Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
leebut
So what? It's a like-for-like swap. Retail for retail, so there should be an upgrade for upgrade as well.
You should get your facts straight before you start accusing us of unfair practices.
In August and September, we were running 50% off upgrade specials at our Store. A SONAR X1 Producer customer could upgrade to SONAR X2 Producer for $49. Now, when SONAR X3 came out, the upgrade price from SONAR X2 Producer to SONAR X3 Producer was $149. The total paid would have been $198.
Now if you had chosen to wait, then you could have upgraded from SONAR X1 Producer to SONAR X3 Producer for $199. The price difference is $1, in favor of those that took the 50% offer. There is no need to have a free upgrade. This was not unfair at all. It would have been unfair to customers who adopted early to have the pay $149 for their upgrade and have customers who upgraded later in the cycle get the same product for $49. So sorry, but no free upgrade.
At retail, starting September 1st, SONAR X2 was at full price. People who purchased it at full price starting on this date will get a free update because this is fair. That also includes people who may have not known about X3 after we launched and found a copy of X2 on the shelves.
Prior to September 1, we ran an instant rebate on SONAR X2 retail which again offsets the cost for the upgrade to X3 much like it did with upgrade sales at Cakewalk.com.
So therefore, I totally disagree with you and think what you are saying is factually incorrect.
We are very fair to our existing customers (and always will be).
I was not making accusations of unfair practices. I was asking questions, not making statements. The line you quoted is not an accusation but a phrase suggesting what I believe to be the right thing, hence the word, 'should'. You will see later that I was being factual.
I was not discussing upgrading from a product years old (X1) to the new one (X3), but X2, a product purchased very recently, prior to an unknown and non-disclosed release date of X3 of the same type, meaning that the consumer pays for the upgrade twice, rather than to upgrade once at less cost.
I thought the X2 Essential SALE price was in a genuine sale, not what I now think was just an event to claw people in to buy a product that was knowingly (to Cakewalk only, despite numerous requests for information and refusals to supply it) going to be superseded a few weeks later.
My purchase of X2 Essential in the sale was £35.00
Had I KNOWN that Sonar X3 was coming out (People on this forum asked, but Cakewalk refused to be transparent), I would have waited a few weeks and only paid £39.00 for it. The total cost of my upgrade now will be £74.00. Now, how is paying almost twice as much fair, for the sake of a few weeks?
Now, my purchase was made 11th Aug, so was not in the qualifying period anyway. However, the situation may be different for those who purchased X2 in September.
All the best,
Lee.