[skarden]

Yeah I too think that they've handled this quiet poorly , don't get me wrong I have one of their products and love it, although I've only played it a little due to being away on work most of the year.

Before my current job I worked in retail for a family owned music shop ( guitars, recording gear etc. ) and they definitely didn't work on a "the customer is always right" policy, rather they worked on a customer by customer basis and they trusted and allowed the employees to do what we felt was best in each case, this single rule earned the shop a very good reputation amongst its customer base, it wasn't uncommon to have someone come in with say a newish guitar lead that had stopped working, if they brought in a receipt and presented themselves in a polite manner, we would normally give them a new lead at no cost even if we couldn't recoup the cost from the supplier, as I said before this kind of thing earned us a very loyal fan base that often brought in friends n such into the shop to buy gear as a result.

As has been stated by a few here this kind of behavior by Desastersoft would have earned them a very loyal customer, it sounds like the first few emails the OP polite and courteous and he gave them no real reason to say no since he was prepared to offer a receipt to prove his purchase, a little going out of your way to help your customers goes a LONG way in their eye's, I know this for a fact.

Those who give the old " if you lost your CD back in the day could you just go in and get a new one for free" or "if I lost my car can I just get another "are not being realistic in any way, this IS NOT a car or a tangible product and this IS NOT "back in the day" , this is the day of digital downloads and all the benefits that it brings, including but definitely not limited to being able to download another copy if something happened to your copy, this is the only time I've heard of a digital download service not offering this, and I've downloaded a butt load of games and add-ons, and especially considering the relative small size of the Desastersoft download I find it more then a little silly that they wont help him out.

Fairly poor form on their behalf , I honestly hope they come to their senses on this as unfortunately I think it'll cost them quiet a lot as far as their reputation goes here and maybe else where, which is a shame as they do do an excellent top notch product in a very small niche market that needs all the products like this it can get.