Being Jilted: The Time Honored Christmas Tradition

There is a long standing tradition within the retail world of finding ways to rip off your customers. Most times it's a shoddy product, some times its a fly-by-night warranty program, and still others it's just flat out lying. This has become the bane of the electronics and gadget world, and it really becomes a problem around the holidays. What better time to prey on people's ignorance about technology then when more techno-illiterate people are shopping for their technophile loved ones?

It looks like I fell victim to one of this years biggest rip-offs, the Viore HDTV Wizard Portable HDTV Tuner for PC. I had asked my family for a TV Tuner, either internal or external, as part of my decision to turn my PC into my one-stop Media shop. In my family, you can't be too specific. We're all bargain hunters, so it comes as no surprise that when my family saw the sale on Viore's HDTV Tuner and that it was compatible with Vista, they hopped on it, and who can blame them! $55 for something that they were seeing everywhere else for $150 or more? Hells yes!

I opened the box on Christmas and was happy as a pig in mud. I had received a 500 gig external hard drive, a new web cam, a few games, and now a TV Tuner for my PC! I was going to go back to Chicago, set up my Hunky-Tower-O-Media-Power. But little did I know then hell I was about to experience.

I got home (with only a little trouble) and began to set up my computer. After installing all the wonderful things I got, I went to install the final piece, the Viore Tuner. The PVR software installed just fine, but when I went to install the driver, I recieved an interesting little message:

Please update your Windows 2K to SP4

Interesting.... And I'd be glad to, assuming I was running Windows 2K.... and assuming this product were even compatible with 2K. But I was running Vista Home Premium. And I was ready to experience the fabled power of Media Center. I let it go for the evening though; it was late and I thought I must have missed a step in the set up process or something.

Today, I come back to my house and re-install the PVR and go for the driver. Nothing changed from last night, including the mysterious message asking me to update an antique OS.

I surfed over to Viore's website, but to my dismay, there was no tech support for the product. Well, what I meant to say is that they didn't even mention the product. At all. So I call the tech support number on the box. At this point in my life, I'm not naive enough to think I'm going to actually be able to speak to anyone at tech support within 2 hours, and given how sketchy things were looking, I'd be surprised at that quick of a response.

I lucked out and only had to wait 30 minutes. But it was to no avail. As soon as the rep answered, he asked me what model Television I was calling about. That's right, they primarily make TV's, and their tech support doesn't even bother asking about any other products they might sell. I mentioned I was calling about their HDTV Tuner, and was immediately given another number for a company called Newsoft Inc, who apparently handles their actual tech support.

Now these guys, I though, could help me. I explained my situation thoroughly, hoping that they could shoot me an e-mail with a link to the Vista drivers. After all, there had to be Vista drivers; they claimed their device was Vista Compatible. Lo and Behold! There were no Vista Drivers! Direct Quote from Dan, the tech support guy:

"Good luck finding the driver. It exists, but we've only seen it once. I can't remember what site I saw it on, but in any case, it's moved since then."

So, bottom line, we were duped. We fell to the plain old lie. Viore HDTV Wizard Portable HDTV Tuner for PC is a pile of crap, a box full of lies, and a worthless piece of tech junk. This POS will be on it's way back to the site we purchased it from first thing tomorrow morning.

Moral of the story: When you ask for tech stuff from your non-tech-oriented friends and family, you need to do the homework before hand and tell them the exact product you want, otherwise you will get a pile of wasted plastic.