From Our Window To Yours:
REFERENCE: This concerns the video chat program ICUII
The firm listed herein is the manufacturer of a very promising product which has held the interest of many users of their trial products which to date have been plagued by minor bugs. As one of the individuals interested in this product who has used 3.1 - the most bug free of their offerings to date. I tried 4.o which had a number of annoying bugs then decided; well, Im sure the 4.84 version they are offering and selling has to be a bug free and a proven product. So I purchased one.
Thats "seems" to have been a mistake. From the start I have had nothing but problems with this version. I will outline the problems below for your edification. I have sent three emails and one phone call to ICUII concerning this even gave consideration to possible corruption during transfer download asked for a program mailed on disk that was certain to be correct and the final response from tech support was:
"Our program works, Your system is faulty, You probably have a virus. We dont offer cd's . Also sounds like you have a shoddy internet service,"
Lets take that response one at a time.
1. The program does not work properly, as attested to by its users.
2. My system is a NEW pc with pentium III, 800Mhz, 30 gig hard drive and everything else in my system works flawlessly.
3. I have no viruses, my system comes with an updated virus checker that updates the program periodically, my pc has no viruses.
4. I requested they send a proven tested ver of the 4.84 thus the reference to we have no cd's
5. I use Bellsouth.net which is the phone company ISP, its not a shoddy internet service.
Therefore it all comes back to the software. I suggest if you have 3.1 stick to it till they resolve the 4.0 and 4.84 bugs and there are many. And take note that apparently tech support is nil.
UPDATE:
Received an email 3/16/03, from my ISP that ICUII complained of the display of their logo on this page though it did clearly state under said logo that it was a copyrighted and Registered Trade mark of ICUII. In compliance to their request the logo has been removed but the page remains to welcome your comments.
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Below chronologically some instances of dealings with ICUII:
Received an email 2/2/01, from tech support stating I should provide my full name and address, registry number at time of acquisition for reimbursement and cancellation of account. Little change from "Call your credit card company and cancel the purchase yourself!"
Received an email 2/3/01, from a Mr. Hunt implying that they may prosecute under federal laws for slander and other possible legalities. Requested the url which had been provided in prior emails and ignored. We replied and advised them of that fact. Did not provide the url in the response as has been sent several times before.
10-2-02
Its been sometime since this original post, its is now 10-11-02, and while we never did follow through with the cancel of the purchase and have progressed to ver 5.5.6. The company has decided to freeze all current accounts and make everyone re-register. There have been over the past months the innovation of Administrative notes as pop ups which have been very aggravating. But this last one is really a kicker.
As stated before ICUII has never been very people friendly in its dealings and in this instance I was advised my registration would not be issued because."They had refunded my purchase per their books". In as much as I never did follow through with the refund request and continued using the software through its improvements.I asked if that was the case kindly provide PROOF that they did make an reimbursement by producing a check or documentation that they credited my credit card account.
The response was the usual inemitable ICUII reply. "Our records show we reimbursed you for the purchase. Have your Credit card company verify it". Again I found this unacceptable as over more than a year has transpired and never was it mentioned that my account was cancelled , not even service interrupted till now.
We e-mailed again but now they blocked our e-mail address so they wouldn't be bothered, so we faxed, sent snail mail and sent e-mail from another account to the CEO, Founder and VP of said firm advising them that they made a statement and needed to prove it by confirming it and not asking me to dig through my credit card companies records assuming thats how they reimbursed, if they did. One doesnt know if that were the case WHEN this was done. But they never had the courtesy to reply and thus this page is now back on the web.
It amazes us how this firm has total disregard to its clients unless you buy their product at which time they gladly accept payment but beyond that they are a wall of silence. We commented that it appeared to us without their doing due diligence to provide us with proof that this might well be a scam on their part to get people to pay again for the product. We do not know that to be true but when someone comes back to you a year or two later and tells you that they reimbursed you for the purchase but youve been loging in daily in that time something just doesnt seem right. Either they have lousy bookeeping, safeguards and are just now getting a handle on it at this late date. But again they have failed to prove said reimbursement statement. One can only surmise in the abscence of proof they are running some kind of a scam on users.
What is one to think when they refuse to confirm their asertion? Block ones email address and refuse to discuss the matter any further? One has to question what kind of safeguards they have if everytime one logged on with ones registration number for over a year plus and they had cancelled or reimbursed the account one still had access. If I were running a business refunded a customer a purchase, I would cancel their account access that day! Not come back a year later and say:"Oh by the way we refunded you so you no longer have access to the system".
Is this how you increase your client base or great an undercurrent of irrate former customers. This firm has a great deal to learn about customer service, dealing with the public and indeed has what appears to be very questionable bookeeping practices. And had they had the courtesy to reply to our e-mails, snail mail, fax and phone call in a proper manner and confirmed their statement. This page would not be back up online.
If you are experiencing a similar problem, let us know we will add your comment here.
