vB Forum 4.0 upgrade no longer free!

[ChopSuey]

Untill it expires, then you'll loose access to newer updates.

Thought it was Lose? Spell check

[rldoughjr]

This whole scheme is way too confusing. Too many real and perceived inconsistencies. Too much depends on timing; luck v. brand loyalty; active v. inactive and leased v. owned. I've never seen such a mess over a simple upgrade.

[eitnier]

I don't understanding anything

This new pricing scheme is so ridiculous. I have read through this twenty times and my head is spinning. Can someone from vBulletin write it all down in one easily accessible place and put all the conditions in one posting, including future options.

I don't know who is behind all these changes at vBulletin, but they clearly don't know anything about providing good customer service. There is a lot of anger out there about these changes and deleting postings won't solve the problems. Some decent explanations about new policies might help. Right now you look like a bunch of kids trying to run a business.

[masterme]

Pesonaly, I am getting lost too.
Must say that I am happy to see the staff is replying here.

At this monent I see it like this, please correct me if I am wrong ok?

I am not sure, but as I see it now, upgrading is more expencive than buying a new one (4.0 ofcourse). Why? Well, the deal is that you have to pay $175 (forum license only, not suite!)when your current license exprires to get acces to unlimited upgrades. But, when you buy a new one instantly, you are ready and have a nice deal because the discount AND you still have a older license beside that. So 2 licenses instead of one for the price of $190 (for the suite!)

Maybe I am seeing this wrong, but I do think this is the best deal.

Is this a correct vision or not?

[PamelaE]

I love VB and have found everyone really helpful, some going beyond the call of duty to get my issues sorted out.

But I am a little disspointed that a product is on sale and not available to see. I feel like Im being asked to buy a car that I can't see until maybe a month or perhaps 6 months after I have paid for it.

I understand the changes that have been made and I completely appreciate its a business. I have been in hospital for a while, came back today to upgrade and was "now what?"

Anyway I hope to find a solution before the 30th when the time runs out.

So can I be clear that for forum is going to be $175.00?

[rldoughjr]

Current active 3.x gets you Forums 4.x until your annual renewal date, then must purchase license. Currently $175 on special, but not available yet. Who know's what it will be in several months. If you don't pay that, then you cannot use 4.x any longer. You can cont to use your 3.x, but only supported until 4.2 comes out. Then you are on your own as far as bug and security fixes (dead product).

[jbart04]

Here's my thoughts on what they are trying to do. They are trying to make the suite cheaper than the partial download (forum) because come time for 5.0, they are going to JACK UP the prices on the suite. And I'm willing to bet that they have made it so that you will NOT be able to downgrade back to the forums. So once you are using the suite, you can never go back to just the forums. Therefore, you are either stuck with 4.0 suite or pay something like $500 for 5.0 suite.

[Powerboatie]

I am a huge fan of VB. I own 5 licences - some up to date and some last updated 1 to 2 years ago.

I want to ensure that all 5 sites are now upgraded to the latest VB software and I also want to buy 5 new licences for 5 new websites I hope to launch in coming weeks.

I have never ever seen anything so convoluted and confusing as this "launch".



I have read and reread every thing and I still don't know how to go about (or even if it is now possible to):

• Immediately upgrade the software on my 5 existing sites
• Purchase software for immediate use on my 5 new sites
• If I pay for upgrade or new licences what do I get and when do I get it and how long is it good for and how much more must I spend each year

I haven't even mentioned money wasted? on recent upgrades as I'm fortunate enough to have the financial luxury of not being too price sensitive. However I can understand the anger and upset of owners of small non commercial forums who must really feel deeply betrayed by VB.

As an experienced business owner,I can assure you that if I was CEO of VB, I'd have this issue sorted in one afternoon and the crisis converted into a win win for both past customers and VB4 sales!

Allowing yourselves to be beaten down and backtracked by customers by begrudgingly giving tiny bits of ground is a strategy doomed to failure.

My suggestion is to make a bold about turn that leaves your existing customers smiling and rushing to buy or pre buy VB 4.

Give some simple case studies to indicate how and why Johhny with a current VB licence and Mary with a 12 month expired VB licence should proceed with upgrades as if you were in their shoes. Take each case study through to VB5.

Stuart

[nyfoto]

Untill it expires, then you'll loose access to newer updates.

So my real next upgrade price is what ? (If I own 3.8 and it expires.)


seems like My upgrade price went way up for this year because I was a long term customer. I would of liked to see a normal upgrade price and I wouldent even mention that my old blog is useless.

[The Smoking Gun!]

1. You paid $180 for an owned license. This means you get access to 3.8.X as well as 4.0 when it is delivered. You will receive all versions released until your current license expires. vBulletin 3.8 will be supported until vBulletin 4.2 is released according to the published support schedule here:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=320185

2. This is correct.

3. Only if you didn't upgrade to Suite as optioned in 2. If you upgrade to Suite under the sale now, you won't have to buy anything else until vBulletin 5.0 is available.

But this says nothing for those of us who just bought 3.84 AND Blog for which going to 4.0 albeit no charge we lose the money spent on the blog just a few weeks ago....this is insane!!!!

What will be the concession on their part for this type of situation?????

I threw away the money on the blog ,that you are no longer supporting or developing for, but you had no problem taking money for it KNOWING it would be a complete waste on my part, since I too was following the advice here about NOT waiting to buy, because it would afford us the best vantage point as far as cost efficiency goes!

