Quoting SoftJunk, reply 24

Quoting sdrohan,

 

I have added more language to the FAQ to clear up any confusion regarding upgrade pricing:



Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Sorry, but that still doesn't seem to make sense. According to your website, we are in the "Release Preview" window, but there is no upgrade pricing available to me as a Fences 4 permanent license customer, well unless the upgrade price is £27. How is that a discount?

Both the sub and the per licenses are 'discounted' while Fences 5 is in 'preview'

SUB

Permanent license (non-sub)

Only the Sub option has 'Upgrade' pricing:

Hope that helps.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

May I suggest a reversal on this one new policy. I do believe this would make things right.

"To ensure uninterrupted access to the software, users must maintain an active Stardock Subscription for that specific product. If the subscription lapses, the software will stop working until the subscription is renewed."

I feel paying for updates on an annual basis instead of actually getting locked out of our software would make a huge difference.

I use and enjoy a lot Fences since version 2 on all my computers. I am unable to make an update from my version 4 to version 5 unlimited.

By the way, this new pricing is totally insane and is a no-go for me. Such disrespectful from Stardock to treat consumers this way.

OK, right, I think I understand now.

Only the subscription version has "upgrade pricing", while the permanent license versions have "discount pricing". Correct?

Discount pricing is basically £3 off, so £29.99 to £26.99. For some context, it cost me £7 to upgrade from Fences 3 to version 4.

Will your permanent license customers receive a meaningful "upgrade price" in the near future, or ar we all expected to pay £27 to go from version 4 to 5?

Is this a move to "encourage" permanent license users onto your subscrition model? Personally, I do not like subscription models for software, and will not support them.

I had Fences.

I had Fences V.2.
I had Fences V.3.

I have Fences v.4.

I have never SUBSCRIBED for anything from Stardock; never will.

And, even with your "discount", I would never pay what you're asking to BUY Fences V.5.  

No way is it that much better than V.4.

Love Fences, but I don't think I need it that badly!

I don't think I'm the only one unhappy about what you've done.

I'm not a fan of software subscriptions either. Too bad - I'll run this version of Fences v4 until it dies. 

Exact same case here. If getting into a subscription or paying 3.5x what the latest update costed (31,49€ compared to 8,99€) are the only options offered, I'm choosing the 3rd one - going away without looking back.

26.99 is the discount on a product that I upgraded to v4 in September for 8.99 CAD ( about 6.50 USD)

Hmmmmm what deal!

Yeah I prefer to own my software. Not doing any subscriptions, so that when they run out the product isn't accessible to me.  I am definitely not paying nearly 30$ for a permanent license.

You guys should really reconsider this.

Armor

Now after good and cheap WordPress plugins have become price traps, it's time to move on to useful tools. 

31 euros for the update of a permanent licence, which has been continued from Fence 2 until today, is simply a joke. The last updates was less then 10 Euros per licence. 

A limits has been reached here.

So Long and Thanks For All The Fish

pS.: If you plan to continue this behaviour to the other products I will stop buying every kind of your software. I will not buy any subscription.

Found an interesting statement.  So BradSams is the man we need to be chatting to. 

Im sorry Brad you may well be a nice fella and loooking at your photo id have a beer with you but......

If i owned startdock i'd fire you for this.  You gave away Start11v2 which was probably your biggest update this year for an outstanding price and then you drop Fences5 which is probably the worst feature update this year for an outrageous price.  If you did this the other way around (Fences for £6 & Start11v2 for £30) you may, just MAY have got away with that but this guy..... NO!... You are leaving a bad taste in those end users mouths who support stardocks hardwork.

Brad, i bear nothing personal against you as i guess your just doing your job,  i (and i think i speak for a few) think you need to step forward and address this...

All the Best!

If Fences 5 is feature complete then it is probably only a market test. Start 11 v2's production values were to high to risk failing the same way.

(edited)

Will do the exact same here!

Wanting thrice the price for a regular customer / Fences 4 owner is a huge slap in the face.

same of me I paid V4 last september and not eligible for V5 ? It will turn as Evernote users who ran away due to high increases...

With the full recognition that there is nothing I can write that will change everyone's mind, happy to chat about this as I am always a firm believer in transparency. 

And I mean chat, if anyone wants to setup a community call (Discord?), happy to join in and talk about this.

