Main Upgrade policy dicussion topic

A bunch of us are complaining about the new Upgrade policy, as we bought Version 10 from Acronis with the special sale a few days ago and aren't being given the Upgrade to the next version unless we paid full price.
http://kb.acronis.com/content/13555.
Very irritating. We were asked to hold our discussion here, so I'll transfer my comments from the other place on the forum.

The link to the previous comments starts here: http://forum.acronis.com/forum/13737#comment-41231

Here's my first comment answering the other gentleman:

Upgrade Scam Alert! Version 10 to Version 11
They say that we can't get new serial numbers between 10 and 11 unless we paid full price.
http://kb.acronis.com/content/13555

Hmmm... Let's hear it for unethical practices....
I bought mine a week ago, and got the email saying that I could upgrade for just $40 (with the plus pack). I just paid $40, so that would make my "special offer" go up to $80 in just a week!
I can buy it straight from the site for $50, with $30 more for the plus pack....
The same $80! Imagine that!

Can't you just see the nice marketing department thinking, "See how we can shaft the poor dumb Customers into paying full price while pretending that they'll be getting a good deal!"
"Aha! A sale that isn't really a sale! Aren't Customers dumb?"

It looks like the marketing department has displaced the ethics department, thinking they can squeeze out a little more money. But why would someone want to buy from a company that claims to be protecting us at the same time it uses the same sleazy sales tactics used by those wonderful "Anti-virus Viruses" that pop up and try to get you to buy their protection or they'll cripple your computer. "We want money. We don't care about the Customers."

I teach a unit on sleazy advertising policies to college students, and I'll add Acronis to it, and I think I'll do a YouTube Video teaching people how different Acronis is than, for instance, Adobe, that upgraded our $5000 contract automatically from CS3 to CS4 just because we had recently bought the older version.

I'll see if I can get my money back - after a week - and just get an older version on E-Bay. If they can't be ethical, why spend the money on them? There's plenty of competition for greedy marketing departments.

A nice YouTube teaching video that's seen by only a few thousand people should make the point!
Treat people right and they'll come running to your door. Be a sleaze, and you'll lose a lot more money than you gained by assuming that your Customers are fools!

Fire the marketing people and hire a few ethical ones!

When one customer mentioned the policy from last year, I answered:
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/13737#comment-41231

It's not the same as last year. This year we have to have paid "full price," even though most of the "full price"profit went to the store. Acronis made 100% on the download from their site, even with their "sale," but they use that as a dodge to fake their Customers into buying the old one and then trying to get another $40 a week later. Unethical....

Yes, I paid for the upgrade to go from 2009 to 2010 version .... what difference does that make? It would be stupid to buy the non-upgrade version when I have the product installed already. If you bought 2010 for the first time or an upgrade version should not matter. I bought a product on Sunday, in two days it was upgraded and I'm being asked to pay again .... that's the bottom line.

Treat your customer right and they will treat you right.

Plus Pack for ATIH 2011 at Double the Price of ATIH 2011!

have been using Acronis True Image Home 2009 from December 2008. I recently purchased AcronisTrue Image Home 2010 with the Plus Pack on 11 August 2010. Subsequent to the launch of the Acronis True Image Home 2011 version, I got an e-mail offering the upgrade for US$9.99 as per the company policy. Since I am also interested in purchasing the Plus Pack for the 2011 version, I inquired today and got an answer that the Plus Pack for the 2011 version can be purchased for US$ 19!

Surely, the price of the Add-On Pack can't be more than the Main Product,i.e. ATIH 2011 version. When I queried the Acronis Support Executive, I was told that this is the Company Policy. The implied message was "Take It or Leave It. We are least bothered".

Can someone from Acronis clarify as to how the Plus Pack was offered at double the price of the Main Product,i.e. ATIH 2011 ?

Regards
Ravindra Bivalkar

I totally agree. I've been in the software industry for over 30 years as a vendor and this practice is really bad customer support. We bought the upgrade in good faith and to have to pay another upgrade price in less than a month doesn't pass the smell test. It's clear that Acronis knew that this would happen and it looks like a bait and switch scam to me. Any of you lawyers? Class action?

Er this is all very interesting but my question was are the bugs fixed?

Anybody with Home 11 RTM installed post if they lost network connectivity on XP, Vista or Win7 please.

For the record although I understand the position of you guys who have been shafted by the Acronis sales twits; the actual product is tremendous, the bugs I can fix myself with workarounds - it is just I can't be arsed to do so yet again so if it isn't fixed I will stick with Enterprise v11 for now.

The place to air your grievance with Acronis sales is with whatever you have in your community for trading standards. Acronis sure as hell won't take any notice of you in here. Email PC and Tech journalists at newspapers and PC mags - either that or vote with your wallets and buy something else.

