I just wanted to share with everyone out there the bad experience I just had with Real Player www.real.com (no association with www.realtourvision.com) A couple of weeks ago while browsing the web I came across their web page. They have the latest version of real player (Beta) available for download. Now, normally in the past I have tried real player out and the service they provided frankly speaking just really has not been worth the information or services they provided for the price they were asking. There were too many other competitors out there that did just as good or better than them and their price was free. Again, let me reiterate that this is just my own opinion.

Now to get to the real tour vision tie in with this subject. Their new version has a statement that it can be shared on facebook and twitter. Since RTV and their virtual tour providers are getting heavily involved with the social networking aspect of our product that we are offering the client, I figured I would download it and check it out and see how it could be used or incorporated into our Tampa virtual tour company – Frenck Solutions.

Now the button on their website is marked as a Beta. Being a professional programmer I know that beta’s are not really charged for. Actually, I don’t remember of any product beta ever being charged for). Now today as I went online to keep a eye on bank accounts, I noticed a charge for 14.99 with a transaction number and a reference telephone number of 1-866-585-4541 on my statement. What the heck was this for? Googled the number and it was as if I hit the motherload of all complaints. Try it using the link above and see what you get!!

The download was rather large download and the Real Player downloaded had included a bunch of other “yuck” – free trial for 14 days of Rhapsody, free 7-day trial for games and stuff like that.
Anyway, just to let you guys that are part of www.realtourvision.com beware for these automatic charges to your account if you download this thing. Got account canceled and credited (after calling the number and their spiel at the beginning of the call is recorded for quality assurance and training. I then put phone on speakerphone and asked if he minded that I also record at this end……pregnant pause followed by a weak “it was OK”.

Moral of story is to be careful when trying to get as much social networking stuff going as well as spammers on facebook and twitter. (good indicator is the countrycode of .ru) in the URL of the address.

Best Regards,
Wayne Frenck
Tampa Bay Virtual Tours
www.frencksolutions.com