True Image Home 2009 and Windows 7: Did Acronis engage in Bait and Switch?
In the latter half of July 2009, Acronis ran a $20 rebate offer at NewEgg.com (and others?) for purchasers of True Image Home 2009 (PC Backup & Recovery). At the time, Acronis knew that Windows 7 would be released in October, three months later (less per my invoice date). However, neither Acronis nor NewEgg informed buyers that to use the 2009 version with Windows 7 would require an additional purchase: to use the 2009 version with Windows 7 requires purchasing an upgrade to the 2010 version for $29.99. That means, in effect, having to give back the $20 rebate and pay an additional $9. Purchasers presumably could not have known about this extra charge at the time, since True Image 2010 hadn't been released yet. This strikes me as a classic bait-and-switch tactic, probably in violation of federal and state consumer laws. I think Acronis owes it to those who bought under the rebate offer to make the situation right.
I don't actually see how this can be construed as false advertising. It can be construed as poor marketing and I feel that Acronis' marketing department doesn't seem to talk to itself let alone any one else in the organisation. The offer is basically the same offer that they do each year, so I think it would be a case of ' oh it's that time of year again, let's do what we did last year' and no one actually put much thought into 'hey, this year it's all slightly different'.
TI2009 will run on W7 with the exception of image mounting, which not everyone uses (unless Microsoft have added it to their banned list since RTM version was issued in an update) .
I also think Acronis actually miss a beat in NOT advertising they have a new version on the horizon, their fear that O&O (if they consider them a competitor), Ghost or others will steal a march on them, versus letting people know they can look forward (or not :) ) to a new version is only valid if they ahve some super duper new top secret doobrey that they are going to unleash on the world. Microsoft and Apple haven't found advance advertising of new OS's to be a hindrance.
But it is no difference to me buying my Peugeot in February 2 years ago (at a slightly reduced price) only to find the new version released in April that comes with a turbo standard - no one at the showroom told me a new model was wending it's way to the antipodes and that was one of the reasons they'd reduced the price slightly.
TI2009 wasn't advertised as being compatible with W7 and as end users knew that W7 was due in October, then I would have thought that would have put question marks on much software.
Caveat Emptor
I tend to agree with bodgy on this one. Besides, I ain't upgrading to Win7 until SP1 comes out.
Its seems to be a scheme to defraud in my opinion