I have used Acronis commercially for many years now and I am more than a little irritated by the pointless upgrades which break other stuff that is my gripe.

hth

Jonah

Has anyone got the link in their email for the upgrade to work? It's been timing out for 4 days now.

I got an email from customer service basically saying SOL ... it was mentioned to send complaints to: Managers@acronis.com

Have at it!

Well more indication of a second rate run business ... the customer support guy who provided me the email link I mention above for the managers, that email address still just goes to them and not the managers. They forward (and probably buffer) to the people that it's really intended for. Plus I have been asking about the link not working and I get "the link should work, if it's not maybe the servers are down" ... shouldn't customer support KNOW if their servers are down.

So .... no phone number to talk to people, email goes to some guy probably in another country answering email for 10 others companies and has no real information, then provides an email address for the managers and it still goes right to the help desk and they "forward" to management (supposedly). I feel there is some guy in the mgmt position like the guy on that Scott Trade commercial, out of touch and clueless.

They did the right thing .... changing my nickname to Happier Now

Excellent -

Pleased to hear it

How did they do the right thing?
I haven't heard from them today...
Did the email link work with a good response?

Just 9 days ago I purchased Acronis True Image Home 2010 at Office Depot for $39.99. On this web site I was told that I could get a free upgrade to Acronis Image Home 2011 by coming to Acronis Customer Central to address the issue, but there doesn't seem to be any way to do that here other than to post a comment in the feedback area at the bottom of the page that discusses the upgrade policy and to post the same information here. What do I have to do to get the free upgrade or even to just pay the additional $10.00 difference and not have to pay $29.99 for an upgrade just 9 days later?
Charles C Brooks
ccb@mediatechniques
Office Depot Sale Information: (See attached file)
STR0138 REG002 TRN3861
08/18/10 11:47 EMP 149594 POS 5.09B
890204002401 TRUE IMAGE HOME 39.99
MEMBER # 1768886440

Charles,

1. You need to register your serial number with Acronis under your account.

2. Log in to your account.

3. On the Acronis Support page, click on the orange button.

4. Select Customer Service Issue.

5. Select Upgrade related requests.

If you have already logged in to your account, then the next screen will ask you to select your product.

Hi All, I agree... I received an email just a couple of weeks ago that I could purchase Acronis True Image home for a special price of $49.95 instead of $69.95. I had TrueImage before and I had a need for the new version, so I got it... and now I received an email that I can get the "new version" for an additional $29.95... The full version is $69.95... so if I would have waited 2 weeks I would have got it $10 cheaper as when I would have to pay now for the update!!! Problem solved.

Hmmm...
Sounds like Charles got it at a "discounted" price at Office Depot, but, if Colin is correct, will still get the upgrade.

That shows how crooked the "secret sale" of the last few days was, as it was just designed to get another $40 out of those of us who got the plus pack and the discounted price just before the new one came out. Other people can get give discounts, but not the primary victims of Acronis Sleazy Sales Department.

Andrey says that management is watching these, and the support guy said that he was passing it up the line, and I sent an e-mail to the above link to management, but now, after they give us the impression that they're considering whether most customers think their upgrade policy is unethical, they just do the "silence" thing. Stupid customers...We don't have to listen to you. We just want our money!

I'd suggest that everyone go to Amazon and give their story with a negative rating to Acronis 11. People will look, and maybe the crooks at Acronis will react to losing money, as they don't care about their customers.

As a teacher, I'm working on giving a "teaching" YouTube video to students of tricky advertising techniques, using this most sleazy of bait and switch (or at least bait) sales schemes as the best example. Maybe that will cost them a few thousand dollars as well.
Unethical companies deserve whatever they get.

Hi,

I have a small question about the upgrade policy.

I bought some months ago a upgrade licence from my TH 2009 to TH 2010.

May i move from this "upgrade" licence to 2011 with another upgrade licence or do i have to buy the full licence ?

Many thanks in advance,

Michaël

An upgrade will work.

Ok, thanks.

Please read:
http://www.acronis.com.au/homecomputing/sales/retail/refund/

Dear Customers,

I certainly understand and share you frustration with upgrade situation.

And I can assure we are doing everything possible to make things right for you.

Please ping me in private if you feel upgrade policy is unfair.

We will figure out the best solution for you.

Thanks,

Andrey. 

Hello all, I wanted to add on to Andrey's comments and provide some additional answers to your very valid concerns.

I agree, your expectations were not met. Our policy should have been more clear and user friendly as well as aligned with our marketing strategy in the weeks leading up to our release. This was not an intentional outcome but a miscalculation in the customer experience. We are a company that is committed to our customers. We understand our customers are what drive our success and in turn we build our business processes, policies, and strategies with a mutually beneficial outcome in mind. When things don't happen to that effect, I am confident when I say, we will fix it.

