Nuance Communications Reviews 92

Dragon16 is a useful product, but there are so many extremely frustrating design flaws that there is no way I could recommend it to anyone. The basic dictation functionality is good. Other things are not. For example, migrating profiles, even in the same version, is a catastrophe. Theortically it must be possible, but we have spent much time without success. Configuration or tuning the vocabulary is also a challenge. It is unclear what, if anything, accuracy tuning does.

My previous version of Dragon stopped working because of upgrading to Windows 11! I called the customer service line, and they provided me with an updated version of the new Dragon 16 software free of charge. Leo on the helpdesk was extremely helpful and a pleasure to deal with. Would highly recommend!

I've been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for 20 years, and always found it very useful, I really can't understand the bad reviews. I don't normally leave reviews, but the customer service was so good, and Leo was so helpful I had to!

FYI, I'm writing this review using the software and it hasn't made one mistake!

Dragon Home, Version 15
A year or so ago. I paid good money for this application.
Because arthritis is now affecting my fingers. That aside. I am MANUALLY typing this review. Such that it will be ACCURATE. i cannot rely on Naturaly Speaking
The instructions on set up tell you. That once you have created a profile. The application will still continue to LEARN about the way you speak.
And improve recognition and accuracy.
Mendacity.
Simple words that the application has mis-spelt. I STILL have to continue to ask the application to spell correctly
It will also randomly make up words. ' And he ' always appears as ' Andy ' There are many others to numerous to mention.
It also has the habit of randomly capitalising letters for no good reason. And scattering commas with gay abandon.
All have which has to be corrected by my arthritic fingers on the keyboard.
I have now returned to the Microsoft speech recognition within Windows 7 Pro. Which is primitive. But is accurate and does not ' do its own thing '

AVOID THIS APPLICATION LIKE THE PLAGUE

I've been using Dragon Speech recognition for a decade. As a disabled person, it enables me to write more effectively and easily.
When my old computer crashed, I had to get a new one. Windows 11 isn't compatible with the older product, so I went to the website to price a new one. Imagine how it felt for someone living on disability to find out the only product available is the Professional one, at twice the price of the previous product plus some.
They don't care about the disabled unless they have $700 for the new product. They're greedy and selfish. Don't buy their stuff. Find a company willing to accommodate the disabled like this one accommodates the wealthy.

I am a high-level quadriplegic, and I have been using Nuance Voice Control now for 17 years. Since upgrading from Windows 8 to Windows 10 and now 11, and even after trying to work with them, my computer keeps freezing up. I cannot be the only person that this happens to. I have had it uninstalled and reinstalled, and purchased an expensive computer, and it still does it. My recommendation is that you don't purchase this product under any circumstances.

Been with these lot since they began and have had most versions of Dragon Naturally Speaking over the years.
Used the last version once and then tried to download it on a new PC that I treated myself to shortly afterwards.
When I downloaded the software I was told it had expired so I called a customer services technician who had the personality of a bag of rice, and he advised me that the "new version" would normally cost £700 but that I could upgrade for £350 - I nearly spat my tea out and there is no budging them - Find an alternative or they'll hit with upgrade charges every time they or Windows upgrade. Bunch of wipes

FRUSTRATION MAXED OUT!!

DO NOT BUY FROM NUANCE!!

Don’t waste your money or your time.

Honestly the worst customer service in history

Staff can’t read. I’m sure of it

I’ve tried since before Christmas to have one serial number deactivated so I can reinstall it on the same device (a refresh was needed).

I’ve emailed literally every day for 2 months and I’ve got standard support replies to don’t apply.

Thieves!
I have Dragon Naturally Speaking V15.
I uninstalled and reinstalled it on a new machine.
I received a message, "Maximum Installations Reached."
I called support and was told that they no longer support the product and will no longer allow the use of V15 unless I pay £300 to upgrade to V16.
No way! There was nothing about this in the T&C's when I purchased the product.

