A warning against buying Acronis products
Be warned...not only did Echo Workstation's Universal Restore not work for me when I needed it to (despite hours of support calls/emails and various boot media), they like to take advantage of their customers. I bought Echo Workstation, and it was not compatible with Windows 7, so rather than releasing a new, compatible version, they released "Backup and Restore" and charged for an upgrade. I spent over $100 on Echo Workstation 10/25/2008, and they now want $65 to upgrade.
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I guess to Acronis, it doesn't. I honestly gave up on Acronis long before this, when Universal Restore completely failed repeatedly for me, but I figured I would at least be able to get an updated version for Windows 7 after paying so much for backup software. There are free ways to backup a machine that seem to work better, so I won't be using Acronis again.
Hello James and Dev-anon!
Thank you for your comments.
Dear James, your concern is entirely understandable. However, the Agent is right: the Echo version was already old enough, and Backup and Recovery software was already in production.
The thing is, Acronis Backup and Recovery was released on July 7, 2009. Thus you had a valid maintenance agreement on the moment of release, which automatically makes you eligible for free upgrade. You don't need to purchase a new version, you should be able to get it for free.
Usually the upgrade keys are sent to the Customers by the Sales department, and I'm sure that they have you information and licenses registered. The message from the Sales department probably got filtered to your spam folder, so you've missed it
In order to resolve the inconvenience I would advise you to contact our Sales representative, responsible for your area. I will be glad to provide you with the direct Sales representative contacts, but for this I need to know your phone area code. Could you please specify it to me via PM?
Should you need anything else or have any further questions - feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience, we will be happy to help you!
Thank you!
PM sent, thanks for taking the time to look into this for me. If the upgrade keys are sent automatically, and I should have had them anyway, why didn't the agent know this and/or handle the issue appropriately? This whole encounter was avoidable.
Thank you for the PM, James!
I've sent you the contacts of your Sales Representative, and also forwarded the information about the situation alongside with your contacts to him.
I've found the chat you've had with support person, and I'm really sorry for the misunderstanding you've faced. Rest assured I've already forwarded this information to our Management team. They are checking the case to take action to make sure it never happens again.
This is important, and I'd appreciate if you could keep us posted regarding the situation.
Please let me know in case you have any concerns or questions, I will address them.
Thank you once again for cooperation.