interactive tools fraudulent vendor
13 posts by 8 authors in: Forums > CMS Builder
Last Post: January 11, 2010 (RSS)
By jsanty - January 5, 2010
We made the mistake of purchasing Listing Manager from Interactive Tools a few years ago. We were mislead into the understanding that our enterprise purchase would cover several of our website. Interactive Tools modified the license during the past year and disabled our software in attempt to extort more money out of us for additional licenses.
We have dumped the Interactive Tools products altogether and we're implementing a much more using friendly and more stable solution on our websites. Once that allowed us to purchase a multi-site license. The company seems far more reputable when compared to Interactive Tools as well.
We've filed complaints with the U.S. Attorney General's office and Federal Trade Commission regarding Interactive Tools fraudulent conduct. Our hope is to warn potential buyers in the U.S. about their deception and unethical business practices through blogs throughout the U.S.
BE WARNED!
We have dumped the Interactive Tools products altogether and we're implementing a much more using friendly and more stable solution on our websites. Once that allowed us to purchase a multi-site license. The company seems far more reputable when compared to Interactive Tools as well.
We've filed complaints with the U.S. Attorney General's office and Federal Trade Commission regarding Interactive Tools fraudulent conduct. Our hope is to warn potential buyers in the U.S. about their deception and unethical business practices through blogs throughout the U.S.
BE WARNED!
Re: [jsanty] interactive tools fraudulent vendor
By Dave - January 5, 2010
jsanty,
I'm glad to hear you found some software that met your needs.
Our software has always been licensed "per website". We've never offered unlimited "enterprise purchases" or anything like that. And if we did, you'd have a legal contract that said so. Or at the very least an email.
You don't even have to believe me, you can go use the Internet Archive to see archives of our site from 1999 to 2008:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.interactivetools.com/
And if you have any proof or evidence that you had a special exception please send it to me personally at dave@interactivetools.com and I'll take a look.
So if your hope is to warn potential customers that our software isn't licensed for unlimited use, then you're right it's not, I'll tell them the exact same thing. That's why we've always offered discounts on multiple licenses, because if you want to use our software on multiple sites you need multiple licenses.
All the same, I'm really sorry that there was a misunderstanding and that you were so affected by it that you felt you had to post this to our forum. If you want to have a phone conversation about it I'd be happy to talk to you, just email me and we can set up a time.
I'm not willing to have a drawn out conversation in the forum about it, though, I'd much rather be making kick-ass web software.
Hope that helps!
I'm glad to hear you found some software that met your needs.
Our software has always been licensed "per website". We've never offered unlimited "enterprise purchases" or anything like that. And if we did, you'd have a legal contract that said so. Or at the very least an email.
You don't even have to believe me, you can go use the Internet Archive to see archives of our site from 1999 to 2008:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.interactivetools.com/
And if you have any proof or evidence that you had a special exception please send it to me personally at dave@interactivetools.com and I'll take a look.
So if your hope is to warn potential customers that our software isn't licensed for unlimited use, then you're right it's not, I'll tell them the exact same thing. That's why we've always offered discounts on multiple licenses, because if you want to use our software on multiple sites you need multiple licenses.
All the same, I'm really sorry that there was a misunderstanding and that you were so affected by it that you felt you had to post this to our forum. If you want to have a phone conversation about it I'd be happy to talk to you, just email me and we can set up a time.
I'm not willing to have a drawn out conversation in the forum about it, though, I'd much rather be making kick-ass web software.
Hope that helps!
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com
interactivetools.com
Re: [Dave] interactive tools fraudulent vendor
By Dave - January 5, 2010
I'll just add a clarification about the add-ons that extend our stand-alone software. I didn't group these in with "Software". Add-ons are currently available for free or purchase and they do allow for unlimited-use and this is reflected if their license agreement.
Compare the add-on license:
"distribute the Software as part of websites and web pages, without any royalty whatsoever"
http://www.interactivetools.com/add-ons/popup_royalty_free_license.php
vs the software license:
"You are granted a non-exclusive right to use and install ONE copy of the software on ONE website."
http://www.interactivetools.com/about/popup_license_agreement.html
If anyone has any questions or concerns about the license agreement or anything related please feel free to contact me directly and I'd be happy to help you out.