Horrible!
I've had issues with Dragon Home 15 from the beginning due to MS WORD being disabled, but I was able to enable the NatSpeak WORD extension when necessary. Having the same issue returning, with original troubleshooting no longer a viable solution, I was informed by Nuance my Windows 11 system is no longer compatible with Dragon Home 15 after two years of creative writing. The tech "expert" told me to copy/paste dictation from Dragon Box if I chose to continue using Dragon software. With a rebuttal stating I've been using the Dragon software for 2.5 years, the Nuance representative verbally stated there was nothing they could do. Even acknowledging that customers buying Nuance products in this circumstance were the "losers." Customer service informed me that any refund would have to come from Best Buy, Amazon, or wherever I made the purchase, but then offered a new version for 360.00 USD.
Nuance was correct; the customer, me, and many others were the losers. So much for professionalism and business ethics.
FYI

Bought Dragon 16. It's hardly changed since Dragon 12, still no AI grammer so I doesn't know you mean "to" not "two" etc etc etc.

Googling how to use it with gmail it directs you to firefox (on a PC). Firefox directs you to install an extension. Which doesn't work. And it turns out the article is just for an outdated version of the mac - the facility for gmail specific commands isn't available any more on any platform.

Software that downgrades over time, as it gets more expensive....

Nuance sells software but it is actually a subscriptuion diguised as a license with no end date. They sold me software NOT a subscription. It was Win 11 when I bought it and it is still Win 11. 2.5 years later. They refuse support because it has been discontinued. They tell me I need to once again buy the software I previously bought. THEY ARE SELLING YOU A SUBSCRIPTION. You must continually buy the new version or it won't work well a coupe years later.

I have been Dragonspeak for years. When I bought a new computer, I tried installing the legacy version. I had everything, the serial number, activation key, everything. Here's the tricky part.

After I installed it and clicked on the link within the program, it brought me to a website to register and or activate it. The website had somehow hacked or diverted an address for the 5 year old version and was attempting to install malware.

I Googled customer support and stupidly clicked on a "sponsored site" on Google, called the help line and it was a hacking scam. I didn't fall for it but the site and the scammer were really good and professional sounding. Still with me?

I found the right number on a Nuance site (not Dragonspeak) and asked for help with version 13.0. They said no. Buy the newer $700 version. They don't support old software.

Okay.

Then I told them about the fake clone sites and the attempted scams. I tried to give them URLs etc. They clearly didn't care and I'm sure they thought I was too much trouble. I guess I'll never use a Nuance product again.

I bought Dragon 12 years ago and then got offered an upgrade to 15 by Nuance, which I accepted and it was installed in Sept 2016.
I then needed to transfer the software to a new PC and I followed their web help instructions - uninstall from the old PC, reboot and then install on the new PC.
I did this but it refused to validate the new software.
So I contacted them and they wanted a receipt for the purchase of the 15. So their procedure to uninstall and re-install is completely false.
After a number of support emails I eventually found the email from Nuance dated 1st Sep 2016 confirming my upgrade purchase through them. With this they then had to validate the new installation.

So why did their own system of uninstall/install not update their server records?
And what if I didn't have the original receipt?
And as I bought the upgrade from them direct, why did they not see this on their records?

The whole thing looks very likely that they were trying to force me into buying the software again, so buyer beware - if you buy their software keep the receipts forever.

BEWARE: NUANCE ARE SCAMMERS

When it works, the Dragon software isn't bad. However, the distribution company Nuance engages in deceitful conduct to charge subscription fees for products never requested nor authorised and will never respond to communication.

Don't want, RUN as fast as you can away from Dragon and Nuance.

***ALERT*** A class action lawsuit should've been filed against this company or should be in the immediate works. Breakdown: 1) purchased the CD in 2015 (worked well for a few years), 2) purchased the online version (worked well for a few months), 3) purchased another CD in 2023 that will not accept the serial number that's clearly on the envelope. Lastly, the customer service is nonexistent.

