At 08:11 AM 12/14/01 +0100, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >Hi [...] Our company has bought additional >licenses in July 2001. I think there is one year ATS included.
Unless Altium/Protel sales represented otherwise for a particular customer, ATS has not been included in P99SE licenses purchased before October 1, 2001. I've never been fond of sudden drop-off dates unless they are announced in advance. In this case, Protel retroactively issued ATS to purchasers before the announcement, by about a month. That was nice. What is not nice is that the cost to purchasers just before that date is drastic. I'd suggest to Protel that the cost of jumping a cut-off date be limited to a certain cost per month. That would clearly be fair if the cost were low enough. I'd suggest $200 per month or fraction of a month before October 1, which is certainly a tad more, but not a lot more than the planned ATS cost. Altium could announce the right of pre-Oct 1 purchasers to purchase one year of ATS for their license, expiring Oct 1, 2002, for $200 per month for month or part-month that their license purchase preceded Oct 1, 2001. This offer could be time-limited. If you bought in July, you could buy into ATS as if you had purchased Oct 1 for a payment of $600 per license. (Sometimes I think Protel discounts multiple licenses, but I won't consider that.) If Altium were to announce the upgrade pricing for pre-Oct 1 licensees, a lot of discomfort among users could be avoided (or, unfortunately, if the pricing is too high, discomfort could be increased, but in any case sooner is better). Then users could decide and, in fact, they could buy ATS immediately, particularly if such voluntary purchasers had ATS dated from the release of Phoenix, which is when they would have otherwise purchased it. Enlightened users and enlightened companies have a convergence of interests. We need Altium to be successful, it is a disaster for us if they are not. And Altium obviously needs us to be happy with the software and the company, whether or not they realize it. Some users will complain about almost anything the company does, but most of us will be satisfied with what is fair. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Abdulrahman Lomax Easthampton, Massachusetts USA * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 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] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
