If you're the owner of Scansoft PDF Converter Professional 2 - you have my condolences. In fine Yiddish terminology, it was a verkakte (tr: truly awful) piece of software. It would scramble my visuals when attempting to convert files to PDF format. Nasty. Landed up e-mailing files to my IT guru, Lennard Gast, having him convert 'em and mail 'em back. Tres frustrating. Hallelujah when version 3 was made available! Yeah, right... Download the supposed upgrade and it simply wouldn't accept the code of the previous legit purchase. Numerous e-mails to Scansoft but no solutions. They seem to have made it as difficult as possible for a customer to get support. In desperation, I dug deep into my hippocampus and dredged up the memory of free software that does the same thing. 
I visited the PDF995 website and downloaded flawless software in seconds. What does that mean? I've voted with my fingertips'n keyboard and will uninstall the software non grata Scansoft PDF converter this very day. Bravo to the world of free enterprise. Crappy customer service loses every time. Just imagine all those advertising, marketing, PR and promotional dollars going straight down the reputational tubes because your customer couldn't get a simple answer out of you! Expensive exercise people.
Postscript: I see Scansoft has been 'taken over' by Nuance - maybe they'll now get it right...
Sadly, most cases of crappy customer service are related to a sense of responsibility.
If the Customer Service Representative (damn, I hate that term) you were dealing with had the attitude that your lack of satisfaction reflected badly on him (or her), he would possibly think differently. Unfortunately, it's too easy to pass the buck...
Posted by: Martin | Sunday, 27 November 2005 at 13:33
You should give CutePDF a try, exactly the same technology as PDF995 and free except it doesn't send you to an annoying sponser page after the conversion.
I will always try out a free alternate before going with commercial s/w. There is some amazing free sh't out there.
Posted by: Wezzo | Monday, 28 November 2005 at 08:50
Thanks Wezzo - useful info. I'll give it a shot.
Posted by: Clive Simpkins | Monday, 28 November 2005 at 09:29
Wezzo's spot on, Clive. There are a number of "open source" (free) alternatives to proprietary software.
PDF Creator is another one, check it out here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
Otherwise I can pass it on to you next time we meet
Posted by: mike | Tuesday, 29 November 2005 at 17:32