Ad Muncher

I wouldn't sue, that's a waste of time/money. However reporting to relevant authorities may save people some headaches, and prompt change on the part of AM. I'd just like a refund, rather than resorting to a credit card chargeback, which I know gives a negative mark to a vendor, in addition to causing additional chargeback fees. A chargeback is guaranteed since the product was sold under above false pretenses - by the way.

I also was hoping AM would take a pro-truth stance, come clean on the matter, and fix their false advertising. False hope obviously, especially when he cites being 'offshore' as a protection against continued fraud. At least we can keep people informed of the truth in as many locations as possible, so they can make more informed decisions. Obviously myself, and everyone else aren't getting anywhere with the AM folks, and Murray doesn't seem to 'get it'.. But we're glad his life is 'great' riding on the paychecks from AM suckers (myself included). Karma has a way of catching up - by the way.

I suspect a 'plethora' of poor reviews will escalate for Admuncher, and once sales take a sufficient hit Murray will be forced to address the vaporware issue. I will be doing my part in informing potential customers of the pitfalls of it. Cnet, and other sites are already becoming laden with bad reviews. Their reputation is being so harmed these days, I am unsure even v5 will salvage them. My guess, Murray will re-release it under a new name, under a new LLC, charging people all over again. (wanna take bets?)

http://download.cnet.com/Ad-Muncher/3000-7786_4-10130181.html
"Dishonest company that screwed me over"

"Problem Acknowledged, Fix Available but Withheld"

"Terrible, don't download it!"

 

In regards to the quote '"Problem Acknowledged, Fix Available but Withheld"'

he had a basic license and wanted premium filter list updates.

Nothing was "withheld" from him...

Basic license holders can update once per week, premium has no such limitation.

 

This problem with your site advertising should not be difficult to understand. Fix your site information so it is appropriate with your product. That would end the drama and ill feelings with the allegations that you are committing false advertising. If you are simply choosing to be difficult then do not complain later when things become difficult for your product being advertised (ie blacklisted) on major trade sites such as slickdeals.net and others.

 

A site is not an "Advertisement"

Ad Muncher has a 30 day trial AND a 30 day money back guarantee.

usually only one or the other is offered.

60 days is more than enough time for anyone to fully evaluate Ad Muncher and what it can or can't do.

 

That doesn't exonerate you from false advertising, and mail/internet fraud. You need to fix the website. Many novice users may not realize the downfalls of the product, regardless of any trials or refund periods. Why can't you understand that you are breaking the law? BTW a website is actually an advertisement, and falls within the legal framework of advertising legalities. This has already been established by the courts.

Can you provide a single piece of evidence v5 is being developed?

Development logs.
Timeline w/projections.
Flow charts?
Screenshots of the new GUI w/options highlighted?

Anything? I doubt it, and thus, we can conclude it's vaporware. You've had almost half a decade to finish v5, and you still cannot provide any evidence it's being worked on. All the while defrauding people. It's shameful. I will say I am proceeding with reporting to the BBB, ACCA, AGO, Paypal Oversight Team, and my credit card. I'm done with this lip service. Maybe with some fines, and sanctions, you'll stop misleading people, and perhaps - actually materialize v5. I don't see it happening unless the purse is impacted.

 

So why don't you put up information that it works for Mac and Linux to, then maybe a few Linux or Mac users will try it out to see "what it can or can't do"

 

The entire point wasn't that we didn't put something on our site purposefully to deceive anyone.

the site was made before IE11 existed.

Anyway, this is just going around in circles.

If anyone has anything new to add, i.e. constructive criticism or feedback I will be happy to engage.

 

That's good enough of a response for me to see you have no intention of changing the information about your product on your site. Let's revisit this issue in 30 days and see how many major trading websites your product and admuncher site are blacklisted on. I am pretty confident of at least one major site. They don't take false advertising lightly, but maybe you can explain your 30 day trial policy to them. Have a splendid day Mr. Cole.

 

You really like throwing the phrase "false advertising" around and have absolutely no idea what it actually means.

 

So you won't edit/add anything on the site when AM V5 is released, because the site was made before AM V5 existed ?

I didn't know it was that hard to fix some text on a website.

 

That's just how busy we are.

You want site updates or Ad Muncher v5.x?

stop quibbling over nothing...

let us work and v5.x will be here before you know it. ;p

 

I'm sure I know more than you do about it. Furthermore, you have indicated no intention to change anything even if you knew you were wrong.

 

Do you have any ads to report?

 

Yeah real busy eh? You've been working on it for 6-7 years now, right? I could have written an Adblocker in half that frame of time, and I am pretty bad with Visual C. Quibbling over nothing? Since you kindly admit my $159.00 I've put into your product is 'nothing', mind giving that refund before I go to my CC company and file a fraud claim, with a police report?

We've let you work on v5.. For 6+ years, and you still have nothing to show for it. Murray is one of the greatest scam artists out there. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure people know the truth about it, on every website I visit so people can make an informed decision. Understand we're patient people. All of us here have given you the benefit of the doubt, for a long time - some over half a decade. Yet you keep acting like you guys are the victims, like we're being unreasonable, like we are 'greedy'. It's disgusting Jeff, real disgusting. You and Murray have fried reputations now, the cats out of the bag.

Version 5 is garbage vaporware marketing trash talk to keep peoples hopes up. It's the Duke Nukem Forever of the adblocking world. Just like DNF, by the time v5 arrives it will be irrelevant, and not worth the wait.