Compare the add-on license:
"distribute the Software as part of websites and web pages, without any royalty whatsoever"
http://www.interactivetools.com/add-ons/popup_royalty_free_license.php
vs the software license:
"You are granted a non-exclusive right to use and install ONE copy of the software on ONE website."
http://www.interactivetools.com/about/popup_license_agreement.html
If anyone has any questions or concerns about the license agreement or anything related please feel free to contact me directly and I'd be happy to help you out.
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com
interactivetools.com
Re: [jsanty] interactive tools fraudulent vendor
By Kenny - January 6, 2010
I have been using Interactive Tools for at least the past 5+ years. I have NEVER seen anything that would allude to an "enterprise" license. I have all products, all add-ons, and even some that aren't even available to the public yet. I have hundreds of licenses for all of the products, one for every installation and even a few extras.
The license agreement was not modified in the past year. I know several people around here that can verify the same things, so that being said, jsanty you are clearly mistaken.
This is one argument you will not win.
Kenny
The license agreement was not modified in the past year. I know several people around here that can verify the same things, so that being said, jsanty you are clearly mistaken.
This is one argument you will not win.
Kenny
Re: [sagentic] interactive tools fraudulent vendor
By jsanty - January 6, 2010
Kenny,
The fraud was by email and telephone. The interactive tools salesperson made claims in effort to get us to buy the product. We've reported this to the FTC and the U.S. Attorney Generals Office. It appears from what I've learned Interactive Tools is already being investigated for other complaints.
While I'm sure "Kenny" is a fictitious name, fabricated by someone in the I.T. company, I have no argument to win.
Interactive Tools deceived us in effort to make the sale, then attempted to extort more money out of us later. We're documenting this throughout the blogs and anywhere we can online to alert people of this conduct.
Bad faith, bad company, bad karma.
The fraud was by email and telephone. The interactive tools salesperson made claims in effort to get us to buy the product. We've reported this to the FTC and the U.S. Attorney Generals Office. It appears from what I've learned Interactive Tools is already being investigated for other complaints.
While I'm sure "Kenny" is a fictitious name, fabricated by someone in the I.T. company, I have no argument to win.
Interactive Tools deceived us in effort to make the sale, then attempted to extort more money out of us later. We're documenting this throughout the blogs and anywhere we can online to alert people of this conduct.
Bad faith, bad company, bad karma.
Re: [jsanty] interactive tools fraudulent vendor
By Kenny - January 6, 2010
Spreading the word via blogs and "anywhere online" is just not cool. Very sad in fact.
As for being fictitious, look at: http://www.sagentic.com/about/
Go ahead and Google me http://www.google.com/search?q=kenny+haferkamp and you will come back with about 91,000 entries.
Not cool at all....
As for being fictitious, look at: http://www.sagentic.com/about/
Go ahead and Google me http://www.google.com/search?q=kenny+haferkamp and you will come back with about 91,000 entries.
Not cool at all....
Re: [sagentic] interactive tools fraudulent vendor
By Perchpole - January 6, 2010
Hi, Jsanty
Whilst I do not agree with anything you say, I whole heatedly respect your right to express your opinion here. That said, you clearly have some kind of axe to grind - why else would everything you say be tinged with such bitterness?
I have been a iTools customer for many years and they have always treated me with the upmost civility. Indeed I can honestly say that their customer service is one of the very best I've ever had to deal with.
That you should now seek to provoke ill feeling here, amongst their customer base, perhaps says more about your own issues than their's.
Perch
Whilst I do not agree with anything you say, I whole heatedly respect your right to express your opinion here. That said, you clearly have some kind of axe to grind - why else would everything you say be tinged with such bitterness?
I have been a iTools customer for many years and they have always treated me with the upmost civility. Indeed I can honestly say that their customer service is one of the very best I've ever had to deal with.
That you should now seek to provoke ill feeling here, amongst their customer base, perhaps says more about your own issues than their's.
