Okay, I think I know where we are not understanding each other. In my code

$ftp->get("$directory.thedir","C:\\temp\\ftp")
    || die "get failed ", $ftp->message;
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"thedir" is the name of my file. It's not the real name of the file but I should have used a better name in my example. Sorry about that.

I have tried the following and still get the same error. The file does not have an extension.

$ftp->get("$directory.thefile","C:\\temp\\ftp")
$ftp->get("$directory.thefile","C:\\temp\\ftp\\thefile")
$ftp->get("$directory.thefile","C:\\temp\\ftp\\thefile.txt")
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I didn't try them all at once but put them together here to save space.