happy to pay for it!

Edited June 4, 2012 by amaizenblueeyes (see edit history)

[The UnUsual Suspect]

Thank you for sharing this and I'm glad you got a prompt refund. Anyone else experiencing similar problems should request a refund too. Long detailed explanations probably aren't necessary as I don't believe any refunds will be contested by bitcomet.

[amaizenblueeyes]

Guardian, you are probably right on not having to write so much. I felt better to write a bit more to explain myself, then write too little and have to argue with paypal. Bitcomet staff never made a single comment during the dispute process. I hope the service gets up and running, I'd love nothing more then to have some high-speed anonymous downloading!

[The UnUsual Suspect]

We all hope the bugs can get worked out. When the service first started beta testing they allowed all members to have a free trial, which was a disaster. The servers were hit with thousands of vip task requests at a time, but as soon as they limited the free trials the service begun to work great for most of us, then as more people begun using it, more issues surfaced. None of our forum staff have access or intimate knowledge of the server side of this process so all we can do is speculate, but it seems to me that when the system is busy it queues the tasks, but they then get "stuck" (for lack of a better word) in the queued status and never start. I've rarely had a task work once it got queued. Usually it will work straight off and run extremely fast, or not at all.

I just hope people are understanding about the fact that this is a free program and the fees for the use of the vip servers are only to pay the cost of running them. When it works as it's designed to for everyone, it will be a great service, perhaps the easiest and simpliest way to get fast downloads anonymously.

In the meantime, if anyone is unhappy with a purchase, no need to complain, just request a refund and it will be approved.

[rafysultan]

You guys are doing a great job and of course a lot of people appreciate what you are doing, either the bitcomet team or even you guys who support the forum. I don't think I have the energy to even do this at any given time.

That being said I have a small message to "kluelos", like i said you are doing a great job and i'm pretty sure that it's annoying when people complain to you guys about something that is entirely their fault to begin with, and you guys are actually doing this on your free time in which you could be doing something better, but still man, the way you attack those individuals is too much. There was this one guy that you kicked off the forum in a previous post and then there is this poor dude that you attacked in this post. If you don't like what they say just ignore them or if you are too upset (which you are of course entitled to be) then have someone else reply.

I just hope you don't get this the wrong way.

In all cases you guys are great.

cheers.

[kluelos]

Have you heard the truth about Galileo, rafysultan? The church is supposed to have punished him for his heretical theories. But the truth is, they weren't his theories. Other people, particularly Nicolaus Copernicus, published the idea that the Earth wasn't the center of the solar system, decades before Galileo was born, and Copernicus was a churchman -- as were MOST of the early astronomers. They were the only ones who had the time to sit and observe the stars by night. The church ignored Copernicus' book for something like 70 or 80 years. One cardinal wrote a refutation much later, but it was never published. It was referred to in Galileo's trial.

The truth about Galileo Galilei is that he was what would, today, be called a complete horse's a**. You couldn't just disagree with him, you had to be either evil or stupid if you did, and Galileo called you both, publicly. One of the people, a former friend, who did express some uncertainty, happened to be the Pope, and Galileo published a pamphlet calling the pope a fool, a jackass, and similar endearments. (I've known people like this.)

The mighty Inquisition took umbrage, and brought Galileo into durance vile. But rather than burn the heretic at the stake for daring to challenge Holy Writ (not that there really was any), the Inquisition's sentence on the hapless astronomer was, "Galileo, go to your room and don't come out until you learn how to behave in public -- at least well enough not to call the Pope a pig-f***** in public.". Galileo never did learn, so he spent the rest of his life under a very comfortable house arrest, not allowed to publish any more pamphlets.

Galileo died without ever managing to understand that it was not his theories, it was his stinking bad manners, his inability to behave in a civilized fashion, that landed him in trouble.

You can express your displeasure with the VIP system to your heart's content. (Lord knows we on the staff have!) But what you cannot do is call either the staff or the other members liars, and you cannot tell us what we "must" do. Both of those are beyond the pale and will get your a** booted off -- not because of your theories, but because of your stinking bad manners. You may not behave that way on this forum.