Perch
Re: [jsanty] interactive tools fraudulent vendor
By Dave - January 6, 2010
Jonathan,
I usually wouldn't do this, but I know you've been contacting my staff on and off since October 2009 about this (3+ months) so here is a breakdown of what happened. Please note that I'm only going to do this once.
I really hope this can put an end to this. But even if it doesn't, I'm going to personally move on. I hope you do as well because this is a waste of both our time.
You Ordered
You purchased one Listings Manager license from us over 2 years ago (Sep 12, 2007).
You don't even need to believe me, you can check for yourself. Here's an archive of our order page from 2006, over a year before you ordered: http://web.archive.org/web/20060410193103/www.interactivetools.com/order/
And here's an archive of our license from 2006:http://web.archive.org/web/20060313104157/www.interactivetools.com/about/popup_license_agreement.html
We processed your order
Order # 118xxxx653 - Sep 12th, 2007, 13:07
Credit card ending in 9930
And our logs indicate "Agree to license" was checked: "License Agreement: agree"
We gave you a free install
We did this the same day. Again, our logs indicate you agreed to the disclaimer and license:
Agree to disclaimer: yes
Agree to license: yes
The same license is installed on 7 more sites
But not by us, here's step 1 of the install process:
And here's step 2:
And step 3:
Note, you can't continue past this step unless you check the box and enter 1.
Then, even after you do all that, it indicates that "The software is license" on the login page:
And you can't access the program Setup Options without seeing the license tab, which shows this:
We ask you to sort it out
So we notice that you have 8 installs and you bought 1 license. So what do we do? We send you a friendly email to ask about it, followed by less friendly emails in subsequent weeks. You ignore all of these and claim to never have received them, but again, our logs show you did:
Sep 4, 2009 15:02 - CW - Added related licenses
Sep 4, 2009 15:02 - CW - Checked all urls
Sep 4, 2009 15:02 - CW - Sent 1st email (Ticket: WXQ-952900)
Sep 4, 2009 15:10 - License list viewed by xx.63.184.70 ()
Sep 4, 2009 15:11 - License list viewed by xx.63.184.70 ()
Sep 14, 2009 15:09 - CW - Sent next email (2nd notice)
Sep 14, 2009 19:48 - License list viewed by xx.63.184.70 ()
Sep 22, 2009 15:35 - dmj - Sent next email (final notice)
Sep 22, 2009 17:51 - License list viewed by xx.63.184.70 ()
Sep 22, 2009 18:54 - License list viewed by xx.63.184.70 ()
Sep 22, 2009 19:21 - License list viewed by xx.63.184.70 ()
Sep 23, 2009 18:12 - License list viewed by xx.63.184.70 ()
Oct 15, 2009 16:16 - dmj - no contact despite views, disable license key.
Oct 23, 2009 10:42 - dmj - contacted us in regards to licensing dispute.
And yes, that IP is the same one your subsequent emails came from, so we know it's yours.
I really wish I didn't have to bother with logs like this, but in our 10 years of business we've had maybe a couple dozen people who try to pull things like this. And like everyone else is saying... It's just not cool.
I've never pursued anybody for copyright damages. All I ask, and all we ever ask, is if you want to use our software, pay for it so we can keep making more great software. If you don't want to pay for it, fine, just don't use it. Un-install it.
I'm sorry if you misunderstood our licensing, but I really don't know what more we could have done to make it clear to you.
So that's it. I don't intend to say anything more about this.
I usually wouldn't do this, but I know you've been contacting my staff on and off since October 2009 about this (3+ months) so here is a breakdown of what happened. Please note that I'm only going to do this once.
I really hope this can put an end to this. But even if it doesn't, I'm going to personally move on. I hope you do as well because this is a waste of both our time.
You Ordered
You purchased one Listings Manager license from us over 2 years ago (Sep 12, 2007).
- The order form clearly showed different prices for single and multiple licenses.
- It had a text field for "Qty". You entered "1" for Listings Manager.
- At the bottom of the order form it said "Please Note: You need a separate license for each installation and all software is subject to the terms of the license agreement."
- The linked license said "3a: You are granted a non-exclusive right to use and install ONE copy of the software on ONE website."
