Freemake has a rating of 2.8 stars from 111 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Freemake most frequently mention customer service, week trial, and lifetime license problems. Freemake ranks 1st among Freeware sites.
I'm a PR director, so I often take a lot of photos and videos, which with this video converter are combined into slide shows or films. I have been using this converter for 5 years, I don't like any other. This also has its drawbacks, but there are clearly more advantages. I hope that in the future the conversion speed will be made faster and the program will not freeze.
Very slow response from customer service. I followed all of their instructions but still never received an activation key, rather got a refund only after filing a dispute through PayPal... buyer beware!
Very slow response from customer service. I followed all of their instructions but still never received an activation key, rather got a refund only after filing a dispute through PayPal... buyer beware!
Tip for consumers:
Be careful if you pay for the upgraded version. Be sure to use a payment method you can easily get a refund through, if unfortunately like me, you never receive an activation key.
Products used:
None
I'm a PR director, so I often take a lot of photos and videos, which with this video converter are combined into slide shows or films. I have been using this converter for 5 years, I don't like any other. This also has its drawbacks, but there are clearly more advantages. I hope that in the future the conversion speed will be made faster and the program will not freeze.
Take care, obviously a scam. You pay for a test period for 1 €, but I had no way to end the test phase and have not yet received an activation key. It is also customary to inform the user about this. It was also not clear to me that it was a subscription or was not clearly communicated. Of course no reaction by their support.
Only installed the app because it said it was free to convert vid files, not trial version but free over & over again, what a waste of time after hours of converting 5 files I see their watermark is front & center middle of screen with another line describing their wonderful converter so a complete waste of time, all files useless. I would certainly not ever pay a penny for any app that wastes my time like that, & in very misleading fashion.
And they throttle down speed so it takes hours to convert any file just to scam you into buying, don't waste your time or money people
I paid for only 1 week trial using paypal, but without warning they charged the lifetime subscription to my account after the week was over. You can't even appeal to them because their email address with Paypal is bogus. I sent an email using the address they used to inform me about the account activation and this was the reply "You bought 1 week trial license for Freemake which has been extended to a lifetime license as you didn't cancel the trial during the trial period of 7 days. So you were charged ONE-TIME payment for lifetime license. In case of any doubt please refer to the email receipts from FastSpring, our payment processor, where we provided the links to cancel the trial, informed you of the trial terms and conditions and the date of the after-trial charge. Now you have lifetime license and you won't be charged anymore!". Now if the company's spiel is written this way, you know there have been a lot of complaints about their practice.
Tip for consumers:
Don't subscribe!
Freemake is a scam. They will charge you $29.95 per week for their free' software. That's $1500 per year - automatically taken from your account. Impossible to reach them. They are simply criminals and need to be prosecuted. Any positive review must be made by them. Avoid Freemake like the plague. They stole a lot of money from my PayPal account before I noticed.
Freemake is a criminal organization. I paid for the software and it worked 1 or 2 times after every 10 attempts. I didn't use it a lot so I was patient even with it's very high failure rate. Now, after a few months, IT IS ASKING ME TO PAY AGAIN for their pathetic software. I emailed text support but they refused to help me because "I hurt their feelings." Boo-hoo! Who would not be upset when someone tries to rob you. Don't trust these crooks. I hope they can buy back their souls for the money they steal from their customers.
So far all songs I have downloaded have parts of the song where it completely cuts out all sound, music, voice, etc. I have the Gold Pack service too. There will just be random sections of the songs where nothing is heard then it picks up again skipping part of the song. I put in a ticket with their customer service and it went ignored. They recently had an update to their software but that didn't fix this issue. The converter is useless to me if the songs cut in and out during playback.
They advertise it as absolutely free--but that is only if you like their logo plastered on every single frame of your video. There is no warning about this. After you have spent lots of time cutting out unwanted parts of your video, when you go to look at it is when you discover it. You have to buy the Gold Pack and then start all over. They should be upfront about this on their web page. I feel it is false advertising and definitely not going to make satisfied users. The software is worth the price of the Gold Pack so why not advertise it.
Anyone giving this a decent review is fake or mental. The free version doesn't work at all and I didn't even bother with paying for it after reading all the comments saying that they don't allow you to unsubscribe from the payments. For context on why I say it doesn't work: I wanted to trim off some of a video I recorded that was too big of a file for other free software, but this said it could do it, and although it said the operation would take 2 mins I ended up going to sleep and waking up hours later with it not complete.
Freemake claimed to download videos from certain sites. I was skeptical, but for $1.02 I was willing to try the 1-week trial. As I guessed, their software did not work, and I thought that was it. Then a week later, apparently there was small print that allowed them to charge me another $42 for their product that does not work. It was clearly theft. I am very frustrated, but there is nothing I can do but warn others of their criminal activity. BE WARNED!
Really easy to use, great range of options when converting, you can choose from the full range of Video formats and there is even one called "To Apple" so i don; t even need to know what format my iPad needs, Freemake does it for you. Some very useful optional extras [at a cost] such as removing or editing subtitles - if you are like me, subtitles on a Video drive me insane - and the option to have a high speed conversion if your patience is not up to scratch.
I have never needed to look for an alternative solution to converting Videos as this does exactly what i need.
I bought the seven-day trial, not understanding that they would automatically charge me for the full version after seven days. Most companies will remind you that the trial period is almost over and ask if you want the full version. They did not do this, and said "no" when I asked to have it cancelled for a refund. That being said, the app does perform as advertised. I won't do business with them again, though.
Tip for consumers:
read the fine print very carefully!
