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What's the upgrade policy to 4.0?

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:35 am
by bleicher
Mellel 3.x complains that my license is too old for a free update, claiming it to be < 2007, which is not true.

Where's the deadline?

Re: What's the upgrade policy to 4.0?

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 2:30 pm
by Eyal Redler
The 2007 message text is incorrect. This is due to a bug in versions of Mellel prior to 3.5.5.

While the 2007 date mentioned in the message is incorrect, the gist of it is correct - your license will not work for Mellel 4.0 and you need to purchase an upgrade if you want to use Mellel 4.0.

Re: What's the upgrade policy to 4.0?

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 6:14 pm
by bleicher
Thank you for clarification. Might be helpful to have concrete information available on the website to who is eligible. ;)

Re: What's the upgrade policy to 4.0?

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2017 2:27 pm
by tinpa
Hello,
I do not understand, I bought Mellel in 2012. During each upgrade a sign affirmed that I had the right to upgrade free for life. This is no longer the case? Have you changed your policy?

Re: What's the upgrade policy to 4.0?

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 3:29 am
by Eyal Redler
If you bought Mellel directly from us in 2012 then your license should be a lifetime updates license. However, the message that was shown for in "check for updates" regarding the eligibility for updates was worded in an unfortunate way that may have lead to some confusion. I understand that some users interpreted the message to say that if you bought Mellel after 2007 you were eligible to a lifetime updates but what this message was saying is that the particular update for which this message was shown was free for you you because you bought Mellel after 2007, it didn't say that all future updates will be free for you because you bought Mellel after 2007.

Re: What's the upgrade policy to 4.0?

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 3:31 pm
by A.D. Riddle
To be clear, though, this is not just a case of unfortunate wording. Mellel did in fact change the policy towards upgrades, right?

For example, I received this message from RedleX in January 2011:
An important note to all Mellel users (and those who wish to be): Mellel 2.8 has moved to a free updates plan. Anyone who've purchased Mellel after December 2007 automatically gain a permanent license with unlimited free updates. People who've purchased Mellel Before the end of December 2007 can upgrade to a permanent license for $19…With Mellel 2.8 RedleX is adapting to the change, dropping Mellel's price significantly and stamping out for-pay upgrades. "Our response to the new App Store is getting on with the plan," Says Redler. "I believe software makers should try to expend their user base significantly, not rely on paid upgrades."
Then, in June 2012:
If you've purchased or updated Mellel after December 2007, then you can enjoy our free-upgrades-for-life license.
Etc., etc., etc…

Re: What's the upgrade policy to 4.0?

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2017 8:20 pm
by Eyal Redler
The short answer is: Yes! Of course we’ve changed our policy. We’ve said so quite clearly in a newsletter from a year ago: “Return to Upgrades... In 2011, we’ve decided to change course, and for a while offered lifetime upgrades. We now believe this was a mistake... We intend to change course and re-install a for-pay upgrade policy.”
From 2002 to 2011 our policy was to give users and updaters two (and before that, three) years of free updates. In January 2011 we’ve started to sell “Lifetime updates.” When we’ve introduced this rather inane policy we’ve also announced that people who’ve purchased Mellel after December 2007 are in the same status as people who’ve purchased Mellel after January 2011.
By February 2014, we’ve realised how foolish this policy was, and stopped selling lifetime updates. However, we did not start charging for updates at that point... nor for four years after that. That is, up to August 2017 we did not charge anyone who’ve purchased Mellel after December 2007 for an upgrade fee - This meant people who’ve purchased Mellel for $39 or $29 or even $19 got for their buck around 10 years of free updates...
Customers who bought Mellel between January 2011 and February 2014 directly from us purchased this with the promise for a lifetime of free updates. We intend to respect our obligation here. In fact, many of them simply updated to version 4, free of charge.
All other customers, who’ve purchased Mellel with a promise for two years of free updates, got that and much more — as mentioned: up to 10 years of free upgrades). I would mention that we’ve recommended upgrading — both a year a go and again May this year (when we’ve discussed Mellel 4.0 (link: https://www.mellel.com/blog/mellel-4-0-good-excellent/).

Re: What's the upgrade policy to 4.0?

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 1:16 am
by repschinski
I also was taken a bit by surprise to have to pay for the upgrade - I bought Mellel in 2009 or thereabouts. Of course, I am not very good at reading the newsletters sent out occasionally.

However, the upgrade price was very reasonable, and I am happy to support a product that has given me years of good and reliable service, and that now is significantly improved over compared to when I first bought Mellel. I want Mellel to stay in business, which probably is not all that easy in the face of the competition. At my university, I seem to be the only person using Mellel.

Re: What's the upgrade policy to 4.0?

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 7:08 pm
by A.D. Riddle
For many years, I regarded Mellel highly and promoted it to many others. I have no doubt they received new business because of my word. But I have lost that enthusiasm. I wrote the company a few times about the upgrade situation to express my dissatisfaction with their apparent disingenuity over the matter, and they did not respond. That failure to respond reinforces the sense of bad faith.

A.D.

Re: What's the upgrade policy to 4.0?

Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2020 8:41 am
by Eyal Redler
I apologize for the lack of response, I don't recall receiving any inquiries regarding out upgrade policy lately.
Perhaps you were contacting an via an email that is no longer used?
The best way to contact us is to use the support form: https://www.mellel.com/support/