After 1 year..

[Dimava]

If i have a 1-year licence and then I want to get the non expiring licence, can I just pay the diffrence or do I have to pay $160

(i already have 2 non permenant licences, but i'm just wondering)

-Dimava

[MUG]

If you upgrade within 30 days, you pay $85 extra. After 30 days, its $160.

[Dimava]

thats what I thought too, but:

Originally posted by smachol
you will need to stop running your forums after one year unless you renew the license or convert to the owned one.

so i'm a bit confused

-Dimava

[nuno]

Seems pretty clear to me. :)

[Dimava]

so what does "or convert to the owned one"

[JamesUS]

Convert simply means pay the full $160 to 'upgrade' your existing license to an owned one. I agree that it needs some clarification.

[Cary]

But, wouldn't the smarter thing to do, after 30 days, instead of converting you buy a new owned license?

It's the same price, plus you get to get your leased license until it expires

[tubedogg]

A lot of people seem confused by the leased license, or can't understand why it is not cheaper to upgrade to an owned license at the end of the year. The leased license is like borrowing a vBulletin license. You are renting it for a year. The reason there's no deal on going to an owned license is simple - your leased license is no longer worth anything at the end of the year, and you have to buy another license, either leased or owned, to even continue running vBulletin. In essence there is no difference between the cost of a full owned license and the cost to "upgrade" at the end of the year - your leased license is worth $0, and $160-$0 is $160.

Does that make more sense?

[tubedogg]

Originally posted by Cary
But, wouldn't the smarter thing to do, after 30 days, instead of converting you buy a new owned license?There is no way to convert to an owned license. After 30 days to get an owned license you simply purchase one. If you already have a leased license it is still valid for the year no matter what else you purchase after it or when you do so.

[Dimava]

ok got it

[camoboy]

Originally posted by tubedogg
A lot of people seem confused by the leased license, or can't understand why it is not cheaper to upgrade to an owned license at the end of the year. The leased license is like borrowing a vBulletin license. You are renting it for a year. The reason there's no deal on going to an owned license is simple - your leased license is no longer worth anything at the end of the year, and you have to buy another license, either leased or owned, to even continue running vBulletin. In essence there is no difference between the cost of a full owned license and the cost to "upgrade" at the end of the year - your leased license is worth $0, and $160-$0 is $160.

Does that make more sense? I think that's pretty mean...it may be worth $0 at the end of the year but as a goodwill gesture and to attempt to keep more customers I think you should at least consider some kind of incentive to leased-licence holders, such as a discount on an owned licence for future years.

Let's be honest, you're already charging $160 for something when there are pleanty around for $0 and your customer service leaves a lot to be desired by the looks of it.

[tubedogg]

I'm sorry you feel the customer service is lacking. I notice however that you don't own a license, so I assume that you have never used it? Assuming that's the case, why would you say something like that, when you don't know for yourself whether that's the case or not? It is very hurtful to those of us who spend hours upon hours each day helping customers to have a non-customer who has no idea of the situation come in and say something like that.

No one is forcing you to use vB. You can use any one of the free alternatives. However when the next free one goes away, or you decide that they simply don't provide all the features that vB does, feel free to come back and go with the best.

[camoboy]

It doesn't matter to me because as you rightly point out I do not own a licence. However, I was a co-admin for a vB site so I had access to the members area and so forth.

It was just a general observation on some of the responses I have seen over the months from some of the staff on these forums. I'm not saying you in particular, just the overall impression I get is that the customers are viewed as an inconvenience, a necessary evil if you will because of the patronising undertone in some of the posts.

I apologise for casting aspersions as that may indeed be what I'm doing, it's just the impression I have gathered watching from the sidelines. And as a potential customer I'm sure you'll agree that's not a good impression to have given me.

I still think it would make good business sense to offer a discount on an owned licence to leased-licensed users. You say in essence it isn't worth anything; I think it is worth something. It's worth the loyalty that customer has shown to you. When they could have gone elsewhere and paid nothing, they came to you. I think that's worth 20 bucks off an owned licence. But, that's up to you of course :)

[N9ne]

Actually the customer support here is outstanding because you always get a reply within 20 minutes MAX, normally in 2 minutes! They don't give up until the matter is solved either, they spend endless hours helping us and that's what you give back to them:rolleyes:

[camoboy]

Well, I am now a customer so we shall soon find out...

[Levelord]

Originally posted by N9ne
Actually the customer support here is outstanding because you always get a reply within 20 minutes MAX, normally in 2 minutes! They don't give up until the matter is solved either, they spend endless hours helping us and that's what you give back to them:rolleyes:

20 minutes? lol, more like an 80 minutes. I waited a few days ago for an error.. posted in 2 different categories (where it belonged), waited 40 minutes apart.. before posting the 2nd one (in hope of being answered).. then, still wasn't..

then, a moderator says 'plz don't post twice about the same thing in different area'.. well, maybe if I was answered in the first thread before I collected social security.. I wouldn't have posted a 2nd post in another area

that was my last experience with trouble I had. I hope next time it's a quicker response...

[tubedogg]

The forums are not customer support, though you will often get an answer here. If you require customer support login to the member's area and submit a support ticket.

[Levelord]

Originally posted by tubedogg
The forums are not customer support, though you will often get an answer here. If you require customer support login to the member's area and submit a support ticket.

ah.. one of the more quicker, responsive, nicer ; team members :) sorry for the complaint.

[camoboy]

Originally posted by tubedogg
The forums are not customer support, though you will often get an answer here. If you require customer support login to the member's area and submit a support ticket. I didn't know that, my apologies for my previous aspertions.

[CyberMoa]

Originally posted by camoboy
I didn't know that, my apologies for my previous aspertions.

Yeah camo wait till we really have something to complain about. :p

Still fiddling about with this licence carry on. Okay l work for an IBM var so am pretty knowledgeable on EULAs. The fact of the matter is that no one ever owns a piece of software they buy, they are actually purchasing a licence to use the software..

l may have misread the EULA wrong for vBulletin but got the impression that regardless of which type of licence you buy, you only get 1 year from date of purchase to download upgrades etc.

Therefore we made the decision to go with the 1 year licence and renew each year. Hoping l didn't get this one wrong, or l might get a good spanking from camo....

[tubedogg]

Correct, each license only comes with one year of upgrades. The difference is with the owned license, it is only $30 per year after the first year to continue downloading upgrades, whereas you have to buy a new license to even continue *using* vB with the leased license.

[CyberMoa]

Think we may need to upgrade our licence then...

Thanks tubedogg, now all l need is to find where l stored all the registration details...