This is one of the online scammers around you. When I first used their services, at first it was mentioned that it was free trial, later they asked for a single use subscription of 0.95Euros. Later without my notice, my bank card was charged 39:95 Euros. I did not get any information that I would be obliged to pay for another subscription. When I contacted them through their FASTSPRING BV, ( a company that they use for their transactions), I was told that I had just subscribed to a three year user term and they can't make any refunds.
What a heck do these robbers continue to make online customers vulnerable?
So please be advised right away!
Tip for consumers:
Don’t buy any of their packages. It is a scams and they will still come back and steal your money from the bank
Products used:
Online software
The conversion software is free if you want their trademark in the middle of your video. They have a one week trial for under $2. It worked fine for the one video I wanted to convert. You need to cancel your trial, somehow, or else they will roll you into a $40 lifetime license which there is apparently no way to stop. No notice before this happens. It is a scam unless you have the need to convert a lifetime of videos.
I sent multiple emails and filed a complaint with Paypal. They gave me my money back.
Tip for consumers:
If you do not want to get sucked into a $40 lifetime license, figure out how to cancel your trial membership. Do not wait.
Products used:
Freemake video conversion
This "free" video converter is easy to use and does exactly what it is supposed to. I do recommend it. What you need to know before you purchase any of the trial time periods is that you're signing up for a subscription service. Your payment does remove the obnoxious watermark - you'd never want any of your converted videos to contain the watermark so you'll want to purchase at least a short time trial. Your payment also signs you up for a CONTINUAL subscription - as in they'll charge you again and again for the same amount you initially signed up for until you cancel. Product Support was helpful and prompt in cancelling the subscription, but I had to initiate the contact through email. Summary: solid product - questionable marketing technique. If you know what you're getting into and still proceed, you won't be disappointed.
Extremely buggy software (my PC and OS are up to date), terrible customer service where they wouldn't even reply, and extortionate prices/subscription plans. Beware before buying anything from this company.
Worked great on first project if mine, but didnt perform at all on second project. Also was not impressed with their sneaky tactics. When you use the trial version, you are actually obligated to pay 9.99 for 3 months. Use NERO, I do now.
I installed this simply to download a few old movies I'd found online converted from original VHS format - not available on YouTube, Prime etc. Tried several times and always got a stop error code. Evidently its ONLY compatible with YouTube when it's supposed to be universal. No thanks.
Tip for consumers:
Don't bother
Products used:
Video streaming/download software
First up, this software does offer a 'free' version. The problem with that is that the finished product is unwatchable. They don't tell you that there will be a whopping great watermark in the middle of the screen for the entirety of the video until it's too late. Supposedly you can purchase a one week trial, but when you click on that button, you automatically get directed to a lifetime licence. I'm out.
Products used:
None
I ordered their $1 one week trial and after the first week I was charged $42 for a 3 year license. You cannot cancel that and it looks like it is auto-renewed and I saw no way to even cancel the renewal. I believe this is false advertising. That is too bad because the product seems like it is a good product and works well but the way it is marketed is exactly like a scam.
Tip for consumers:
Watch out for the $1 trial bait and switch.
Products used:
Freemake Video Converter
I tried this software out on what I thought was a free trial, decided within an hour it wasn't what I needed and removed it from my pc. Quite a surprise weeks later, after I returned from a trip where I hadn't had much access to the internet, to find that my credit card had been charged seven times@ $4.95 a week. Evidently I'd agreed to this, though I didn't know I had -- but that's my bad.
I'm giving three stars because it seems, from the brief experience I had with it, to be a good product and because to the company's credit they immediately agreed to cancel my "subscription," accompanying this with a defensive explanation that shows they've been getting a lot of complaints about their practice.
Freemake could certainly do more to explain how it works so people know just what they're getting, for how much, and for how long.
To be fair, while the experience was unpleasant, they did eventually give my money back. I read the legalese and got back to them within the very short trial period. I also found out they are not the worst. I got a good deal from a company I already worked with and was much happier.
This is a great product, for about 5 days, then it stops working and forces you to either pay for a new key or email customer support. I even paid for the Mega Pack/ King/ Gold version. The only phone number was a recording that tells you to go to a website, that has no useful information. To give you an idea of how bad customer support is, I first complained Nov. 1 and am still unresolved 2 weeks later. No way is this Freeware. When you look at those glowing reviews, check the dates. They crippled it early in 2020, probably to take advantage of Covid. Save time and money. Go back to your old hobbies.
Freemake is very slow to download Once a file is downloaded it disappears into some temporary file where it cannot be found I have clicked to try and get it to go videos but still disappears I then have to redownload using another app Freemake is useless
I used freemake for about 7 or 8 years & i thought it was the greatest program i had ever used, i suggested it to everyone because it did EVERYTHING & it was the simplest easiest to use program i knew of... i never had an issue with it, ever... then one day they started nickel & diming... suddenly one day, their name is branded across your video... want it removed? Gotta pay this amount... your video used to take a few hours to convert now it takes over 24 hours? Pay this amount to speed it back up... want to use that feature that you've always used? Now its gonna cost this amount... your dvd used to take an hour to burn? Well now it's going to take more than 24 hours to burn, unless you pay this amount... oh you already paid for all services? Well we're gonna add new features that aren't covered in that so you can pay again... for 7 or 8 years, i rarely ever had to update the program, but now i'm constantly having to DL the new updates to avoid the program crashing but you never know what new changes you're going to get with the updates... it sucks because this is really a great program that is incredibly useful... but the companies new blackmail type of business practice makes it not worth the hassle
Freemake provides quality freeware - Free Video Converter, Free Video Downloader, Free Audio Converter. Download and convert any video or audio free and in two clicks!