At 03:13 PM 12/5/2001 -0500, Brian Guralnick wrote: > Usually when I purchase any software, or hardware, from any other > vendor, I can >get support for free almost indefinitely without having to renew some sort of >membership.
Actually, indefinite support is, in my experience, the exception rather than the rule. We are all using one of the Microsoft operating systems. As I recall, free support for that is limited to a few months from first contact. My wife's business uses a very common accounting program, support is free for a few months, after that it is pretty expensive. And all the other major CAD vendors charge plenty for support. Protel was an exception. While I am concerned that the ATS charge seems high compared to the software purchase price, we don't really know where that price is going to settle. I am much more concerned about all the confusion that comes from uncertainty about where all this is going; supposedly on of the purposes of ATS is to make it easy to budget. Hey! It's not easy yet! I'm hearing reports of users bailing or at least researching alternatives. I'm trying to figure out why all the secrecy and mystery. Obviously, a company needs to preserve some flexibility, and when there is a sale, there is always the customer who bought just before the sale who is irritated. If a sale were announced in advance, obviously purchasers would wait unless they absolutely had to have it TODAY. So the company might as well announce the sale immediately. Sometimes, however, companies will issue a credit to purchasers who bought just before a sale was announced. If a sale involves a small savings, it is not very important, but 20%, .... What my wife has done in her business has been to issue a credit to the customer against future purchases. Companies have sales to jumpstart cash flow or move inventory. The latter motivation is not particularly relevant to the software industry. By issuing a credit instead of making a refund, the customer is kept happy and immediately cash flow is not negatively impacted. Altium did this to a small degree with the ATS announcement. It was back-dated about a month, as I recall. One buyer wrote about missing the deadline by a day or two. We don't yet know the impact of that, because we don't yet know the true value of ATS, we only know what upgrades *including* ATS are costing. It seems pretty unlikely that a P98 upgrader is getting the upgrade free and ATS for $1995. We had been expecting the next upgrade to be $995 or so. Protel, for the last few years, has only had modest "sales," i.e. price reductions, and it is sudden price reductions that get buyers angry if they missed them. Instead, Protel has announced price *increases* well in advance. This has a similar effect to a sale in that it will stimulate fence-sitters to make a purchase decision, but it does not cause any ill will. Anyway, it is obvious that if a company needs to lower a price temporarily (or permanently), or offer some extra substantial benefit, which amounts to the same thing, it must announce it on a certain date. Those who buy before that date may just be out of luck unless the company accomodates them in some way. I'd suggest a certain period before the sale date where those who purchased within that period get some benefit, not as great as the sale benefit or price reduction, but something that makes the difference not so drastic. For example, Protel 99SE purchasers in the three months prior to October 1 might get ATS at half price if they buy it within, say, three months of the ATS for pre-10/01 licensees announcement. This will not only mollify them but it may actually stimulate ATS sales for that group.... As to those of us who bought Protel even before that, we have had the use of the program, which is probably worth a few hundred dollars a month, at least for serious users. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