I have read nearly all the comments, I absolutely hear the feedback and am open to finding solutions that work for both sides of the conversation.

Hey Brad,

Glad to see your're taking some form of action here. Thank you.

Not so sure how to go about gathering folks to discord as i can only rely on S'ds forums to Coordinate such a gathering. 

Any chance of Stardock setting up a Discord thread dedicated to these kind of topics?

Regards

Hello Brad,

Thanks for taking the time to reach out.

I do believe a lot of the comments are in fact coming from people that are actually interested in Fences 5. I do know that I am. I seems that heart of the problem from what I am reading is people want a sense of owning this product.

My fixes while trying to stay as neutral as possible

1. Personally I felt comment 26 was a really good compromise on this end and actually felt really good posting it. Basically it would ensure I would never get locked out of Fences 5 and had the option to resubscribe to get updates when I am ready to do so. I truly believe this deserves a good conversation with other people on its own.

2.I know we are all stating that we want to pay 9.99 for Fences 5 but in all honesty I think we could meet in the middle at 19.99 as a fair compromise for a permanent license

For me personally, if either of these two options were to happen I would go ahead and make the purchase on Fences 5.

And for the wild card, if there was a good black Friday sale I suppose that could be the way I would buy as well.

kind regards

more than double the previous permanent upgrade license cost  is not acceptable @ 19.99. No clue where you're coming from. Increases in costs are inevitable however such an ask is unreasonable. Counting on a black Friday deal each year is also short sighted. Increase the upgrade fee by 20 to 30% is more inline with typical software support increases. 

Boom..... There it is.  Well Said! 

I think at the core to my solution really comes down to stardock reversing the decision to locking software that isnt being subscribed to. That really might be the one area that is easier to come to a compromise with and I would like to take the time to reign in on it.

Obviously, if we are going to get locked out of our software Stardock doesn't have to put in any effort for quality updates or add new features at all in order to make money on a yearly basis.

Now, if we flip the script and choose whether we are going to resubscribe every year then we going to have a much better product and a much better line of updates then we ever have had for a fences. Basically we would probably get at least one new feature every year to justify purchasing a subscription. If no work is being done or we arent satisfied with the quality of updates we could always leave our product as is.

This also solves the ownership issue because then we will own whatever product and its updates up until when the subscription expires and keep the product forever.

To me this is actually one area that can be compromised on pretty easily.

Now as far as the actual price tag of a permanent license, right now that is a much muddier subject that it may be harder to find a solution to. Would the pricetag be worth more if there was a stronger commitment to updates and new features? I dont know, I will leave that part of the talk with you.

I see the logic here but.

What i will add is a discount for previous License holders. Example:

40% for V4 License owners.  If you purchased this 6-8 weeks (Stardock current is 4 weeks) before another version release you are going to feel sick about it. 40% discount here is going a long way. Plus this is nice for longtime supporters too.

25% For V3

10% for V2 & V1

This example to ME seems fair all round.  We will always spend our hard earned money when we see insentives.

NO one knows when hardtimes will strike, I wound not want be in a situation where i cannot pay to use this software and end up with nothing... Back to using native windows start....**** that!

As far as the actually sale price... £25-£30 for a new license for an official release (no beta testing here) is worth the money.  I know some of you may say WTF bruh,  but we all gotta appreciate what we get from Fences, Start & Groupy these tools are second to NONE! lets be real here!  Stardock is doing a good job with these apps.

Oh and i think S'D should sell your three mains app Fences, Start, Groupy in a package deal too. Example £50 For all 3. Using the upgrade formula example above for new releases. 

As of right now I am happy to sit with Start11v2 and groupy2 i can live without fences5.  As long as there is always an insentive for me to updgrade i will.  Fences V5 isnt doing this for me right now but if the price was right............  

All the best!

I actually like that idea. I do believe going from v4 to v5 is part of what is making it a hard purchase at 27 dollars. V4 is still a very good product afterall. If the discounts were to follow a more robust upgrade system such as the one you have mentioned that could alleviate some of the ongoing frustration

No.

If this software is too expensive, fewer will buy it. If we don't buy this product, it -may- be scrapped.

Stardock will hopefully realize that and -may- lower the prices accordingly to prevent that. 

And it's a fact:
Anything that costs more than twice the €9.99 for just an upgrade(!) is simply outrageous,
regardless of iNcReAsEs iN cOsTs aRe iNeViTaBLe.