Scott, thanks for your reply. In regards
to the upgrade pricing until 12/31/04 as opposed to until the current SA
expires, I have noted that concern in my log I am keeping and I and I am sure
others will discuss this at length with Ipswitch pending the outcome of the
more pressing issues.
John Tolmachoff
Engineer/Consultant/Owner
eServices For You
-----Original Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Scott Fisher
Sent: Wednesday,
October 27, 2004 3:03 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [IMail Forum]
Cross-grade concerns addressed (NEW SVC AGREEMENT PRICES)
"Service agreement money is not wasted..."
I would have normally anticipated a major revision within
the terms of this current service agreement. I'm going to think that their
won't be any more Imail major revisions. Perhaps money wasted was too strong.
But the money spent is certainly not going to upgrade my product (Imail). It
may be going to fix the product. Unless I upgrade, I doubt I'll be getting as
much value out of this service agreement as my last service agreement.
Maybe if I looked at it this way. If I knew that the Imail
product line was going undergo the current changes two months ago, would I
still have renewed my service agreement? I really can't answer that. I
certainly wish the answer could have been a Yes.
If were to upgrade to ICS, the service agreement would have
immense value more so than the $309/$495 that I paid for it.
From what messages I have read, people with service
agreements aren't happy. I'm not alone in this thinking.
"Selling the out of budget price hike"
Their website says limited time offer until December 31, 2004 to take
advantage of the upgrade pricing. So if I want to take advantage of the upgrade
pricing, I'll need to do so before December 31. Perhaps they'll honor that
price throughout my service agreement terms, but I can't find that in writing
anywhere. Maybe it has popped up in the discussion group, but there have been
too many messages to read them all.
For budgeting purposes of the corporate world, more than two
months notice is what I am asking for. 6 months notice is not always enough.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday,
October 27, 2004 3:53 PM
Subject: RE: [IMail Forum]
Cross-grade concerns addressed (NEW SVC AGREEMENT PRICES)
Scott, I need to respond to a couple of
inaccuracies here in fairness to Ipswitch:
1. The service agreement is not money
wasted per se, in that there is going to be another update in the works.
Further, in your circumstances, your SA appears to be good until 08/05, which
is in your next fiscal budget, so where does “selling the out-of-budget
price hikes to my boss” come into play?
John Tolmachoff
Engineer/Consultant/Owner
eServices For You
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Scott Fisher
Sent: Wednesday,
October 27, 2004 1:18 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [IMail Forum]
Cross-grade concerns addressed (NEW SVC AGREEMENT PRICES)
From a 175 employee business prospective: these things
about the ICS switch bother me:
1. I work on a fiscal budget of July to June. I've had
no advance warning of the changes, and have no way to budget for the upgrade
prices even if I did want it. My price going from $495 to $2495 ... 5x the
price is a big jump. And frankly you aren't giving me much ammunition to go
sell the out-of-budget price hikes to my boss.
Add to the fact, I bought my service agreement in late
August and there is going to be no major upgrade for this service agreement. I
haven't called for support and I probably won't. So I'll consider the service
agreement money wasted.
2. I can understand why you aren't making money on the
Service Agreements... I paid slightly over $300 for mine through a reseller.
Take his profit out and you are getting what $250-$275 for any Service
Agreements sold through resellers. I really didn't have a problem with the
$495, but I could easily find a much cheaper price. Perhaps if you stopped
selling the Service Agreements through resellers, service agreements could be a
revenue stream.
3. Imail has always been offered on an a la carte
basis. You buy the Imail system, and you could add the anti-virus option, the
fax option, the better webmail option. I think this sales method was
appreciated. Now to roll it all into one bundle, and make many people pay for
items they don't want is pretty unfair. For me the Declude Anti-Virus and
Declude Junkmail add-ons were one of the major reasons I choose Imail. So 2 of
your 5 bullet points (spam protection and virus protection) for ICS, I wouldn't
want and would personally consider to be a downgrade to my protection level if
I was using them. The fact alone that I would be forced to pay for products I
wouldn't use is mighty distasteful.
If the product and price was right, I would consider a
collaboration add-on, although I like many others were led to believe that this
would be part of the next Imail upgrade.
I haven't seen a lot of clamoring for the instant messaging
option either. I don't have any interest in it at this point.
4. If the support is becoming a financial burden,
separate the service agreement into two parts. One part the upgrade assurance
would allow continued access to minor upgrade and next releases. Add a Support
agreement option for 8x5 and possibly a more expensive 24x7 option. Or
better yet, paid support over the phone. But if I'm paying for support it
better be good and by this I mean not somebody in an Indian Call Center reading off
a script. Again, I've never called support, so I can't comment on your phone
support. I have used e-mail support once and I got the answer I needed pretty
quickly.
I'd consider the $495 to be a fair price for the upgrade
assurance option bought solely through Ipswitch (remember point 2 and
the real costs of the service agreement). Many of us regularly pay items like
this.
I like Imail and want Ipswitch to stay around and get
better. I wish questions like
"what would be a fair price for such an agreement?" would have been
thought of and asked before the firestorm.
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