Rosetta Stone V3: Russian, Level 1 & 2

This is the only Russian language program I have ever actually looked forward to using. Is is a total experience of words, pictures, and learning by association, not just rules and memorization of vocabulary. The software is quite intelligent in its design and includes many reviews of material at predetermined times to reinforce learning.

I bought - or so I thought - Rosetta Stone Russian levels 1 and 2 for $330. After two months of trying to get the product shipped to me I finally received level 2 only. When I called to ask where the level 1 module was I was told that I'd have to pay an additional $100 and first return the Level 2 course. Not the best in customer service...

Worse was to come. When I tried to register the product, using the product registration key that accompanied the disks, it didn't work. Finally I had to spend - during business hours - an hour on the phone with Technical Support. Eventually it appeared that we managed to register the software and I began the course. I really like the approach and approve of the method. But then I switched off my computer. When I restarted, I discovered that the Rosetta Stone software had "forgotten" all my registration information and - of course - the registration key didn't work... So basically I can't ever use this software unless I have an hour to spare to walk through the manual registration process with Technical Support every time I want to use it. Oh, and of course this means I can only use it during business hours, because their Technical Support is not 7/24.

This kind of amateurish software glitch is totally unacceptable and is truly astonishing in this day and age. I can only recommend that no one buys anything from Rosetta Stone until they improve (i) their shipping and packaging, and (ii) the basic software functions necessary to run the program. Until then, it's just a waste of over $300. I am deeply disappointed in Rosetta Stone and looking at the other reviews it is obvious that this company has a major quality control problem.

to everyone wanting to learn another language:

This product has been very helpfull to me. It makes language learning fun and easy. i bought this product a couple of months ago and i'm confident that i could at least survive an introduction if i were to travel to the country. i recomend this product to everyone devoted to learning ANY language

I have thoroughly enjoyed my Russian software so far...

I have completed only two lessons and I am amazed how much I have picked up and retained in such a short period of time.

The lessons progress and build on themselves in an intuitive yet logical manner doing away with any need for translation.

Looking forward to finishing both levels.

Forget support after your purchase. My delimma: I installed this on a computer at home. I got rid of that computer. I wanted to install this on a new computer. The software blocked me because of the installation on the other computer. I called the company to ask them to deactivate the installation on the computer I got rid of and activate this one.

But it was over the weekend. And technical support was closed. But guess what? Sales was open. Go figure. And of course there was nothing the sales guy could do to help me ... unless I wanted to buy another of their products.

When do they expect people to use their software? Only during business hours? After the sale they're done.