Brother BES Embroidery Lettering Software

I bought ELS a couple of months ago and was severely disappointed! I thought I'd finally be able to use all the fonts I've bought from embroidery file designers, but was not. It was a waste of money! So I got BES for only $50 more than I got ELS. Sooo much better!!! I just got it 2 days ago, and the difference is HUGE! So many more pre-loaded fonts, plus designs including frames and applique. I LOVE that I can merge as many files as I want vs the ELS where you can only merge one file. Another bonus is that you can actually edit files with BES. I didn't even know I could do that until I actually just stared playing around with it. This is great for me because my sister bought me a file to stitch out on a shirt for her, but my machine will not read the file because it's a 6x10 and my PE 770 only goes up to 5x7. Of course you can't return a file once you buy it so I felt like I was out of luck with that. With BES, I was able to re-size it down to 5x7! I'm so excited! I haven't stitched it out yet, but I'm hoping it stitches out nicely. BES is a perfect starter program for someone who's just getting started or just embroidering as a hobby (like me). I didn't buy it from Amazon, but decided to review it here since there's only one review and it doesn't really say anything at all about the software. Like I said, I JUST got it 2 days ago and so far I love it. I know there are a lot more features than I mentioned but I'm just getting to know the software so I can't really talk about much more than this. It's too bad that amazons price for BES is so high. I got it for $200 less elsewhere, and I can install it on 2 computers. ELS can be installed on 3 computers.

About a year ago, my computer crashed. I got a new one running XP and installed this software on it. Since XP is now unsupported and vulnerable to cyber attack, I upgraded to Windows 7. When I tried to run this software, I got an error saying I ran out of licenses. I called customer service and after an hour on hold I was told that 2 licenses is all you get. They'll give me 1 courtesy license and then "Oh well, so sad". I had this same licensing issue with Microsoft Office but they understood that computers crash and operating systems become obsolete and require updating. They gave me a new key on the spot.Quite unlike how the process of obtaining this courtesy key has been so far. I had to go through the registration process again, read off the activation serial number and then the site key. Now the rep is waiting to get an email back from the software company. When she gets it she'll call me with it. In the meantime, I can't exit the program or else the site key will change and the activation key won't work and it will be three strikes and I'm out.Caveat Emptor

I didn't purchase it from Amazon. I was given it as a promotion deal when I purchased my embroidery machine Brother 780D. I've downloaded the program and I'm usually pretty knowledgeable about using software. But have had difficulty with this one. Finally got it downloaded and followed all directions and was able to resize a monogram.I was very disappointed in how it stitched.. You can also purchase for $1.00 each all the fonts you might want on Embroidery Library online. They stitch out much, much better than the BES program. I have not taken the lessons yet for this program, so I might wind up being very pleased with this software, but I doubt it. Hard to figure out and difficult to use. And in the end the letter doesn't look that nice. I'd rather just purchase a large letter for the middle and then two smaller letters for either end from the Embroiderylibrary.com. That works well and the stitching looks much better.

Loved this program after I learned it but like others, I upgraded my computers and went through the process of "parking" the license but it would not work correctly. I contacted Brother's customer service and they refused to help me get it to my new computer even though I went through their recommended process for parking the license and it didn't work. They said after two installs, they wouldn't help me. Love the program but HUGE waste of money!! Very disappointed with the customer service on this program!!!!!

Do not buy! It won’t load most of the time! Customer service does not care!

I have had to install this program 3 times on my computer because of a problem where I have to reinstall it. However, even though you pay $400+ for the program it only lets you load it 3 times!! I now can't load it anymore. The program works well and was easy to use, but what is the use of it keeps having problems. Do not buy this program!!!!

Waste of money. Would give 0 stars if I could. Purchased, loaded, computer crashed, loaded again, computer died, got new computer and now it is worthless! Customer service stinks and basically said sorry you can only activate two times. Do your self a favor and keep searching. Too much money to throw away. The program itself is also not all that user friendly. Wished I wld have listened to others.

I ordered the Bes lettering software and received themonogramming suite. I installed before noticing error.company would not exchange after it was installed. Very disappointed. Stated it was displayed incorrect