Posting this as a warning for anyone considering the Certum EV Code Signing Kit.TL;DR:The EV kit never worked, despite months of troubleshooting with Certum support. When I requested a refund, they refused, citing the 14-day policy even though the product had never been functional and support themselves dragged the process out.Full story:I purchased Certum’s EV Code Signing Certificate + hardware kit for production use. From day one, it did not work.Over several months, I followed every instruction provided by Certum support:Reinstalled and updated proCertum CardManager repeatedlyInstalled official smart card reader driversTested on multiple environments, including a brand-new Windows PC and macOSTried different USB ports, no hubsGenerated and submitted multiple diagnostic reportsThe diagnostics consistently showed the smart card as present but non-responsive, which strongly points to a hardware-level defect.Despite this:Support kept looping me through the same troubleshooting stepsNo working replacement was providedThe EV kit never reached a usable state for code signingAfter months of delay and blocked releases, I switched to another EV provider. Code signing worked immediately under the same environment. That confirmed the issue was specific to Certum’s hardware.At that point, I requested a refund.Certum refused, stating that more than 14 days had passed since purchase.What they ignored:The issue was reported shortly after purchaseTheir own support process dragged on for monthsThe product never worked as advertised at any pointSo the logic was essentially:“Yes, it never worked — but we spent long enough failing to fix it, so now it’s non-refundable.”Why this matters:EV code signing is critical infrastructure. When it fails, it blocks CI, releases, and production timelines. A broken EV kit is not a minor inconvenience. It costs real time and real money.My takeaway:If something goes wrong with Certum’s EV hardware, you’re stuck in a slow support loop — and once enough time passes, they’ll hide behind the 14-day policy even if the product was never usable.Posting this so others don’t lose months and money the way I did.
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