Nero not honoring Free Upgrade?

I own Nero V6, full version. I received an e-mail from them pumping the advantages of V7, and containing a prominent link stating "Update now for Free". After downloading over 100 MB, allowing it to uninstall V6, having it hang my machine on a re-boot, etc, it came up saying that it was in demo mode, and refused to honor my V6 password.

Re-examining the e-mail, I found that the prior paragraph read as follows:

Enjoying your copy of Nero 7 Ultra Edition? Well, you’ll enjoy it even more with the latest Update available now online. One of the most exciting new features includes encoding and playback of your videos on your Apple iPod in Nero Digital™ quality. Nero Recode saves your videos directly to the Apple iPod in the appropriate format

Note that it says that if you have V7, you'll like the upgrade. It does NOT say that the that the upgrade is free ONLY if you own V7.

I queried Nero about this over 24 hours ago, and have gotten no response.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? Is there any way to get action from Nero on an issue like this? Who would I contact (I couldn't find any phone numbers on their site)?

I've found it usually takes days to get any kind of a response from them, especially on the upgrade issues. I was having problems with their online system for purchasing an upgrade from N6 to N7 and they never did help me resolve the problem.

To my knowledge they have never had a policy of free upgrades from one version to another.

Sure they had. From a period of time prior to the launching of Nero V7, they had a policy by which if you bought the license for the last 6.0 version availabble at that time, you were entitled to a free upgrade to V 7.0. I have done it.

Password for Nero V7 is different from Nero V6.

I forgot that. I stand corrected.

That is right they had agreed if you have bought Nero 6.6.... Between September 05 and November 05 then you are entitle to free upgrade to Nero 7.

That's the usual practice for many manufacturers and softwae producers.

I got my full 6 version key for free, just because I bought a 5.5 full licence from them (before I had a OEM 5.5 from Plextor).

But this period was before version 6 being in the market, and as soon it was released they stoped selling 5.5 serial numbers.

Just a marketing practicing to prevent sales to stop prior to new releases (if not, people would stop buying and would wait for the new version, distributors wouldn't sell the boxes on the shelves, and so on). SO in a way it can't be considered as a proper "free upgrade" policy....

By the way, I still use my version 6 software, as I got it updated and keeps doing its job...upgrading to 7 is something for further consideration, but not an urgent topic.

My issue is not what their policy might be, or what is common in the industry. My problem is that they have me as a registered user for V6, so they know which version I have, and they sent me an e-mail with a big link saying "Update For Free". I followed everything as it instructed, and at no point did it say "NOTICE: THIS UPDATE IS ONLY FREE FOR V7 USERS!!!". Instead, I got all the way through an hour's work, and found out that I had killed my V6 install, and could not keep V7.

Now, I either pay big bucks, or I do another hour's work to uninstall 7 and re-install 6 (I don't even know where I would get the base software, so I'd probably have to spend a second hour hunting around my office and network.) And, had I not kept my V6 Serial No, I'd be completely up the creek.

I think you can still download the latest version of 6.6 from their site. If you're anything like me, that would be quicker than finding it!
http://www.nero.com/nero6/eng/Downloads.html
http://www.nero.com/nero6/eng/nero-up.php - looks like you need the "update" version, and then apply your serial.

Seems like pretty crass emailing - are you actually registered and permitting newsletters and stuff from them? Surely it's not beyond the capability of their email to send a different one to registered V6 and V7 owners?

See if you like the V7 demo, there should be an upgrade price, but then again, maybe you'd rather make your next update something else

Thats a dif story.
Never got such an offer this side, but if so I will take care before taking "profit" of it.

it's probably just a mass mailing list. I can't imagine they log email addresses and sort by who has what version installed...it's ADVERTISEMENT...they want to get it to as many people as possible.

also, why dont you just install your nero 6 from the original CD is came on? uninstalling and reinstalling an app isn't that big of a deal...sure with nero, it might take a while, but it isn't "an hour's work," you're allowed to multi-task or even *gasp* walk away from the computer and do other things while it works.

i hate nero, and I think they're shady as hell, but I think that demanding they know what version each of their customers is running before they send mass mailings is a little much to ask. all they know is that they have your email address.

if you bother them enough and claim false advertising, they might give in, but my best prediction is that they will ignore you.

Update means an entirely different thing from Upgrade. The update for Ver 6 is for Ver 6 users to a newer Ver 6. Upgrade is from 6 to 7.