Anyone who knows me knows that I'm the LAST person to complain. I really have to have reached the breaking point to even complain to a company. Stellar has taken me to new heights when it comes to how pissed I can be at a company. I realize they sell a ton of software and many people here may use it, but I never have until recently. I had some issues with a RAID 5 running Novell Netware 6. I rebuilt the array properly, but the volumes were corrupt. I don't really work with Novell much, but everytime I've worked on them in the past they have been pretty straight forward. I rebuilt the array and destriped it to a single image. Everything was cool with it, but I couldn't rebuild any pools or volumes.

God bless Dr Kiev, he wanted a crack at it too, and I think he spent 3 days going through and doing pretty much what I had already done, with the same results. No pools or volumes found. So upon looking for alternative solutions, I found an old demo copy of Stellar NSS software on my server and decided to try it on a whim. It was just the demo for version 1.0. I ran it on a destripe of the array, and to my astonishment, it was able to detect the pools and volumes. It was able to rebuild the directory tree perfectly. I'm assuming the data was ok, but I couldn't preview files in that version. I know that when I did a raw recovery on the destriped image within any other software, the files looked fine. So I'm pretty sure they would have been ok.

Well, I immediately hit the button to register the software. I followed the prompts to the purchase area, and then I completed the purchase. With my confirmation email I was prompted to download the full program. I do so, and it's version 3.0. I have no problem with this. It's a completely different interface, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work. At that point, it was the only software they sent me, so I had to use it. Well, it detected nothing. Not a single thing. It is probably the worst piece of crap I have ever used to be quite honest. The simplified interface is garbage, and it didn't detect a single pool or volume.

So for over a week now I've been trying to get this resolved and have received nothing more than a simple automated response. I've been BEGGING this company to just send me a copy of version 1.0 NSS recovery. That's all I'm asking for, just the old software. The software that I demo'd and had great results with. What I received after the purchase was not anywhere close to being the same thing. I'm not disputing the $214, I have no problem with that. I just want something that works. I have called and waited on hold for 20 minutes at a time, and finally it just tells you to hang up. I have emailed them. I have done whatever I could to try and get this resolved. Paypal does nothing, because you can't file a claim on a "Not As Described" dispute. So I'm basically screwed on this. Sorry I just needed to vent on this a bit.

Yes I agree with you about their products
A few years ago, they took me for about $400.00 product never worked and after spending much time going back and forth they never refunded me. I feel your pain, but I guess we live and learn

Hi gtd4242

I would like to add my testimony to your post, as a few Months I had THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM.

I recovered a 7200.11 0Mb (easyfix) and tried to use my legally bought Stellar Novell V2.0

The software scan found all files, but suddently Stellar decided to de-activate my USB token key and I was *forced* to buy the new version V3

Unfortunatelly, the new Stellar Novell V3 is graphically beautifull, but the software is much inferior to V2 and found nothing at all

After some time fighting the automated e-mail system, I was able to get a download-only copy of V2 which recovered a lot of data

Some tests later and I found that this issue is not only hapening with their Novell V3 software, but most of their new graphically enhanced V3 software (FAT, NTFS, LINUX, MAC ...)

So if someone is thinking to buy Stellar V3 software, I would recommend to wait until they fix it

(depending on the filesystem this new "buggy" software can cost up to 800 USD)

and can be a bad surprise if it won't work

-BR-

I had the delight to test this StellarPhoenix a few days ago just looking for different software to see if i could find any thing "extra" on the FS. HFS+ - found zero(no structure or files).. What a pile of junk!

Paypal is becomming dissapointing too.. the buyer protection programme is a shamble and its become so corrupt and a rip off.. I feel sorry for you mate. If i had that version 1 i would send it to you. But i never used this shiet ever..

_________________
It seems that the unluckiest people in the world are those that don't backup.
Free Solutions
Picasaweb- Pictures and movies | Dropbox - Documents and other..

Wow, I actually have expected to get flamed on here for posting what I did. I just assumed that most would have had nothing but good experiences with this company. In a strange way, this actually makes me feel somewhat better about the situation, to know that others have gone through something similar. Again, it's not that the product I used for a demo wasn't good, it was FANTASTIC. It's just that what I was forced to download after making the purchase was not even remotely the software I thought I was buying. I think more than anything, even beyond the software, the biggest complaint I have is the customer service. There is really no words for how bad it is. It is the worst I have ever dealt with in my life.

What is even scarier is to know that many big US companies outsource their support centers to India, which is where Stellar is located. Makes you wonder if Stellar has outsourced its support to a country even further down the ladder than India.

They used to have good software 4 years ago. Once they have updated their stuffs, it is bad as it can be. I bought the MAC version, and it is the worst investment I had. They never got back to me for my refund.

But give credit where it is due--They have an array of different data recovery software that many other software companies don't have.

Well I did finally receive a reply, and they sent me a copy of Version 1.0. Just waiting for the registration key to come back to me so I can make it work. It took a lot longer than it should have, but I gotta give credit that at least they did something to make the situation better.

All is well now. I can't help but think they may have seen this posting here, because soon after, I started receiving phone calls from them and emails saying they were doing whatever they could to help resolve the issue. Yesterday they spent much of the morning trying different possibilities remotely. I realize there's a huge time zone difference. The good news is, they worked it out and got the problem resolved, and I'm happy with the results.

Results- that is all we want at the end of the day.
Nice of them to help out eventually. better late than never.

_________________
It seems that the unluckiest people in the world are those that don't backup.
Free Solutions
Picasaweb- Pictures and movies | Dropbox - Documents and other..