I bought the "Dilbert 2007 eDay2Day Calendar" through Amazon.com on December 2006. Because I am a Dilbert fan I was so happy when I received it during the Christmas time. However, when I tried to install it on my computer here in Japan, I became very disappointed mainly with the lack of support from the company that developed the software. It's already middle of the 2007 and I still can't use the electronic calendar. Posted below is an exact copy of all messages exchanged between Andrews McMeel Publishing and me (email addresses and phone numbers were omitted) to your better understanding...

Wilson wrote on May , 2007:

Hi,

It's have been four months without receiving any reply from you concerning the use of a paid "Dilbert 2007 eDay2Day" software on my Japanese Windows XP desktop.

I confess I am profound disappointed with your support!

I know that sometimes there are some implications that rises beyond our control. However, as a hardware/software engineer (with graduation in Electronics Engineering) I also do know that almost nothing is impossible to fix or change (this is especially true if it's a software problem).

Actually, I did some experiments and I noticed that if I change the locale of my desktop from Japanese to English and reboot the system, then your software runs without problems (when I did that I was able to register the program with your server).

Unfortunately if I keep using English locale on my Japanese Windows XP, it screws up other software programs (Outlook Express is the worst case since I become unable to display Japanese characters...).

I know that it's not so easy to fix it, but I am sure that it's not impossible to change the way your software access the system date and displays the encrypted PDF image.

Since I can't have my money back, the only possible thing that I can do is to alert people on the Internet to avoid buying your software, not because of the quality of your products, but because I think that your support really doesn't exist!

Sincerely Yours,

Wilson Pardi Junior, M.Sc.
An ACM / IEEE member

Eday2day Support Mailbox wrote on January 23, 2007:
Wilson:

At this point we still do not have a viable solution that is ready to deploy. Our Level 2 Support Staff are still working on this issue.

We have found this issue goes a bit deeper than comparing today's date to the installation date. It also involves interpreting today's system date and determining which encrypted PDF image it needs to unencrypted for display.

Quite honestly, short sightedness on our part precluded us from testing it in an international setting. We have solved the problem the calendar encountered with European date formats but the issue with Asian date settings is still being worked on.

We will notify you as soon as we have a solution to deliver along with instructions for deploying that solution to your machine.

Best Regards,

Craig Fisher
eDay2Day Customer Support
Andrews McMeel Universal

Wilson wrote on January 21, 2007:
Hi,

Almost two weeks have passed since your first reply, and I still can't use my paid "Dilbert 2007 eDay2Day" software.

I understood the explanation regarding the date formats in Japan and US, but I think this would make sense only for a trial version since it has to check a 30-day period.

In my case, since I have a paid version with a product key, it really doesn't make sense to check a 30-day period.

Do you have an idea when I will receive a patch and/or instructions to overcome this problem?

Sincerely Yours,

Wilson Pardi Junior, M.Sc.
An ACM / IEEE member

Eday2day Support Mailbox wrote on January 10th, 2007:

Hello Wilson

We are seeing this in calendar installations in Japan. I have forwarded this matter to our Level 2 support staff.

Our theory at this point is that the registration software makes a comparison between today's date and the installation date. If that number is greater than 30 days, the >program terminates. Our theory is that the date format in Japan is not like the date format in the US, therefore the registration software errantly determines the install is greater than 30 days old and not registered causing it to abort.

We are confident that we are on the right track to fixing this issue. I'll move your name to a list of users experiencing the same problem. When we have a solution in >place, I'll email you with the patch and/or the instructions required to effect the change.

Best regards,

Colette
eDay2Day Support

Wilson wrote on January 09, 2007:

Hi,

I installed 'The Dilbert 2007 eDay2Day' calendar software that I bought through Amazon.com at my work computer (yes, I'm behind a corporate firewall), but when it ran it displayed the following message:

No valid Calendar License file(s) found. Program will terminate

I uninstalled the software, cleaned the windows registry, installed again, but the same error message appeared.

Then I downloaded the trial version from your homepage to see if I could use it at least for some days before contact you, but unfortunately, the same error >>message appears for the trial version...

It's interesting to note that the registration screen didn't appear at all...

Wilson Pardi Junior, M.Sc.
An ACM / IEEE member