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OK, here’s the thing. I like the design of the Logitech
Cordless Trackball. Ever since I had my elbow rebuilt a
couple of years ago, I find using a thumb-
driven trackball much more comfortable and controllable than a standard mouse. Between that and my Wacom stylus, I’m a pretty happy camper……or I was.
Last week, my Trackball died. Admittedly, between work and play, I spend a lot of time on the computer, so I probably just wore the poor thing out. Wouldn’t be the first time. So I went to Office Depot and bought a new one, exactly like the old one (I thought.)
After screwing around trying to get the new one to work with the old software, I uninstalled the old software and started fresh, using the disk that ships with the device. "Whoa! they REALLY changed the software," I thought as I went through the install. I wasn’t happy that it wanted to install a bunch of junk– Music Match, an e-bay companion, etc. and I promptly unchecked those options in the custom install. That left 2 options checked. Mouseware (the drivers, I assumed) and Logitech Desktop, the absolute minimum the user guide says I need to get the thing to run and to be able to configure the way I use the buttons and wheel.
So I install. Long boring story omitted here, but getting the thing configured
so it doesn’t interfere with my other stuff takes a while. This is new. The old one was a painless plug and play USB install. I go to register my new hardware with Logitech and while I am still in registration mode 25 popup windows open. Damn. Porn. Casinos, Pharmaceuticals. Dating Services, and a really persistent one for a popup stopper.
I run Ad-Aware. Mouseware and Desktop have dumped a
CARLOAD of spyware and adware on my system. I quarantine and delete it, hand edit the registry, empty my recycle bin, run Norton Cleanup, and check the file system. All the nasties are gone.
Well, no, they’re not. The next time I open my browser, I’m again inundated with popups and popunders and things that want to install heinous things like Xupiter and "helper" toolbars and all sorts of crap.
I run Ad-Aware again. WTH! All the stuff I deleted is back. I clean up again and
call Logitech customer service. They tell me that, yeah, they did slip something
called Polite BackWeb on to my computer but if I uninstall Logitech Desktop all will be well. I won’t be able to reconfigure some of my buttons, but I didn’t really want to do that anyway, did I?
So I do. But it doesn’t really fix the problem. I can delete the stuff, but this
adware is immortal. Every time I restart the browser it regenerates from somewhere. I do a Google search to see if anyone else has had this problem. The answer is yes, but no one has a solution I haven’t already tried.
So I email tech support. I get a robotic response with the answer to someone else’s problem. I escalate the request. I get another useless robotic response.
I call. A very nice but clueless person puts me on hold for 10 minutes on my dime
then tells me he doesn’t know how to fix it, and gives me another long-distance
number to call. Tomorrow, because they’re in a different time zone and are closed
now.
I go out and buy a third party popup killer– now I only get 10 or so extra windows on startup, and at least one of those will hang and need to be closed
via the Task Manager about a third of the time. This feels stupid to me— I’ve
just bought a $30 program to half fix the problems caused by a $60 mouse. I contact Logitech again, and I prepare to box up my trackball to return it to Office Depot.
I completely uninstall all Logitech software and deep clean the computer again.
I restart the browser. The vampiric adware rises from the dead.
So I e-mail Logitech to ask for assistance, telling them that if I didn’t have a
solution from them in 24 hours, I would tell everyone I knew who owns a computer about this customer service nightmare.
That was 36 hours ago.
Just an FYI
Feel free to tell your friends.
"Hell hath no fury….." like an annoyed customer with broadband.
Cordless Trackball. Ever since I had my elbow rebuilt a
couple of years ago, I find using a thumb-
driven trackball much more comfortable and controllable than a standard mouse. Between that and my Wacom stylus, I’m a pretty happy camper……or I was.
Last week, my Trackball died. Admittedly, between work and play, I spend a lot of time on the computer, so I probably just wore the poor thing out. Wouldn’t be the first time. So I went to Office Depot and bought a new one, exactly like the old one (I thought.)
After screwing around trying to get the new one to work with the old software, I uninstalled the old software and started fresh, using the disk that ships with the device. "Whoa! they REALLY changed the software," I thought as I went through the install. I wasn’t happy that it wanted to install a bunch of junk– Music Match, an e-bay companion, etc. and I promptly unchecked those options in the custom install. That left 2 options checked. Mouseware (the drivers, I assumed) and Logitech Desktop, the absolute minimum the user guide says I need to get the thing to run and to be able to configure the way I use the buttons and wheel.
So I install. Long boring story omitted here, but getting the thing configured
so it doesn’t interfere with my other stuff takes a while. This is new. The old one was a painless plug and play USB install. I go to register my new hardware with Logitech and while I am still in registration mode 25 popup windows open. Damn. Porn. Casinos, Pharmaceuticals. Dating Services, and a really persistent one for a popup stopper.
I run Ad-Aware. Mouseware and Desktop have dumped a
CARLOAD of spyware and adware on my system. I quarantine and delete it, hand edit the registry, empty my recycle bin, run Norton Cleanup, and check the file system. All the nasties are gone.
Well, no, they’re not. The next time I open my browser, I’m again inundated with popups and popunders and things that want to install heinous things like Xupiter and "helper" toolbars and all sorts of crap.
I run Ad-Aware again. WTH! All the stuff I deleted is back. I clean up again and
call Logitech customer service. They tell me that, yeah, they did slip something
called Polite BackWeb on to my computer but if I uninstall Logitech Desktop all will be well. I won’t be able to reconfigure some of my buttons, but I didn’t really want to do that anyway, did I?
So I do. But it doesn’t really fix the problem. I can delete the stuff, but this
adware is immortal. Every time I restart the browser it regenerates from somewhere. I do a Google search to see if anyone else has had this problem. The answer is yes, but no one has a solution I haven’t already tried.
So I email tech support. I get a robotic response with the answer to someone else’s problem. I escalate the request. I get another useless robotic response.
I call. A very nice but clueless person puts me on hold for 10 minutes on my dime
then tells me he doesn’t know how to fix it, and gives me another long-distance
number to call. Tomorrow, because they’re in a different time zone and are closed
now.
I go out and buy a third party popup killer– now I only get 10 or so extra windows on startup, and at least one of those will hang and need to be closed
via the Task Manager about a third of the time. This feels stupid to me— I’ve
just bought a $30 program to half fix the problems caused by a $60 mouse. I contact Logitech again, and I prepare to box up my trackball to return it to Office Depot.
I completely uninstall all Logitech software and deep clean the computer again.
I restart the browser. The vampiric adware rises from the dead.
So I e-mail Logitech to ask for assistance, telling them that if I didn’t have a
solution from them in 24 hours, I would tell everyone I knew who owns a computer about this customer service nightmare.
That was 36 hours ago.
Just an FYI
Feel free to tell your friends.
"Hell hath no fury….." like an annoyed customer with broadband.
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