Ticket support prices - Price Hike

[sparky]

Could someone please explain to me the rationality of how Ticket support for 1yr was $80.00 on Monday, yet by Wednesday (all the purchase options are removed) and it's now suddenly $199.00 per/yr

I can appreciate a small increase but what it this price hike all about?

[Mark.B]

My personal view....they are bringing this into line with a lot of IT and software products in the enterprise field now.

Working as I do in IT, $199 for a year is a bargain for the level of support you get (they do go way beyond).
Where I work, support of a similar level is sold on a per hour basis, but it works out at £850 for a *day*.

[beishe8]

$199 for a year is a bargain for the level of support you get (they do go way beyond).

"you get" now.

Tomorrow? No tickets, no support team.
A few volunteer can do all the support.
More profit.

[Mark.B]

"you get" now.

Tomorrow? No tickets, no support team.
A few volunteer can do all the support.
More profit.

Maybe. Given that the support team has been expanded recently I would doubt that's the plan, I think the plan is certainly more profit (nothing wrong with that in itself) by charging more for the support itself.

Not saying I agree or disagree with the idea, just saying....it's pretty normal in the industry now.

[Stallyon]

I work for a telco that charges $338 to get your ADSL professionally installed. That only takes a few hours. $199 for a year of unlimited support is pretty reasonable.

[sparky]

I've worked in IT for excess of 20 years in support to disaster recovery implementation and agree that $199 for 1yr is not excessive but the price hike all of a sudden is, regardless of whether they're bringing into line or not. I guess you can also take into consideration how many technical queries are resloved on the forum whith negates so my need for support to get involved. Is IB on a mission to hack the majority of its clientele off in one foul swoop reading all the negativity recently.

It doesn't help when you're completely corporate budgetary requirements, then without prior notification prices increase, regardless of the amount.

[Zachery]

I understand a lot of you see this as a hike, however previously, this same level of support cost 300 dollars for a year. Phone support has always included ticket support, some of our customers opted for it. Now all customers who purchase a support contract get it.

We've got two options 1 month 50~ usd, and 12 month, 200~ usd.

[sparky]

Come again, because that makes no sense whatsoever. If you only had the forum software, you could add Ticket Support for $80.00

How is this not a price hike?

[g00gl3r]

I swear it used to be free for ticket support all day long, every day, all year. ??

[Stallyon]

I swear it used to be free for ticket support all day long, every day, all year. ??

And Gasoline used to be 80¢ per gallon in the USA at some stage too.

[Wayne Luke]

Come again, because that makes no sense whatsoever. If you only had the forum software, you could add Ticket Support for $80.00

How is this not a price hike?

The $80.00 product didn't include phone support. This does include phone support, which was much higher cost in the past. Basically the $80 product is no longer available. We no longer sale simple ticket support. The new support products replace both that and phone support.


But yes, it costs more. We still offer free forum support.

[oldlock]

It would not be so bad, expect that the product is likely to be as buggy as hell for months / years and as such the support (if your crazy enough to use the product live) is likely to be essential for a looooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg time.

[sparky]

The $80.00 product didn't include phone support. This does include phone support, which was much higher cost in the past. Basically the $80 product is no longer available. We no longer sale simple ticket support. The new support products replace both that and phone support.


But yes, it costs more. We still offer free forum support.

The Suite did, but I'm refering to a 'Forum' only license which I suspect you no longer sell on its own.

That said (using IE9), if you goto 'Members' area and select 'Support' for 'Annual Phone and Ticket' you cannot add it to your basket unless you then click on the top radio button again, is that a bug?

[Wayne Luke]

The Suite did, but I'm refering to a 'Forum' only license which I suspect you no longer sell on its own.

I don't understand this regarding my response. We no longer sell vBulletin 4 Publishing Suite. Those who purchased it will continue to receive ticket support.

That said (using IE9), if you goto 'Members' area and select 'Support' for 'Annual Phone and Ticket' you cannot add it to your basket unless you then click on the top radio button again, is that a bug?

Possibly. I personally consider IE9 a bug. However it could be Microsoft's slow Javascript implementation causing it to appear delayed in updating the cart.

[acwatts]

We no longer sell vBulletin 4 Publishing Suite.

I thought if someone purchased VB5 they had access to VB4. ?