Passwords Plus for Windows

User Reviews

• Charlatan Software

  dpgrizzleNovember 25, 2007

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Trust is critical when it comes to passwords. This program is a seductive charlatan. It makes promises, gains trust, and in the moment of crisis, Passwords Plus and DataViz will leave you abandoned.<br><br> For several years, I have used Passwords Plus. It was easy, it synced with my Palm Treo, life was good. As an IT pro, I referenced Passwords Plus many times daily to navigate my world.<br><br> Of course, the reason this product exists is to prevent passwords from falling into the wrong hands. On Black Friday, November 23, 2007, that's exactly what happened to me. Thieves broke into my car and took both my Palm Treo 650 and my Apple MacBook Pro 17".<br><br> OK, at least I've got backups. But guess what? I can't recover my Passwords Plus passwords. This is probably the most critical information I've got. The DataViz website is horrible. It demands that I logon to my account to get assistance. Guess what? My logon info is in Passwords Plus -- stolen.<br><br> DataViz offers a stupid knowledge base, the type that demands you read for hours only to discover they never anticipated the prime root reason their product exits. Only one tech bulletin, #13041, hints on a backup and restore procedure. In it, DataViz provides a manual way to create a backup file.<br><br> Great. If I can't recover my passwords from a conventional Retrospect backup (I'm still working on that... hope I'm not blocked by passwords lost in Passwords Plus), I am really up the creek.<br><br> DataViz: "No e-mail support is available for this product."<br><br> BTW - Passwords Plus is *not* shareware. DataViz is a commercial developer.<br><br> There are no paid support options. I understand low cost software. But obviously, passwords are mission critical (I'm an IT director and administer tons of servers and vendor websites).<br><br> Shame on DataViz. My issue with them is not their product, but their business practices and support. Unless they correct this gross deficiency, they deserve to go out of business. That's certainly the position they've put their customers in by selling software that kills their customers.<br><br> I wouldn't have posted this in public except DataViz offers no approach in private. I can't reach them. Beware this prime evil: those who use machines against man. Do humans like me have any recourse when those large (government intersection cameras) or small (DataViz) use technology to insulate, automate, and prosecute. My time is measured in heartbeats, not clock cycles, and DataViz is eating me alive.

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