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Collectorz' bold new subscription-based update plans - brilliant? or suicidal?

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Carol Haynes:
I think it lost steam over the past years for a number of reasons - the two main ones being he thoroughly pissed off his user base with changes to lifetime licenses and there was a massive number of people rubbishing the products on the internet as a result and also he decided to change the database support to their own database and no longer make use of other useful services like IMDB and Amazon and go over entirely to their own database - which in the early days was pretty useless, esp. if you lived outside the US.

I stopped using the programs for both reasons - firstly I don't like business that renege on contract terms and secondly in the UK the database was an utterly pathetic waste of time depending on users like me to build their resources (should I say reinvent the resources).

Personally I wouldn't consider going back and there is absolutely no justification for software like this being subscription based.

Once he realises that users are savvy enough to sign up for one month a year to get up to date he is likely to change the terms again - either to the subscription model itself (force annual subscriptions only) or if you lapse you can't reregister for updates but buy an upgrade with 12 months registration. Most likely both in the long term. I suspect at this moment he is dipping his foot in the water and waiting to see what happens.

katykaty:
I don't use this software, so maybe I haven't really understood exactly what's going on, but I'm really impressed by the way the developer has managed to antagonise a major section of his customers by offering them a 90% discount!

Current: you wait a year until the update comes along, pay $25, get the latest version with a year's worth of updates.
Future: you wait a year, ignoring interim updates which simply wouldn't have been there before, subscribe, pay $2.50, get the latest version with a year's worth of updates, cancel subscription.

Have I got that wrong?

Darwin:
+1 to Carol's points and to Superboyac's note, too. I'm in exactly the same boat. I purchased lifetime licenses years ago in good faith and was not given any warning that they were revoking them back in 2008 or so. In fact, I purchased a license for another of their products right around the time of the changeover under the assumption (yes, I know ass-u-me, etc.) that I was buying a lifetime license when in fact they had already changed to the then new model (what enraged users, myself included, was that for months after they changed licensing models there was no banner or indication on their website that this was so. Anyway, after a lot of going back and forth, they honoured my lifetime licenses but every time there was an upgrade it was up to me to write to them and remind them that I needed a new license. Anyway... the only really useful products in their catalogue (for me) are Photo Collector and mp3/music Collector (I also own a license for Book Collector), titles that have been dormant for years and I've long since given up using them. Flash forward to my reading the first post this thread and if feels like deja vu all over again...

Carol Haynes:
Have I got that wrong?
-katykaty (October 29, 2013, 04:27 PM)
--- End quote ---

A bit but not entirely. He certainly pissed off a lot of people in the past and the glums are still lurking out there.

What particularly annoys me (apart from all the license change nonsense) is that most of the development, before I chucked out the toys from the pram, seemed to hinge on the use of databases. They were using a lot of very good databases as sources for Movie and Music catalogues (such as Amazon and IMDB). They then decided to drop ALL support for those, even for existing users, and move on to their own - very inadequate at the time - database.

They then started charging users who were actually providing the data for that database. So now they build a product on the backs of users who they charge for the privilege!!

All in all I don't find their approach to their customers terribly honest, open, reliable or respectful - and if they offered me a 100% free life time license on all their products I wouldn't bother.

J-Mac:
I purchased the damn "lifetime licenses" for their movies, music, and book collection programs. I have lost lifetime licenses in the past - more than a few. It is generally inevitable, as the lifetime label makes it a sure loser at some point. So that is not the most disappointing aspect. But dropping support for all databases except his own was one move that lost me. That was the main cause of death for my use of their software.

Just as big was the way he responded to users on the forum. Alwin is - or at least was - about the most arrogant and obnoxious developer I'd seen. He's post and insult anyone who said anything he didn't like. I mean, not just defensive posts but outright nasty attacks on some users. Granted some users were nasty also, but Alwin was the nastiest by far. I had no desire to deal with him at all.

Unfortunately my current "collections" software developer - FNProgs - apparently just went out of business without warning too! I purchased SoftCAT, BookCAT, CATVids, and CATraxx, as well as his newest program AssetCAT. All are now abandonware I guess. Time to start looking again. But it won't be at Collectorz.com!

Jim

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