Platte does not remove properly.

[Mouse]

I have (finally) had an admission from Platte that their uninstall tool does not fully remove their software. I've blogged about it here: http://stevescomputingblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/platte-media-response.html

[matt_d]

That's really interesting reading. Thanks for taking the time to investigate this. I look forward to any ongoing followup you get from Platte.

[ForumFriend]

Yes, Stephen, thanks for that.

[ForumFriend]

Reading through Steve's article, I'm bound to comment on the following point.

Why did your software display your bill on my computer after I had terminated my membership, owing you nothing? And why did it do so across all the user accounts on a shared computer?

(a) Sometimes the software requires synchronizing after a cancellation to ensure that the license on the user machine has been updated. To do this the user should either call customer services or open the platte utility and select the "synchronize" option.

(b) When you install the software it installs across all user accounts on the pc. This is because it is the pc owner that is responsible for the account

In point (b) Platte are openly admitting that their software installs across all user accounts on a pc (and I think that could be a whole home network?). This begs the question, How  can Platte justify their claim that their billing method provides privacy and anonymity to people who wish to access porn sites?  Privacy, from all they've said in the past (and MicroBill Systems before them) is the justification for using their particular business model.  But, we now know, privacy and anonymity are not being offered ..... 

This being the case, why don't they just go down the route of requiring credit and debit card information from their would-be users, thus obviating all these problems?

What do others think?

[Mouse]

I think you're spot on. Nearly all the problems people have with Platte come down to the offer of a 'free trial', where the person who signs up doesn't have to provide any certain means of payment whatever. If customers prefer to pay by postal order that shouldn't be a problem providing the PO is received by Platte before the trial starts.

[ForumFriend]

Hm.  Well, it just gets better and better with them, doesn't it?  Look at what they have to say here:

we recognise that in line with our terms and conditions, you should have been provided with uninstall advice in the first email which you received. Your case brought a discrepancy between the automatic email about cancellation and the terms and conditions of sign-up to our attention. Having chosen option b of the terms and conditions, the email which you received confirmed that your account was cancelled. However, it should also have provided the following uninstall information: "If you would like to uninstall the software from your PC, please call our uninstall line FREE on 0800 051 6664 for instructions". We can only suggest that this discrepancy was due to human error and we have now amended the automatic email to include the above statement.

Are we truly expected to believe that?  After all, Steve can't have been the first person to have experienced this problem.  But, even if he were, it says little about their operations that they did not spot this problem earlier.  My personal suggestion might be that the discrepancy existed because it suited the company just fine to make it more difficult for people to uninstall.  Would Platte like now to apologise to all the others who have been inconvenienced like this?

There are a number of other issues in Steve's report which clearly remain unresolved and I, for one, will be very keen to see just what is going on.