Thinkfree Needs To Pay Attention
Good news – update here! *Click This Link*
I have been dumbfounded by this issue for a few weeks now. Roughly a month ago, I emailed ThinkFree to inquire why in the heck it would be foolish enough to ask people to purchase its office products on an UNSECURED page. That is right kids, the company has its customers entering in credit card information that is, from what I can tell, completely unsecured.
http://bill.thinkfree.com/tfusa/product_cardpay_pre.php
From what I can tell, there is no sign of SSL anywhere on this page above. Yes, you must enter in other data before being able to enter the page above, but if these folks are on crack enough to think that I am going to buy a product from a company that cannot even provide me with an SSL enabled checkout page, they must be living lush on the moon.
What pains me is that ThinkFree is, indeed, a better product than OpenOffice on a number of levels as it appears to provide better MS Office 2007 support in keeping formats true, editing documents made with MS Office 2007 and not hosing them, and so on. Yet at the same time, while I would sooner jump in front of a car than throw away money on Microsoft Office (lost keys, long story), I am really bothered by the fact that no one is calling this to the attention of the ThinkFree staff!
I will point out again, I did indeed try to contact them – they never responded.
ThinkFree, you need to respond to this. If the payment page is, indeed, magically secured without SSL, then you damned well better explain how because what you are doing is wrong. At first I thought this was a temporary oversight; now I realize you simply have chosen not to bother paying attention. Here’s to hoping it will change…
14 Comments
Allen Zhu
February 14th, 2009
at 10:05am
https://bill.thinkfree.com/tfusa/product_cardpay_error.php?MSG=TTXLOGMST%20INSERT%20FAIL(Error%20No:2024)
That works too, with the Verisign secured logo…
Allen
Matt Hartley
February 14th, 2009
at 2:28pm
Allen: Ah, thanks for that. https is there for sure, yet when I goto physically enter my credit card info, the logo and SSL are not there on the other link that I am sent to when trying to “buy”? So…a link to an error page is not really very helpful I am afraid.
Benedict
February 15th, 2009
at 3:45pm
Hello , This is Benedict who is in charge of marketing managing at ThinkFree.
First of all, We are soory for the late response.
We use the SSL secured by Verisign for the all connections.
For the billing page, We just omit the logo for small space of page.
If we bother you , We are sorry.
and let me know if you have another comment !
We will hang on your lips.
Matt Hartley
February 15th, 2009
at 8:51pm
Benedict: Thanks for getting back to me. I am concerned however, that there is more lacking that just a logo.
On the actual page I am to enter my credit card info, there is no indication of a secure socket layer (https) in the web address area. I have never in my life used a secured site that lacked https in the web address. If you can elaborate on how that works, I would appreciate it.
GadgetNut
February 17th, 2009
at 4:18am
Matt; It’s also interesting that you got a response only *after* you posted about their lack of contact with you in such a public place as this. I can’t help but wonder how many folks other than you have never received a response, and will never receive a response from the company simply because they lack a blog in which to complain about it.
Benedict; You *must* make sure that your company makes every reasonable effort to stay on top of the customer/potential customer mailbox. No excuse is good enough. Don’t make excuses, make improvements! Part of a successful marketing effort is the service. If it appears, in any way, that your company does not communicate with customers, or potential customers, or ignores the emails with which they are simply uncomfortable, you will find that it will ‘bite you’ in the end. In a market where products and prices are similar, the one thing that separates them is *the service.*
Hopefully, folks will hold ThinkFree’s ‘feet to the fire’ on this, and test their ability and willingness to respond to communications from people who don’t have blogs.
Sounds like the programmers *and* the marketing people have work to do. We’ll wait and see.
Benedict
February 22nd, 2009
at 1:26pm
Yes,,, We thank you for the response and appreciation.
As you pointed, We built up https.
We don’t want exhausted controversy.
Most importan thing is improvements and we did it.
and We hope you to point about our faults for improvements.
So long !!!!!!!
We thank you
Benedict
February 22nd, 2009
at 1:30pm
As you know
We also have the blog : blog.thinkfree.com and
we will open the Forum and Our service will renewal in mid of March.. Our goal is free service.
Thank
Matt Hartley
February 23rd, 2009
at 11:37am
Benedict: Looks good and a new article highlighting the changes and why I prefer your software (which has always been the case, btw) will be coming out soon. Good work.
For those following the thread:
https://bill.thinkfree.com/tfusa/product_userinfo.php
Is partially secured as it only deals with the entrance into the fully secured https://bill.thinkfree.com/tfusa/product_cardpay_pre.php
This is perfect and all I ever wanted. Thinkfree got things back on track. Now I can place my order. :)
Thinkfree Office Is Back ~ IT Professionals
February 23rd, 2009
at 1:04pm
[...] some back and forth correspondence, I am happy to report that Thinkfree Office does indeed have a HTTP secured site up for taking [...]
Benedict
February 23rd, 2009
at 5:39pm
Thanks and always We keep in mind,
and
We hope you to be evangelist for our service.
We hope that we will send the test accout for new service launching in mid of March.
Matt Hartley
February 24th, 2009
at 11:39am
Benedict: Go ahead and email me at matt.hartley@gmail.com – let’s see what you guys are working on?
Benedict
February 25th, 2009
at 12:13am
Yes, thanks
We plan to send the test account on 10th, March.
I’ll mail you.
and we hope you to criticize about new service without any hesitation.
Miss May
February 27th, 2009
at 3:06am
Benedict…
English is not your native language is it?
Benedict
February 28th, 2009
at 7:44pm
Yes, English is not my native language.
I’m Korean.