10/18/02
The saga continues only now the President of the company Bernie Hoffman, contacts me and says:"I am instructing my office not to refund you as long as you maintain that page and attitude". DUH! They are really messed up because the reason they claimed they were not giving me the new code was "BECAUSE THEY SAID THEY HAD REFUNDED ME ALREADY". Which they never proved and now he has just confirmed they either haven't or he has no clue what's going on. He also stated to me that my Registration code was being used by 12 people! Look, I don't know what their problem is but its obvious no one there knows what they are doing. From the President to the techs. I'm not going to say any more. They are very adept at proving their incompetence on their own.
10/21/02
Mr. Hunt sent a fax today, with a copy of the User agreement and stating that due to violation of "apparent" dissimination of registry number and refund of purchase they were terminating agreement. He had some figures that he stated were proof of such access to the servers. Confirmed nothing to me. Nor have they confirmed proof of refund which the Pres. of the firm basically contradicted in his email. He explained had a right to block its e-mail, and services if they so determined. I agree they do have that right, of course contradictions, prevarications and "apparent this" and that. Does nothing to confirm anything much less of what they are claiming. What is fact is that they "appear" to run a very unorganized operation. Their emails confirm that. We wish them well. They have not proven anything but we wish them well. There are too many "good" firms out there to waste ones time with the likes of them.
Of course Mr. Hunt, made a comment about legalities of slandering their firm. But is it slander to state what has transpired and the fact they state I "apparently" dissiminated my registration code globally?
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10/25/02
Can't thank you enough for posting your site!
My brother has an ongoing issue with ICUII licencing.
Seems that someone spoofed his IP addy (per his ISP)
and is now being insulted and denied service. One of
us will send the gory details when we get more info.
As they show no indication of improving customer
service, perhaps informing some of the future victims
of what awaits them would be of some benefit? Haven't
looked into the legal ramifications. Yet. Do you consider
this a reasonably safe option?
Later >:)
Troy S.
Reply: One can not get in trouble by being truthful and
sticking to provable facts
12/02/02
I have also experienced problems dealing with icuii. Before they updated their program my camera worked fine. As soon as they upgraded my camera no longer worked with the software and instead of getting a refund, I got a notice that I had violated the terms of service and was blocked from their servers. Do you know of another software that is similar to this one? Thanks, Michelle Reply: Might try ISPQ, at http://www.ispq.com
11/9/02
A copy of a icuii reply to paypal by one Pam@icuii.com was received. This was a billing for the amount they claim they reimbursed as they never provided proof of said reimbursement. A billing was sent in our name and advising that non payment had been effected thus a report would be sent to the credit bureaus. Ms. Pam in the inevitable icuii style, replied with a four letter word expletive and questioning what it was. The same billing had previously been sent and Mr. Hunt, the COO rejected it. They are being reported to the bureaus. Pam Stubbs is Icuii's Main Office Manager.
1/15/03
I have the following froblem with ICUII VERSION 5.6. Everytime I try to use it
the system hangs, and I have to try three or four times before I can get the program
to run. Most of the time I have to hit alt, control,del, and it says icuii not
responding. When I get to use the program, my computer will not shut down , as a result,
I have to turn it off manually, and it automatically goes into scandisk for errors.
Gerardo Munoz
COMMENT:
In order to be prosecutable for slander one has to be malicious and make false claims and accusations against a firm, individual or entity. What we have here is are comments about a good product which has some problems which have been pointed out and comments by actual users of their experiences and on going problems. That is fact, truth not falsehoods, or malicious comments. People are telling the firm they have a serious problem and are not addressing it in a timely or professional manner. Those are facts, they are neither slanderous nor false as they can be attested to an documented. Regarding the page, they were also advised of same, its likely ramifications and its distribution prior to posting.
The intent is not to put the firm out of business or cause them malicious damage. The intent is to let the firm know they have a serious problem they are not addressing correctly or in a professional manner and have a number of irrate clients which have a number of claims as to treatment, lack thereof and other issues which need be addressed.
If you have a problem with this product contact me here for posting of same and send a copy to ICUII as well. I will include your complaint on this page.The idea is to make a very clear point to this manufacturer that indeed they have a problem and put them under internet scrutiny to do something about it! Write to Contact us and we will include it!
= Present problems , 
= Sporadic, 
= Aggravating as hell
THESE WERE PREVIOUS PROBLEMS WITH THE PRODUCT. GREATLY IMPROVED INTO VERSION 5.5.6
Image Freezing on 1:1.
Loss of Pals names on refresh of directory (Changes names to unknown)
Pop up window states no vid attachments.
Qms received lose name and vid reception, change to unknown.
Qms can not be returned due to above, must restart program
On the directory after refresh sometimes overseas Qms and connections won't work
Preview becomes disabled unexpectedly, program locks up
Directory self refreshes unexpectedly , making vid attachments void
Text type transmission stops on 1:1
On 1:1 it sometimes closes the program completely
BIGGEST complaint inability to reply QMS or know who from.
These are a few of the problems I have been encountering with Ver.4.84. I have deleted the program from my system, deleted the directory and re installed several times with same results. Its not my system, my ISP, nor a virus or all my other programs would be doing the same and I do use other vid programs with no problems. Its the software stupid!
