Ethical VAR Tactics?

Just received this from my VAR!

"Not trying to be a pest, I just don't want your SolidWorks/Cosmos
maintenance to expire if that is not your intention. To avoid
disruption of service and any late fees of $100 per license, please
send P.O., full payment, or sign invoice to:"

My reply to him was:

Are you really trying to threaten me with disruption of the use of my
SolidWorks software?

You mean that Microsoft has finally succeeded in building in the hooks
for you to disable any piece of software like SolidWorks which doesn't
have maintenance paid? What in the heck are you talking about? The
Maintenance fee is NOT even due yet.

This is just slightly below the level of a con man's attempt to swindle
a patsy, and you expect to keep me as a customer? Why shouldn't I find
a more friendly VAR who will actually call me back within a day of me
calling as opposed to 6-7 days like last time?

What in the heck are you talking about? The Maintenance fee is NOT
even due yet.

You need to have the President of your group give me a call & explain
this.

 

I'm betting...... GoEngineer? Got one of those myself yesterday. Mine
also says that they'll give a $250 discount for renewing for those that have
allowed maintenance to expire. I'm really tempted to allow mine to expire,
then take them up on the expired maintenance discount, thus saving $150.
BTW, my maintenance is due the end of Jan, I've been getting renewal notices
since.... late september.

 

The $100 fee may just be the VAR's fee. SolidWorks' fee for catching
up (I thought) was $500.

 

The fee to reestablish lapsed maintenance is very often completely
waived, especially if the time frame is lease than a year or if their
are sizeable number of licenses at the site.

Matt

 

Disruption of service = no help @ VAR or SW "central". Also no
upgrades. Your current SW license is stll good.

So... no, they are'nt trying to threaten you with loss of SW.

 

Are you really trying to threaten me with disruption of the use of my

I suspect your VAR is more likely referring to subscription support
services. That would be tech support, the ability to download service
packs, etc. I went through that once as a result of some miscommunication.

VARs can be a little short on tact. At least one well known user has all
but disappeared as a result.

 

"Not trying to be a pest, I just don't want your

Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson? That's the sound of inevitability.
The mid range CAD market is saturated. Alibre raised the threshold
and PTC lowered the transom. What's an aged mid range cash cow to do?

 

I'm not sure about the experiences of others, but the VAR we use is
very responsive and didn't bug us but once at about 30 days before
lapse in maintenance (and maybe a week before if we forget or
something). I think we've been pretty lucky with these guys, as they
never got bought out (they did the buying) and have maintained a level
of service that is pretty close to what it has always been. I can
normally get someone on the phone right away, or at the very least a
returned call with 30 minutes of my call. They offer frequent free
updating training sessions, and have paid training courses that a
specifically geared to obtaining the SolidWorks Professional cert.

We did have issues with them once a long time ago during a SolidWorks
expo. For some reason, the owner thought it would be a good idea to
have the entire staff attend the show, and it just so happened to
coincide with us getting a bad doogle for are new network licencing.
Both other than, it's been smooth.

One hint: any VAR will pay more attention to your requests if you are
customer that has 10 or more licenses on site.

I think they are only West Coast, so if you'd like to know who they
are, you can go to my site under SolidWorks Resources web links for the
only VAR listed. http://sw.fcsuper.com

Matt

 

$100 + maint to renew with the same expiration date

$500 + Maint to have the expiration date change to the current month

atleast the last time I heard anything about it.