Now that turns out to be a bold faced LIE and the licenses I bought under are now considered misrepresentation of products and services.

Has all ethics and integrity of this community's founders gone out the windows???? And yes that is an inference to Micro**** for being the same way!!!

I guess you are all proud to be in the big leagues now, and can now forget about the little peole for which, with out them, you wouldn't have had a 3.0 let alone a 4.0 what form of gratitude is this supposed to be?

I'm really sorry if I sound like this is a sour post but I work very hard for my money, and need it to go far, which is why I didn't wait, not having a clue you were discontinuing the blog, for which you REALLY had no right to be selling for even the last 6 months with a one year of update and blog releases that we already in the dust bin, knowing you were obsolescing it!

You should give recent combined licenses a free suite upgrade even if we don't need the CMS as it is the only honorable way to live up to the licenses we purchased under, and don't go in to the tirade about having the right to change the terms, because although you DO have that right those changes only apply to those purchasing under that license, those purchasing under the original license bind you to those terms as well as it does us, but you are breaching those license terms, and if this ends up in a legal battle, you will lose hands down, because no court would support such unethical marketing and sales practices. In fact they are liable to cite you for selling the blog licenses under false pretenses, since that is essentially what you did to anyone purchasing it in the past year if that is the term of the license, which it is represented as being.

I hope you squeezed out enough dough from us "suckers" to pay all the legal fees you will be facing, if this is not amicably resolved!

TSG

[Wayne Luke]

Can I ask the logic of this, I bought two full licences from you, and have one active and one not, now I paid $160 each (I think?) for these licences many moons ago, I have paid for the annual renewal to continue the latest releases etc, now I am looking at the above and seeing someone who has a leased licence that costs about half what I paid getting the same upgrade cost option as me, surely that cannot be right?

Traditionally leased licenses were the more expensive option over time. This is why they are offered the same deal.

I have put money into vBulletin over the years, and my upgrade option for my inactive licence is $250, buying a completely new licence costs $235, sorry but you don't seem to know what you are doing.

The most you'll pay to upgrade an inactive license to the Suite during this sale event is $210.00. This change has been applied to the shopping cart already. After the sale, everyone will pay $250.00, active or not

Also why should we pay you money in advance of the product with absolutely no release date? I really do think you can do a hell of lot better for your existing customers who has more than one licence!

This is the only discount that is being presented at this time.

[The Smoking Gun!]

I just came from my license upgrade screen and if I am reading this right....with the already high prices, whichever route you take that is currently available to get a 4.0 instance, the ticket and email support now is an additional cost to us as well???

vB forum only.....discounted at $195 for which, just a few months ago I paid $180 for my forum only license, and now i have to pay this to get the upgrade that should be included for buying anyone buying an owned license in less than one year ago!

• Indefinite software license
• Free updates for this version
• Discounts for next version upgrades
• Free forum support

Support by email & on line support ticket system, for one year. Cost is $80.00


However if we upgrade to the suite...discounted at $235, on top of my just paying $240 for forum plus Blog, about three or four weeks ago, and now I am to pay all this just to have what I paid more for already???

• Indefinite software license
• Includes Forums, Blogs, and CMS modules
• Free updates for this version
• Discounts for next version upgrades
• Free forum and ticket support
• Total value: $495

Also am I mistaken that 3.8x owned licenses include email and ticket support for the first year?
And that this is an additional revision of the licensing?

Talk about adding insult to injury...unless I am not understanding this properly.

Someone please clarify!

TSG!

[The Smoking Gun!]

Traditionally leased licenses were the more expensive option over time. This is why they are offered the same deal.

The most you'll pay to upgrade an inactive license to the Suite during this sale event is $210.00. This change has been applied to the shopping cart already. After the sale, everyone will pay $250.00, active or not

This is the only discount that is being presented at this time.

I think it rather curious how you managed to ignore those many many people in my shoes, also as a result of listening to YOUR advice to not wait, to make a purchase or renewal!!!

Did you not SEE my post in with these others that you quoted in your response?

Or are you just so ashamed of your insistence for us to go ahead and throw our money in the trash???

If you are a company staff member then address this issue, if you are not a member of the company staff then you had NO RIGHT telling us not to wait to make our purchases, and represent yourself to appear to be "in the know", unless you too lack ethics and integrity as Jelsoft and IB have represented themselves to having lost sight of, when you didn't even hint at to us to pass on buying the blog, or waste our money!!!!

This is VERY poor character for all of those defending these changes as fair with your "canned spin" such as "this is the only discount being offered at this time" What the heck is that supposed to mean? That by saying "at this time" we are to relieve you of any further responsibility in what you are saying when those who act on the current discount, which is sorely insufficient for those who DID make a very recent purchase based on your insistence it would be better for us, and then in a few weeks IB comes to it's senses and offers more fair disounts for recently purchased owned licenses, including blog, then those who reacted quickly as you all are limiting discounts to be taken before the end of the month, or pay full boat, and they get left in the dust but you said "at this time" insinuating you are not SURE of what is coming or not in the way of fixing so many currently fragile relationships with all of you!

TSG!

[aboali9]

Under the terms of your active 3.X license, you can upgrade to vBulletin 4.X for free.

yes but that option is not available!

[Andreas]

yes but that option is not available!

It is "available" automatically:

You just have do do nothing and will get access to vBulletin 4 Classic under the terms of your old license, eg. you can download whatever the latest version is as long as your license is active.