BEWARE
I have upgraded my laptop and wanted to transfer my Dragon software. Here is the measure I got

“We're sorry, our records show that your download file is no longer available because the Extended Download Service has expired. This service allowed us to keep a backup copy of your digital file for a maximum of 2 year(s) after the date of purchase. “

I ordered and paid for the Dragon Professional 16 download plus a microphone on 9 March 2023.
I am still waiting for the microphone 64 days later, and despite multiple attempts to communicate with Nuance, it remains outstanding. DHL has just told me this week that I need to pay a further £55.40 duty/tax before it can be delivered. The microphone cost £108.32. Nuance doesn't appear to be interested.

Be aware that the Nuance Naturally Speaking Licence Version 15 download is valid for only 2 years. After that time my recent download request was refused. I cannot say whether this restriction applies to other Nuance Software, but it is worth checking before purchase

Fraudulently charged for renewal in April 2022. I tried to cancel it last year in January 2022, and it wasn't done. There was no way to do it online, they don't provide an email address, so my only choice was to call their 800 number which has extremely limited hours. Thought it would all be OK since I called to cancel and since the old credit card number had expired but their company automatically updated my expiration date without my authorization!!!! I wanted it cancelled immediately a year ago and requested but never received proof of acknowledgement of the request. **I'm out $150, since I never authorized the renewal and never authorized Nuance or their company to change my credit card expiration date!! This is fraud!! and appears intentionally deceptive...I have a recent Masters Degree so it shouldn't be THIS complicated and tricky to cancel an automatic subscription. Due to this deception I was charged $150 last year for a service that was never used (that's a whole other story of how it was impossible to use with my laptop, despite meeting the system requirements, slowed down my PC to unmanageable level. since I work from home, it interfered with my ability to do my job ** IT IS ALSO EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO CANCEL THE SUBSCRIPTION ONLINE, THE PHONE NUMBER HAS VERY LIMITED HOURS, AND THEY DO NOT HAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS!!

Nuance are a great example of why markets need competition. They are exploiting their virtual monopoly on accurate dictation software to abuse their customers.

Two years ago they turned off Dragon 13. As in if you reinstall it you can’t activate it. Anyone who has ever met a computer will know that you’ll end up having to reboot it fairly frequently after it passes a certain (and rather low) age milestone, so it’s inevitable that you’ll need to reinstall Dragon again at some point. And when that happens: you’re screwed.

And just to be clear: this isn’t a case of they stopped supporting the program because OSs moved on. They just decided to turn it off so that everyone had to buy new software. They cover it up by claiming you get X number of activations per licence. In other words, they arbitrarily limit how many times you can activate the product (even though there are already controls in place to stop you installing it on multiple computers).

So, like a fool, I bought the next one. A couple of years ago the alternatives still didn’t come close.

Guess what? I went to re-download it today and discovered that I can’t. You can only download the installation files for two years after purchase. It’s buried in the terms and conditions somewhere, apparently.

If they cared about their customers even a little bit they’d have an automated email to remind them that the expiry date was due and help them to download it again and keep it in a safe place so they don’t get caught out.

But that doesn’t force people to repurchase software they’ve already bought, does it?

And they clearly don’t care about their customers because when I responded to their email advising me I could no longer download the software with much of the criticism I’ve written here, another customer services agent responded by…suggesting I purchase the software again.

It’d be laughable if it wasn’t that they’re taking my money and giving little back in return.

So beware: if you do business with Nuance know that they don’t care about you in the slightest. They’re only interested in your money and they will do some incredibly unfair and underhanded things to get you to give them more of it.

I fear this may be a response to the fact that the competition is catching up. Microsoft Word’s dictation feature is now pretty good. It lacks some of the ability to train specific words or add custom words, but that is surely coming.

Yet, rather than looking to cultivate a loyal user base who is happy to pay a premium for premium software, Nuance seem to be increasingly relying on squeezing their customers dry to get as much from them as they can before they realise they can go elsewhere.

I have RSI, but I’d rather have burning pains in my forearms than give Nuance any more money. No company should leave loyal customers who’ve paid (a lot) of money for their services feeling like they’ve been scammed.

I simply cannot trust them anymore.