Send me your problems on this and lets get these people to do something about it. No one appreciates "buying" what amounts to a beta product thats aggravating the bejesus out of its users.
1. "Hate ver 4.84 always a headache.
2. "Just sending the qm has been a problem."
3. "Nice to know Im not the only to have these problems.Most of my encounters is with Vid 1:1 or in a room or when others call you. the images dont come in they stay in grey color mode. Im deleting 4.84."
4. "Dont know if you got my qm, a pain getting thru."
5. "The major problem Im having is that when I receive calls I can not receive their video but they can receive mine."
6. "I have the same problem with icuii and have talked to others that are experiencing the same problems.I sometimes get fed up with it and just quit. It is very frustrating when you know your not the only one having problems and that the company is not responding to its emails."
"I do know of other people that have had problems getting their camera's to work with this program and the company has not helped them at all. The cameras work with everything else they have.I for one will not recommend to anyone they buy this program. R.B."
7. "I agree the icuii doesnt work right"
8. "Had the same scenario...Used Version 3,10 and it was great. did not upgrade to 4.0 but did recently purchase 4.84. Have found many things that do not work sometimes. Included in this is the problem with trying to send message to an entry in the Pal List. This does not seem to work at all just produces some strange error message about choosing only one user. This is definitely a step back from the older version. System is much slower, can't seem to send messages about 50% of the time even though the people are continually shown in the directory."
I have sent in the report form twice...first time I got back a nasty message from the Tech support group because their report generator on the web screwed up and sent the problem twice. They implied that I was "stupid". Their web site says you will hear from tech support in 3 days...it has been well over a week. I think we are being sold a Beta test version, NOT de-bugged release version program. It's too bad. Could be such a great program."
9. "I downloaded the trial icuii 3.0 beta. I really liked it , but when I went to download it for some reason still beyond my grasp they weren't selling it anymore and I was forced to download 2.5, which has definitely a downgrade after 3.0. I upgraded to 4.0 and I hate the bugs.
I was supposed to download 4.84 for free, and I tried to twice. The first time I tried to download it Netscape told me that I need to download a plug-in on order to open it. I denied going to get the plug-in and when I went to download the file again was told that I've already used that id number to download again and my download was prohibited. I emailed support that I didn't get my download and was told that they had reset my number and to try it again; I was alsp told that this was my last chance and if I needed to download the file again it would cost me $7.00
I downloaded again, this time using Internet Explorer. In the middle of my download my modem froze and I lost my download again. I emailed the tech who emailed me the last time and told him I didn't get my download again. I explained that I was willing to spend $7.00 on the program if they could send me a disc. He hasn't returned my email (I believe I still have his email address and can therefore identify him)
I emailed support again and told them what my problem was. They haven't returned my email either. I can't for the life of me figure out why I would need to have the program more than once, thus needing to download it again, as I have a zip drive and a cd burner and am planning on keeping the file once I've downloaded it, as I've paid for the program including the upgrades and therefore save them to discs to use if I ever encounter a problem. Why would I need another copy of the program if I've already got it on a disc?
I have no download, no disc, no answers and bad software for the money I've spent on this program. Please reconsider your two download policy as well as your no disc policy. While you're at it, firing or retraining your support staff wouldnt hurt. And fix the bufs. ICUII needs to seriously consider their software as well as their support if they are going to grow as a business. Keep it going like this and you'll be belly-up soon."
10. " I have had a similar experience, I did not get my download and was told my registration number was used and could not download again. My emails have gone unaswered to date".
11. "I can see im not the onlyone that have had problems with ICUII/Cyberation Company. Iv been a videochat user for several years and i started to use Icuii at version 2.0 i still use version 3.1 sometimes, iv tried the 4.xx version once i found it to be to lousy made so i never installed it or tried it more. Early in 2000 i got banned from Icuii for no reason whatever, i mailed support several times to get a explanation why i got banned, they would not give me any reason, i just got a reply i was banned for life, i even called Icuii and after i explained who i was and the problem they just hang up on me???????? ? I put up a webpage after that to warn people about Icuii and it didn't take long before Icuii mailed me and threaten me with law sues and so on, but since i don't live in the US i just told them to do it, never heard anything else from them. ICUII don't make the software they sell, they sell it under licence, the Icuii 2.xx and 3.xx version that worked good was made buy Nanocom Corp. http://www.nanocom.com Nanocom is the maker of the best videochat program on the market now, i use it daily, so i recommend if you want to try a good video chat software try ISPQ, found at http://www.ispq.com they are have really great customer service also, this easter my HD crashed on me and i had to re-install ISPQ, but i had lost my registration key and my ordernumber, i mailed ISPQ customer service with my problem and within 5 hours they mailed me back my registration key. Im not sure who make Icuii 4.xx, you can find that under "about" in the software, i know it is not Nanocom, becuase they ended all relation to ICUII/Cyberation. Regards "icuii nick" Calibra "
Other alternatives that work:
ISPQ @ www.ispq.com
IVISIT @ www.ivisit.com
