How can VB Justify the $170 Upgrade Costs for V4?

[Antarctic]

I'm upgrading Movie Discussions to VB4. I think it's worth it personally.

 

[Jasonp]

If i was a customer i would probably end up forking out the cash and upgrading just to save the hassle really sly move 🙂

 

[DarkRaven]

Fergal, what was vB's response to your post? Did they give a reason for their price hike or did they just ignore (or even delete) your post?

 

[Keaton]

I think VB might be worth the $195, big forus could probably justify spending that much but not when it isn't a one off fee and if they charge pre existing customers only $25 off it's stupid.

phpBB is best 😛

 

[thedudeman]

IPB won't give you important security upgrades unless you pay a renewal fee every six months.

That's not true. I'm an IPB customer and security updates are downloadable from the public announcement forum.

 

[Justin]

This is why I use free software, you get free updates, free mods, and its a great software, I fail to see why people think VB is so great. IMO it is Phpbb's subsilver on steiroids. It just isn't that great.

 

[Fergal]

General Grievous yes, my plan is to only upgrade one licence. But it's still a rip off at $170 when the so called "lifetime owned licence" only cost $160 when I purchased it.

theezy, I agree 100%

Ziveeman - Re "Why has Invision Power seen an increase in vB converts?" - do you by any chance have a link with further details on that?

VB have moved my thread from the pre-sales forum to their customer feedback forum. My question was a pre-sales one, because VB are offering to sell upgrades at $170 a pop and I was asking questions before making a purchase, but I suppose they want as few people as possible reading my views. VB staff haven't see fit to reply to the thread, although it has had over 1,100 views on their forum - how's that for respecting your customers?

DarkRaven, they've ignored my thread, nice isn't it? It's always good to feel like a valued customer.

Fowler, I agree fully with what you said, most existing users will probably stick with VB. However, they will lose some business from this. I have a VB licence that I'm not currently using, but planned on using soon for a new forum. The way things stand, the idea of paying for the VB upgrade on that licence, doesn't exactly appeal to me.

 

[Dasher]

So they're pretty much throwing tear gas at a riot, if you get me Fergal. They're not trying to fix it, they're just trying to make it less noticeable so they don't have to deal with it.

 

[Fergal]

Exactly {iTeenChat} . They've closed the thread now. Nice way to treat your customers, not!

 

[Bossanova]

General Grievous yes, my plan is to only upgrade one licence. But it's still a rip off at $170 when the so called "lifetime owned licence" only cost $160 when I purchased it.

Way I see it, if you have 3 VBs, that should show you're a dedicated VBulletin user, and they should offer some sort of discount. Especially when your VBulletins are active, successful forums which ultimately help bring traffic to VB.

 

[Nathan]

General Grievous yes, my plan is to only upgrade one licence. But it's still a rip off at $170 when the so called "lifetime owned licence" only cost $160 when I purchased it.

Way I see it, if you have 3 VBs, that should show you're a dedicated VBulletin user, and they should offer some sort of discount. Especially when your VBulletins are active, successful forums which ultimately help bring traffic to VB.

Unforuntately not everyone thinks like that.

Fowler was spot on though, the big boards would much rather pay the fee and update as they don't want any hassle. But for small board owners, it's actually a huge rip off.

Fergal, try opening a support ticket, apparently their last 30 requests were responded in an average of 1 hour, see if they give you a response or not :lol:

 

[Fergal]

Truth is, there isn't really a lot I can do. I started the thread on VB and it got a lot of attention and views, before they closed it. But I really don't think there is anything to be gained by me putting more time and energy into this.

Thanks everyone for your opinions and your support in this thread.

 

[Nebulous]

Their new pricing structure benefits new customers BUT really screws existing customers..

 

[Fergal]

Their new pricing structure benefits new customers BUT really screws existing customers..

Exactly. I have no problem with the selling price of a new licence. But charging customers who have already purchased a licence, so much for an upgrade is ridiculous.