Sony USA software ripoff New York New York

First I have to ask if they are all like this...I recently purchased a Sony DRX 840U DVD RW drive. The box is clearly marked that it comes with the Nero v7 software. On doing the set up and installation the nero software immediately presented a pannel that informs you that the included v7 software is a 30 day trial and you have to now pay an additional $40.00 to make the software permanant. This is nothing more than a hostage charge. There is no indication of this on the box and and the store personel assured me that everything I needed was included.

A call to Sony confirmed that this was correct and not an error, the person on the phone agreed that there was no indication of v7 being a trial on the box and they got a lot of calls about that. Their explanation was that it was a marketing decision at the time of manufactur to include trial software only, thats it, no attempt to correct the problem, end of conversation. A call to a the office of Howard Stringer CEO Sony USA got no response, none was expected. If I knew it was trial software up front I likely would have bought the thing anyway. It was the suprise that got my ire up I have since returned the drive to the store.

Joed
pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.