New Offer: Expired License People

[reactortrip]

Why are you guys sending out emails to inactive members and calling them active members and telling them they are entitled to the $130 license, but when they come to the site they find out it's $190 because their license is expired.

It's like oh ha ha, you aren't really an active member, we lied to you so you would come to the site and pay the $190. This is utterly ridiculous form of advertising and I am tempted to contact BBB about this.

This pricing is ridiculous and it is utterly retarded that you were charging $250 to previous owners when you were offering $235 new licenses. What kind of treatment is this of buyers of this product. It's clear vbulletin is no longer interested in small forums and pricing themselves beyond the means of little guys out there with the "retail" cost of a new license and that is sad in this economy.

[crichighlights]

I just upgraded and it says it expires in a year... ??? Thought that went away?!

Date is bug currently. It will not expire before VB 5 comes out.

[Tbone]

I just upgraded and it says it expires in a year... ??? Thought that went away?!

[shohin]

Sure, there are answers all over the place.
However, its up to you to congeal it all and IB hopefully prays that you can't figure it out and you will just say the hell with it and and give them the damn money and hope for the best. Welcome to the new owners, shut up and cough up the damn freaking money. Ah....any other questions? If not I was more than happy to be of help.

[GamerGirl27]

I'm sorry if I have overlooked the answer to this somewhere, but I'm wondering the same thing?

I have an inactive owned licence (expired in April this year - 6 months ago) and only want to purchase 4.0 forums, not the suite version.

There's nothing in the new deal offer which addresses any new discounts for the forums upgrade alone. So is one to assume there is no changes with this?

Thanks in advance

Anyone???

[Mitch100degrees]

I'm glad all our complaints are being heard. If we had shut up and sat down like the fan boys wanted then there would be no discount now. This is a step in the right direction for those wanting a suite. I, however, don't want a suite, I want a forum only license. Can we get that option up along with the new suite discount? And surely a discount on that for existing customers expired or not? I don't expect to pay a new customer price as I am not a new customer regardless of my license status.

The explanation of why this is such a rush sale with buggy shopping carts and no demo and why blog owners don't get a discount would also help a lot to solve this PR nightmare.

[Floris]

The new expired license discount offers will be updated on vbulletin.com site in next day or so. Once it's live on the web site, all eligible users will receive an email notifying them that it's live and available for purchase. You'd need to log in via http://www.vbulletin.com/order/index.php to get the discounted price once it's live.

Ian, all issues are being passed to the higher ups especially if you follow the advice to submit a support ticket for your concerns. Until there's word from them probably need to wait.

Is this active yet?

[GamerGirl27]

What if you just want the forum and not the suite?

I'm sorry if I have overlooked the answer to this somewhere, but I'm wondering the same thing?

I have an inactive owned licence (expired in April this year - 6 months ago) and only want to purchase 4.0 forums, not the suite version.

There's nothing in the new deal offer which addresses any new discounts for the forums upgrade alone. So is one to assume there is no changes with this?

Thanks in advance

[mk484]

I have two licenses, one active & inactive. They fixed the bug for the active license upgrade, but it looks like they still haven't fixed the bug for the inactive ugrade option yet. I still cannot upgrade my inactive license. And yes, is good to see that they are listening to us.

[turbe]

As far as I can see, it hasn't been updated yet, 250$ is still the only option I am given. But even if it were updated to 190$, it would still be 60$ more than is being advertised ("Upgrade to 4.0 Publishing Suite, get $120 off").
But well, at least they put a heart logo next to it, that's certainly as good as money, right?

But you would have had to spend $30 before maintenance expired, $40 within 60 days of expire or $60 after 60 days of expired.

So, for those like me that expired earlier this year, it's the same upgrade price ($130 + $60 renewal = $190 Suite upgrade). I could of saved $30 if I renewed before then end of expire (small penalty to pay).

Now, for $235 vs $190, you can simply buy a 2nd 'NEW' License for $235 and have 2 complete vB Licenses (1 for up to v3.8 and 1 for v4.0 Suite). The $45 may be a better deal for some (there may be use for a 2nd License).

[alpha]

Every company has different licensing policies, that's just a fact. Comparing won't get you very far if each company uses a different license (aka revenue) model.

Yes, I agree that every company has a right to change their licensing policies (and not surprisingly after being bought out) but it does not mean we, as customers of the legacy Jelsoft, have to agree to it blindly. I'm in no way saying that vBulletin had no right to change their license. It is just confounding to me how the new licensing scheme looks like it was stitched together at the last minute and they are still trying to stitch together more conditionals to "fix" it.

It would be different had vBulletin been the one and only software that can do what it can do; however, vBulletin has competitors that (so far) does not strong-arm its legacy customers. In fact, I've read in the competitor's forum that they might consider having a "conversion" sale presumably because they realize vBulletin's new licensing scheme does not make much sense in their industry. If I was part of the marketing team for the competition, I would have a field day with this.

Every public company should be balancing the triangle of customers, shareholders, and employees. It is very obvious that the balance has strongly shifted away from the customers to (try to) benefit the shareholders and the employees with their bottom line. Every smart public company, on the other hand, will get their customers' feedback and make the necessary changes. The ball is in their court.

Is that true ? I dont remember buying new licenses while upgrading my forums.

Technically, it can be true because you can be asked to read and agree to a new EULA in the 'upgrade' process. My example of the OS upgrades is slightly different but still an applicable example because there is a distinct difference between the cost of upgrading an existing license versus the cost of a full retail license.

[sensimilla]

Are you an idiot? Most every single major software mfg. (consumer or not) requires you to purchase new licenses for a new version. In most cases, if you have an active license agreement, you can usually upgrade. In other cases, you have to buy a new license when that new version is released.

And everyone here, that's been around since the early days has upgraded from Verison 1 to Version 2 and then to Version 3 with a, wait for it..... a NEW LICENSE.

Is that true ? I dont remember buying new licenses while upgrading my forums.

[George L]

As far as I can see, it hasn't been updated yet, 250$ is still the only option I am given. But even if it were updated to 190$, it would still be 60$ more than is being advertised ("Upgrade to 4.0 Publishing Suite, get $120 off").
But well, at least they put a heart logo next to it, that's certainly as good as money, right?

The new expired license discount offers will be updated on vbulletin.com site in next day or so. Once it's live on the web site, all eligible users will receive an email notifying them that it's live and available for purchase. You'd need to log in via http://www.vbulletin.com/order/index.php to get the discounted price once it's live.

Ian, all issues are being passed to the higher ups especially if you follow the advice to submit a support ticket for your concerns. Until there's word from them probably need to wait.

[ENF]

I agree with alfa, he explained the licensing problem very well.

ENF, maybe it's better if you have to change job :P

There's nothing wrong with my job.

Every company has different licensing policies, that's just a fact. Comparing won't get you very far if each company uses a different license (aka revenue) model.

[Ian99]

This helps some - but they have ignored the issues for people with blogs and the timescale.

ignoring a problem, does not make it go away