Maintenance games

HEY KIDS, this week we’re going to play a new game. It’s called “Name That Vendor,” and the category this week is “Maintenance Manipulations.”

Here’s how it works. I’ll relate some stories that readers have submitted to The Gripe Line about problems they’ve encountered with the maintenance policies of different companies, but I won’t identify which companies they’re talking about. That’s what you’ve got to guess. OK, are you ready? Let’s get started.

Just to make the first one a little easier, I’ll give you a hint that our first contestant, Company A, makes software used in the financial sphere. A reader who is actually a reseller for Company A wrote that many of her customers during the years have dropped their maintenance contracts on the financial software, primarily because the upgrades provided little value. But many of them now have no choice but to get the newest version that supports recent tax law changes, and Company A is taking the opportunity to punish those who let their maintenance contracts lapse.

“If you have lapsed for two years, you now have to pay for the missing two years, plus the coming year, plus a 25 percent penalty on that amount!” wrote the reader. “We are in the sorry position of collecting this revenue, on which our margin is paltry. We hate being the Plan Police. We have expressed our dismay vigorously and frequently, and to absolutely no avail … the bean counters are in charge. My contempt for them is exceeded only by their contempt for their end-users.”

Another reader did not even recall being offered a maintenance contract when he bought a software product from Company B. “Turns out this was an unfortunate oversight, as [Company B] won’t even allow you to download bug fixes without a maintenance agreement,” wrote the reader, who himself works for a software company. Once he realized the maintenance program was thus pretty much mandatory, he attempted to purchase one but found that all the options seemed to work out to a minimum charge of 50 percent of the price of the product.

“I understand that maintenance agreements are necessary in the software industry — they are a large part of our revenue,” the reader wrote. “It wasn’t the money that was a problem, it’s that I’m not fond of extortion. I declined to purchase [any of Company B’s maintenance or support plans] and informed them we would use their product until a problem arose, at which time we would purchase a competitor’s product.”

Company C has a special maintenance program that’s also a bit exorbitant, in the opinion of one reader, because it costs 50 percent of the upgrade price for a major release of the product. As the typical cycle between upgrades for the product has been about two years, the plan doesn’t really provide any great savings. But what really concerned the reader is Company C’s pattern of deciding the customer’s maintenance has lapsed just as a new release comes out.

“What’s happened to me twice now, and to many others, is that [Company C] seems to have billing problems in the year that a new version comes out,” the reader wrote. “When you call and ask where your new version is, they answer that you didn’t pay the bills they say they sent you and your membership has expired. To get back in the program, you must buy the upgrade at standard retail and then pay to renew your subscription again.” The reader’s reseller told him he had three other customers in the same boat, and the reader asked another colleague if he’d had similar experiences with Company C. “He too was cut off three months before the new release, never received a bill, and they wouldn’t let him upgrade until he threatened to go to the competition.”

As software companies increasingly push subscription licensing, customers can get confused about the difference between the subscription plans and the more traditional maintenance programs that provide free updates and support for a specific period but grant a perpetual license to the software. That’s what happened to a customer of Company D. “Last year at this time I purchased what I thought was a license to own [Company D’s product] with a maintenance contract to receive free updates for the next year,” the reader wrote. “What I got was a one-year subscription license and no right to use it after one year unless I renew the subscription. Fine, I blew it. I should have been paying closer attention. The renewal cost seemed reasonable, so I figured, what the heck, I’ll fax in a P.O.”

But just as he was about to renew, he received a notice in the mail from Company D warning him that his subscription was about to lapse and taking what he thought was a very threatening tone. If he chose not to renew, the letter stated, he should inform Company D of his decision so that it could notify the proper authorities that he would be uninstalling the software. “Who do they think they are?” the reader wondered. “The government? This letter got me to thinking. Why in the world would I want to continue to buy a subscription from them?Remember, I had decided to renew, but this changed my mind in a hurry.”

Time’s up. Wasn’t that fun? All you have to do now is let me know which, if any, of these companies you recognize from your own experiences. If you guess correctly, you could win the grand prize of … oops, sorry, looks like we’re all out of door prizes. But if you and enough of your fellow readers have the same answer, you will win the satisfaction of getting to see us Name That Vendor.

Source: www.infoworld.com