William Bartholomew

I just had a horrible experience with a software vendor’s website (no, I won’t name them, but it’s a big company) that I wanted to share. Partly to get it off my chest, and party so others can learn from their mistake.

What was my goal? Download a trial of their software.

1. I clicked the Try button to download the trial. So far so good.
2. I’m asked to login or register. Why? Just let me try the software, if it’s good software I’ll buy it, I don’t need your salesforce hounding me. But I’ll play your game.
3. I think I already have a login, so I enter my email and guess the password. Nope, wasn’t that. At least it told me my email was correct, it was just the password that’s wrong. I know this isn’t the best security but at least I didn’t try to register again just to be told my email is already registered.
4. I click the I forgot my password link. It asks me for my email address. Why? I just entered it! It even told me it was correct, why do I need to tell it again?
5. I enter my password and click Continue. It tells me I don’t have a password hint so I have to proceed to Step 2. I look around the page and find Step 2, it consists of a single button named Send Email which sends me the password. Why did I have to click the button? Why didn’t it do it automatically as soon as it realised I don’t have a password hint?
6. I get an email with a link in it, which I click.
7. It then asks me for my email address. Haven’t I entered this before? Oh yeah, twice now. I play their game and enter it along with the new password.
8. It then takes me back to the login screen. Where I enter my email address (for the fourth time) and my password (for the third time). Why do I need to login? I just proved my identity what security does this login add?
9. Finally, I’m authenticated. But, instead of taking me to the original screen I asked for I’m taken to my account details and then need to navigate back to the original page I wanted.
10. As a final insult, their download insists I use their download manager. Why can’t I just click download? If the download fails that’s my problem, not theirs.