I bought a new computer and it didn’t come with Outlook in the version of Office that came with it. I live and die by my email and calendar — so I needed to find some place that I could either download it immediately — or run to the local computer shop.

A quick Google search hooked me up with www.shopnroll.com, which promised an immediate download LINK of a “Full Retail - Genuine License” version. So at 8:01AM I place my order. I should have smelled a rat, as when I checked out — it told me that I selected Paypal. I hadn’t select Paypal — and after doing a couple browser backs and re-placing the order — I found that there was no option for any payment.

OK — so I got this far — and although I didn’t like the deception of telling me that I selected something that I didn’t select — I paid for it with my personal Paypal, despite it being a company charge. I immediately get an email saying something to the effect that they have to manually approve the charge — before they will send me the serial number and the other information required by Microsoft to activate the downloaded application.

Now this really pisses me off. I’ve now paid for something I need right now, but I’m at the mercy of when they get around to it. If I’d known this, I would have bought elsewhere — as I needed it now — not (if and) when they get around to it.

At 11:47AM — still nothing, so I open a support ticket asking for my numbers to activate.

At 5:53 PM — still nothing, so I go and check my support ticket — and it has been deleted. I open another.

At 7:05PM — still nothing, so I reply to the email address on my receipt. At least they hadn’t deleted my second support ticket yet! I’ve searched the web site, and there is no contact information — you can’t even tell if they’re in the US — which I doubt.

The next day, 7.22 AM — still nothing. It has now been a full day since I was charged and I still can not activate a program I needed to have used 24 hours ago. The support ticket 494D8568 is still active, yet unanswered. The email sent to them is also not been answered.

At this point, I can only assume they’re a fraud, or at best — the worst software house I’ve ever run into for Customer service.

Please do yourself a favor and avoid this business like the plague.

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Update:

60 hours later and still no answer. I’ve complained to Paypal and to Microsoft — and not been answered by either of them either. I’ve send over a dozen emails and service ticket replies to ShopNRoll and not received an answer.

I did a Google search and found that to be very disturbing. My search on “Shopnroll + paypal” and “ShopNroll + Fraud” tells me that I’m not the only one to get suckered. These searches appear to indicate that ShopnRoll and Shoparhive are from India and the bogus downloads without the key comes from Digital Zone and/or Digital River. Further reading tells me that the reason they don’t take credit card and only accept Paypal is because they been dropped from every credit card processor they ever used for non-compliance of terms — whatever that means! The link below is from the ShopNRoll site as an answer to why they only accept Paypal:

http://shopnroll.com/help_center/article/008/12/i_don_t_want_to_use_paypal_i_would_like_to_use_my_credit_card_directly/

Further — I read complain after complaint where Paypal is a participant in the scam — in as much as that you have no recourse  from Paypal if it wasn’t used on an auction. While at the moment Paypal hasn’t answered my complaint — but I read a dozen copies of emails sent back to customers where they tell the customer is beat because it wasn’t an eBay auction.

UNLESS YOU KNOW THE PERSON PERSONALLY AND TRUST THEM — NEVER USE PAYPAL TO PAY FOR AN ITEM THAT ISN’T EBAY. IT APPEARS THAT THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT BEING A TOOL FOR FRAUD.

Well I learned my lesson about buying downloadable software that is advertised as being “Genuine” and Full Retail Version”. Cost me $50 and a couple of days. I hope posting this causes thousands from avoiding ShopNRoll, Shoperhive, Digital River, and Digital Zone for anything.  I also hope that whenever you run into someone that will only accept Paypal and not any other form of payment — that you should be smelling rat.

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Epilogue:

After sending emails every hour, reporting to Microsoft as selling pirated software, giving them a link to this site, and reporting to Paypal as a fraud — they refunded my money 2.5 days after my purchase. I was lucky enough to get my money refunded (but wasted a lot of time in the process) — but don’t count on being so lucky. ShopNRoll is a fraud!