[queeniequ]

Guys here, I can't agree more with you on this issues. But all that I can do is to forward all your opinions and complains to the related staff. I would make unremitting endeavor to persuade them to stop selling. At least, they should prove that the VIP acceleration does work. I'm sure, BitComet won't let it tarnish the reputation earned for years.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

You guys are doing a great job and of course a lot of people appreciate what you are doing, either the bitcomet team or even you guys who support the forum. I don't think I have the energy to even do this at any given time.

That being said I have a small message to "kluelos", like i said you are doing a great job and i'm pretty sure that it's annoying when people complain to you guys about something that is entirely their fault to begin with, and you guys are actually doing this on your free time in which you could be doing something better, but still man, the way you attack those individuals is too much. There was this one guy that you kicked off the forum in a previous post and then there is this poor dude that you attacked in this post. If you don't like what they say just ignore them or if you are too upset (which you are of course entitled to be) then have someone else reply.

I just hope you don't get this the wrong way.

In all cases you guys are great.

cheers.

Your very polite opinion is welcomed and I respect it's merits, and also agree with you to an extent. As for the member that got banned, he was directing his rage not at the people in charge of developing and selling vip, but at members who were trying to help him. I elected to try to point out his misplaced rage, as kluelos did at first, but when it continued and kluelos decided to end the discussion in the forum, I respected his right to do so. He is more then welcome to continue the complaining in the manner of his choosing, civilized or otherwise, just not with bitcomet users who are here to help people, not be abused or deal with the headaches associated with running a retail business. Some people just cannot get it through their heads that they didn't pay for bitcomet, which is what we are here to support and we've had to deal with rants from members who don't stop to think before complaining... after all, would you complain and insult a friend who gave you a car (for free) because you found the radio didn't work, then not even bother to apologize when you realized you didn't turn on the radio... no, but you might complain if you bought the car from a car dealer... Well, to anyone that can't ask for help politely from the staff and members here, they won't be welcome.

Vip introduces new aspects since there is actually a small amount of money being transferred, and there is definitely something wrong, but I'm sure development is trying to fix it rather then give up on it, after all they have been paying for the use of commercial servers for quite some time in order to run this service and it's not easy to figure out why one person half a world away cannot use it... perhaps that persons country is blocking connections , or they have security software installed that needs to be adjusted to allow for the vip channels to be opened... it's hard to say without testing on each members computers in person, or designing some type of troubleshooting technologies into the client so more detail can be reported in the error reports. This type of work isn't easy and is time consuming. Each member of development has other responsibilities in life, they don't have unlimited time to donate to a free product so we now find ourselves at a functional impasse... none of us want development to stop, nor do we want members to buy a product that doesn't work, and the bottom line is that there is nothing our forum staff can do, we've all posted enough warnings already, so another rant in the forum is pointless.

[linuxlives]

Wow ... that's revisionist history. You're forgetting that some of us actually read those posts. They guy was challenging a moderator not for the behavior of Bitcomet or the failure of the VIP, but for continuing to let newcomers believe that VIP might actually work sometimes and asking for some verification for this.

He was not rageful or disrespectful in any way and he'd obviously spent some time working things out. You guys just tossed him right off the board. I sure wish I had read what he had to say before I bought VIP.

Anyway it seems like queenie is making an effort to address the issue with the company. I look forward to downloading the new beta.

[kluelos]

Calling the moderators and fellow members liars is disrepectful and won't be tolerated, on this or any other forum. (You, yourself are getting pretty close to that line.) Check your history again.

And again, since there's nothing new here, just whining about the past, this topic is likewise closed.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

@linuxlives, you're missing the point here. This is a bitcomet users forum and to come complain at us is just a mixture of ignorance and stupidity. If your Honda doesn't run right, you wouldn't go to a honda owners club and complain to the honda owners who volunteer their time to run the club... would you? This isn't the place for complaints, period!!! I've been administrating this forum since it first opened in 2006 and I have no problem with members sharing problems, even constructive criticism, or warning others if something doesn't work, but when someone insults other members I can and will deny them access to the forum and the rest of the volunteers here have discretion to remove a member for good cause.