In recent years there has been a maddening trend where software providers will charge customers for any update that exists outside of the version they purchased. For example, I buy version 1 of said program. Over the next 12 months I may get updates that would result in version 1.1, version 1.2, version 1.5. But as soon as version 2.0 is released, it is rarely released for free.
This was not always the case, and for several years now most software providers have followed the “maintenance agreement” concept. For those of you who do not know what a maintenance agreement is, it’s sort of like an insurance policy. The purchaser agrees to pay a fee over and above the cost of the original purchase (usually around half the price,) that insurers should an “out of sequence version” be released, they will get it for “free.” Most times a new version is released within 12 months, so the fee itself is not lost. Not all software vendors offered maintenance agreements, so sometimes the purchaser is forced to pay for an upgrade, or if they’re too far out of the update sequence, they need to buy the full version.
Whether a maintenance agreement is offered or not, most major software vendors are infamous for charging one way or another for out of sequence version updates, but I also find many small shops following this pattern also.
Over four years ago I purchased a piece of software that allowed me to easily design 3D product boxes. I paid no maintenance fee nor was I sent any irritating emails informing me of the latest and greatest version. That software is eCover Engineer made by a company in Europe called Adolix. When I purchased it, the current was version 3. The other day I ran into a few small issues trying to get it to run properly on Vista, so I hit their website and found that the current version 5.5 is not only Vista compatible, but also provides many great enhancements over my outdated version 3.
Being the maintenance agreement lemming Adobe, Microsoft, and Intuit have trained me to be, I fired off an email to Adolix asking what the upgrade costs was for me to get the current version.
Much to my astonishment, the friendly response was “Upgrade is free. Please tell us the old key, we will prepare a new one.” I quickly forwarded them my old key information, and minutes later I had the key for the full version of 5.5, at no charge.
That’s amazing as far as I’m concerned.
Hats off to Adolix.