- On the second page of the order form you check a box which said "I agree to the license agreement"
You don't even need to believe me, you can check for yourself. Here's an archive of our order page from 2006, over a year before you ordered: http://web.archive.org/web/20060410193103/www.interactivetools.com/order/
And here's an archive of our license from 2006:http://web.archive.org/web/20060313104157/www.interactivetools.com/about/popup_license_agreement.html
We processed your order
Order # 118xxxx653 - Sep 12th, 2007, 13:07
Credit card ending in 9930
And our logs indicate "Agree to license" was checked: "License Agreement: agree"
We gave you a free install
We did this the same day. Again, our logs indicate you agreed to the disclaimer and license:
Agree to disclaimer: yes
Agree to license: yes
The same license is installed on 7 more sites
But not by us, here's step 1 of the install process:
And here's step 2:
And step 3:
Note, you can't continue past this step unless you check the box and enter 1.
Then, even after you do all that, it indicates that "The software is license" on the login page:
And you can't access the program Setup Options without seeing the license tab, which shows this:
We ask you to sort it out
So we notice that you have 8 installs and you bought 1 license. So what do we do? We send you a friendly email to ask about it, followed by less friendly emails in subsequent weeks. You ignore all of these and claim to never have received them, but again, our logs show you did:
Sep 4, 2009 15:02 - CW - Added related licenses
Sep 4, 2009 15:02 - CW - Checked all urls
Sep 4, 2009 15:02 - CW - Sent 1st email (Ticket: WXQ-952900)
Sep 4, 2009 15:10 - License list viewed by xx.63.184.70 ()
Sep 4, 2009 15:11 - License list viewed by xx.63.184.70 ()
Sep 14, 2009 15:09 - CW - Sent next email (2nd notice)
Sep 14, 2009 19:48 - License list viewed by xx.63.184.70 ()
Sep 22, 2009 15:35 - dmj - Sent next email (final notice)
Sep 22, 2009 17:51 - License list viewed by xx.63.184.70 ()
Sep 22, 2009 18:54 - License list viewed by xx.63.184.70 ()
Sep 22, 2009 19:21 - License list viewed by xx.63.184.70 ()
Sep 23, 2009 18:12 - License list viewed by xx.63.184.70 ()
Oct 15, 2009 16:16 - dmj - no contact despite views, disable license key.
Oct 23, 2009 10:42 - dmj - contacted us in regards to licensing dispute.
And yes, that IP is the same one your subsequent emails came from, so we know it's yours.
I really wish I didn't have to bother with logs like this, but in our 10 years of business we've had maybe a couple dozen people who try to pull things like this. And like everyone else is saying... It's just not cool.
I've never pursued anybody for copyright damages. All I ask, and all we ever ask, is if you want to use our software, pay for it so we can keep making more great software. If you don't want to pay for it, fine, just don't use it. Un-install it.
I'm sorry if you misunderstood our licensing, but I really don't know what more we could have done to make it clear to you.
So that's it. I don't intend to say anything more about this.
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com
interactivetools.com
Re: [Dave] interactive tools fraudulent vendor
By peppino - January 6, 2010
Bravo Dave!!!!!!!![/#0000ff]
I do not think my response would have been so diplomatic, also this person is lucky you do not sue them for installing the software multiple times and only paying for one. I think anyone with half a brain can clearly understand that your documentation is stating One License, One Server. [/#0000ff]
I do not think my response would have been so diplomatic, also this person is lucky you do not sue them for installing the software multiple times and only paying for one. I think anyone with half a brain can clearly understand that your documentation is stating One License, One Server. [/#0000ff]
-Peppino
Re: [jsanty] interactive tools fraudulent vendor
By InHouse - January 7, 2010
It has been our experience that Interactive Tools is clear about their licensing policies. Those policies have not changed significantly over the several years in which we have been dealing with this firm. These policies are reasonable, unambiguous and are commonly used practices throughout this industry.
Furthermore, they consistently display a high level of ethics and outstanding customer service even in the face of the unreasonable or unreasoning. Such as this case.
Jayme Cousins
In House Logic
Furthermore, they consistently display a high level of ethics and outstanding customer service even in the face of the unreasonable or unreasoning. Such as this case.
Jayme Cousins
In House Logic