Let's see- Adguard has released 6 beta versions in 3 weeks. They've now got a guy working 'exclusively' on an Android/iOS adblocker. They've added a WPF driver which allows it to block ads within Win8x APPS. They've added GZIP, HTTPS, and WPF support. Parental filter, malware filter, expanded list, safe search, and EXE blocking. All that since it's introduction in August of 2012. Admuncher v5 was promised since 2005 - by the way.

 

I've never seen such weak and uninformative explanations from a developer before. You never seem to tackle the questions put to you head on..."We're working as hard as we can" is meaningless, how about a better description of what stages you have achieved thus far?

And other developers do explain the limitations of their products, if yours doesn't work on IE11 just why don't you make that clear?

 

The reason we don't give more concrete details is because we've been burned in the past.

Any mention of any specific feature or layout or whatnot always results in a lot of negative reaction if it changes at all when it's released and it's not EXACTLY like they were expecting.

 

Jeff, I think that publishing a absolutely clear list of features (improvements over v4.93) with at least ETA would not harm you at all, rather on the contrary.

Nobody is pushing you to disclose details of v5 and exact release date but a general feature list and let's say defining a quarter of this year for v5 release, is what could save you from posts which this thread is full and you could solely concentrate on development of v5 and bringing it finally to market.

 

We've been burned many times and that's exactly how it feels.

With that being said, I will take your reasoned reply into consideration.

Working on Ad Muncher has been my singular purpose these past 12 years.

Privacy, security, performance and returning control back to the end user through Ad Muncher is my guiding ethos. v5.x is very real.

I'll discuss things with Murray and see if we can get that WIP video out soon to show you what we've been working on.

 

Great!

I know how hard you've been working on AM project for many years and if anyone doesn't deserve such "massage", then it's you.

Therefore please do everything to dispel all doubts about v5.

 

Huzzah!

 

To anyone who is saying that I was paid to post a good comment about Jeffrey.... no duhh.... my first comment was actually critizing the slowness of the update:

But then he explained the reasoning, and a developer going out of his way to support his clients by posting and monitoring posts on a forum is a very admirable thing IMHO. Few people do that and that shows that he truly cares.

Again, I am against this slow update but he knows better what are the obstacles he faces. At the end of the day, would y'all want a half baked product created in a rush or do you want a properly working Ad Blocker that is compatible with IE 11? That's what he's doing and I respect him for that.

 

Yeah, always see a "lifetime" sub as a partial investment into the company and their business models. That chunk of sub money is being used as customer sourced capital boost. Naturally, if few people "invest" alongside you, the product likely fails/abandonware along with your cash. Upside, you can secure a great price before a product gains traction and raises prices.

& if I were AM, I would focus on v4 https filters and make the program partially extension based "in the browser." Or else what, a self-inflicted MITM attack?

At false ads/legal. In an individual trial, the first thing would be why you didn't recoup or use the trial. Well, in hopes the product would improve and you get the "good deal". There is risk in that. v5 and its function/value was not expressed on the "ads" or site; for what it is worth, AM is not explicit on what version of IE, Safari etc it works with. You'd have to prove fraud at that point which would be near impossible with cash back--assuming that is/was truly honored.

As ethics go, IMO:

AM is milking it and hyping vaporwave in some weak business effort to bring vapor into fruition or else must cut its loses as old AM dev loses its value over time. Guys, go get real VC and stop exploiting consumer base with false dates and likely at this point: false development. 3+ years, Jeff. Take as long as you want. But don't expect any new customers and assume migration of your month-to-month users.

And customers who bet on v5 are unfairly threatening the devs into pushing the new product or else cutting the cow's teat short and fast. In other words, the don't want the refund making them financially whole again, but rather want v5 without risk of losing lifetime privs ( a reduced price). "Build what I really wanted and give it to me at costs or else I will smear your product and sue you."

 

Unfairly threatening? Give me a break.. Some people have waited 5-6+ years for this vaporware. I was told it was 'months' away when I was inquiring on purchasing it - a blatant lie.

I don't want v5, I don't want anything from AM. I don't even run AM anymore! I want my cash back for a product that is barely functional to which I was mislead about. Simple really, right? Since he won't give it back, I've already initiated a fraud claim with my credit card, they've credited me the cash while they investigate. Since I happen to know that chargebacks are 99% in the consumers favor, I'm over this nonsense. Adguard meets/exceeds my nets these days.

Prediction: You guys that still hope for v5 will still be hoping for v5 next year at this exact time. Not me anymore.

 

I'm also a long-time AM user and I've grown very impatient waiting for v5 to release. 2+ years now is NOT acceptable and the way the developers have handled this situation with their customers is not very cool (I'll put it that way).

A couple of days ago I decided to give AdGuard a trial since I've read many good things about it (mostly here, and mostly by DoctorPC). So I un-installed by beloved AM and installed AG.

Um, sorry but what a HUGE mistake that was on my part. My computer become sluggish and my boot-time increased by 3x. Also my web surfing experience was not as smooth and fast as with AM. I really tried to give it a fair shake but I couldn't take the performance hit on my system anymore.

I removed it and went back to AM and my system is "smooth and buttery" again. Note to AM's developers - PLEASE STOP PULLING YOUR LOYAL CUSTOMERS CHAINS AND RELEASE THE UPDATE THAT YOU HAVE BEEN PROMISING FOR YEARS NOW!!!

I may have returned this time but IF v5 (beta or not) is not out within 1 month - you will have lost this customer for good. While AdGuard is not my suitable replacement of choice - there are others out there.

 

We can't release what isn't finished.

This has nothing to do with competition or any other ad blocker.

It's unlikely to be finished in one month.

I am sorry.

I realize an apology doesn't remove ads for you, but it's all I currently have to give.