Designer 3.0 costs what?

[unitedcases]

Someone needs to kill this thread.

[jlovchik]

Someone needs to kill this thread.

The thread is fine. No matter how we at LHR approach the pricing or timing of our releases, some people are inevitably upset about it. As long as the thread stays within the forum policies, people can have their say.

[ehpepper]

I bought the Ver 2.xx software less than 90 days ago... If they had told me a Ver. 3.xx was going to be released I would have waited to purchase. Contacted LHR about the upgrade to Ver 3.xx here is the e-mail chain:


--- My Original e-mail to LHR ---

Gentlemen:

On 03/28/14 I purchased an upgrade from Project Designer Ver. 1.xx to Version 2.xx. Now, approximately 90 days later, I find out that Version 3.xx is available for an additional $200 dollars. If I had known Ver. 3.xx was in the works, I would have waited to upgrade, saving myself $100 in the process.

I believe that due to the relatively short period between my purchase of Ver 2.xx and the release of Ver. 3.xx, I should be offered the upgrade at a substantial discount.

Thank you for your attention and consideration in this matter.


--- Response Received from LHR ---

Mr. Pepper,

I understand that you just bought your 2.0 upgrade this last March. The 3.0 was released with our conference this last week, just as 2.0 was released in June of 2013.
The upgrade price is $200, whenever you choose to upgrade. You do not need to buy the 3.0 upgrade right now, if you decide not to do so.

Connie


--- My Response to LHR ---

Gentlemen:

So, in other words, you are not going to offer to discount the upgrade price in spite of the fact that I just purchased an upgrade less than 90 days ago? I could have waited 90 days and saved myself $100.00.

upgrade from version 1.xx to 3.xx = $300
upgrade from version 1.xx to 2.xx = $200 (on 3/28/14) + upgrade from 2.xx to 3.xx =$200, total of $400.00

I really think you should reconsider your policy on this. You are probably going to lose valued customers over this.

[tcough3475]

My biggest concern with the new release is backwards compatability. I can't count the number of post when we went from 1.xxx to 2.xxx in regards to this issue. I think the greatest asset to the CW user is this forum but the lack of being able to share across versions, IMO, as either an oversight or intentional, and may lead to the lose of contributers or users of the forum. Just about all software packages give the user a choice to save to an earlier version. The lack of this feature requires too much extra work on the part of someone sharing a pattern or file, and at some point, they may stop sharing.

Call it what you want, but it looks like the annual fee is here to stay. We got spoiled as upgrades for 1.xxx lasted many years for free. I for one don't see the added benefit I get from a couple new features, especially for $200. At this point, I'm planning on saving my money to purchase another software product and import into Designer.

Tracy

[lynnfrwd]

Mr. Pepper I will leave your post in this thread. Please do not post multiple times.

Not proper to post private emails. If you sent additional emails, I have not seen them as I am out of the office until Monday.

[tcough3475]

Correction - it looks like patterns will be backward compatable. But that still isn't enough to excite me.

Tracy

[Canemaker]

So bottom line is if the improvements don't have an advantage that can improve the quality of your craftsmanship you can always hold out
on the latest update... I feel that even if I devoted six hours a day for six months there is so much to learn that someone can't possibly learn it all.
I'm happy with 1.187 for what I doing and don't make signs for the benefit of 2.0, but do see use of the vector carving in 3.0, what a spot to be in.

Every thing in this business (wood working) has a price... and budget. So buy what you need for improvement and hope that LHR continues the updates.

[jackh]

Connie, I would appreciate your/LHR's comments/position on bugs found in the 2.xxx S/W such as the 2.007 fix. No problem with charges for new S/W but I feel very strongly that LHR should continue to support 2.xxx.

[lynnfrwd]

This was addressed by Metallus earlier this morning!

[kyeakel]

My intent of starting this thread was not to create a big hoopla, it was to question the difference in price between upgrading from the basic version of designer to the 3.0 version being $100 cheaper than buying 2.0 and then upgrading to 3.0. I know software costs money to create, I've been a software engineer for the last 35 years. I probably would not have even noticed if basic to 3.0 was $400, making the cost of ownership the same.

kipp