I have spoken with our support team and have clarified how we want this handled. If you have any trouble moving forward please let Andrey or I know through Private Message.

FYI- Managers@acronis.com is an alias that is attended by our support Directors and managers.

I apologize for the inconvenience and general frustration this has caused some of you. I hope you will allow us the opportunity to make it right for you. Losing your confidence is unnacceptable, if you feel the situation has not been righted for you, please send me your phone number via PM so we can talk in person.

Rob Frost
Director of Support

New user , first post to this but 25 Years in the software business.
I login to add comment to the perfect thread entitled 'ridiculous upgrade policy' to find that i am redirected to this thread even though the initial thread suited my purpose perfectly.
But
I just bought 2 copies. In May 2010. Now i am being asked to buy them again at 80% for the initial cost. I support upgrade fees but not 80% of the list less than 3 months after a purchase
That is nothing short of insulting your customers.

Incidentally acornis, it may have escaped your attention but it is very very hard to buy anything at list price. Every store every where is offering deals and so to exclude anyone who received a deal from your varsity and distributors is outrageous. you cannot pass that cost onto us the customer.
You manage your partners you set their discount levels ( or you could if you wrote the resell agreement effectively)

The only way to stop this rape of the customer base is to go elsewhere and choose an alternative

It is what i am being forced to consider

Andrey
I have only looked at this forum for about 15 minutes since i only dropped in to complain about the upgrade policy.
But what strikes me is that i have seen yours and several other comments from people who appear to be acornis staff that say you share our views. You are doing all you can and will sort it out.

Does this mean we will get a new. Upgrade policy or does it mean you will offer specific deals to specific customers ? Which your 'please ping me in private' comment implies

Are these comment official acorns reassurances or are they personal views ?

I don't want to be. A pain but i see offers of help and assurances but none with real substance yet. Can we expect some announcement soon ?

Regards
Kev

Hello all, I just wanted to clarify a few things so many of you knew what to expect or what next steps to take are.

Our upgrade policy is an industry standard; Free upgrade eligibility is within 30 days of purchase when purchased at full retail price. Anyone who feels they are in a position of exception should reach out to us directly, at which time we will work directly with you to remedy any issues as best we can. So far we haven't had any concerns on our exception based handling of this issue.

I hope that clears things up. If you feel you should be eligible for a free or discounted upgrade, let us know right away. We are happy to work with you on this.

Thanks and sorry for the confusion.

Rob

Rob

"industry Standard" is a pointless management speak phrase it is meaningless and it annoys paying customers nearly as much as using the word "unfortunately".

Your policy should be fair and ethical.

it is not

fix it, announce it, game over, simples!

My policy with my software is 6 months free upgrade, 6 months to a year 50% off (I write specialist brokerage software based on access databases) I regard that as fair and ethical so do my clients.

It takes true talent to take something as great as Acronis software and totally trash its reputation almost overnight, you guys should be proud of yourselves.

Jonah

Jonah, we put out a new version annually. If we put out new versions every 3-5 years that might be feasible. We stand by our policy, it is not changing to my knowledge. But again, anyone who feels they are in an exceptional situation, e.g. bought a discounted version withing 30 days, please let us know, we will work with you.

Rob

Rob
I still think you are missing at least one of the issues here
You put out a release annually so you are saying that an upgrade fee of 80% of the list price is an acceptable fee?? I think not. I work with enterprise software we charge a 18% per annum for support maintenance and upgrades to new releases. This has been the case in all the software companies i have worked for in 25 years. I accept you are providing personal as well as business use software but 80% of list per year is plainly ridiculous and states to me, exactly what you see your customers are there for.
Run rate revenue.

With an annual release strategy i accept you do not want to suddenly lose all new business as customers hold off buying until the new release arrives. Hence the need for a min 90 days upgrade relaxation period (IMHO) for new customers and a nominal fee , not 80% of list , to existing customers.

Previous posts appeared to state the management were reviewing the policy.
Your last post states you are standing by your policy.
So i assume management reviewed it and decided it was fair ?????
Remarkable

Jonahs comments were spot on.

Hi Kev, this is not a corporate product. We have a similar system with maintenance and free upgrades for Enterprise level products.

With Acronis True Image Home 2011 the upgrade is a 40% discount.
Full price is $49.99
Upgrade is $29.99

My previous email was focused on selling a discounted version prior to the release that would not be eligible for the free upgrade. My apologies for not being more clear.

Rob

Hi Rob, I've sent you a PM. I have a similar issue with this. I'll explain it here again:

About 2 weeks ago I purchased version 2010 for a reduce price through your website (after your company sent me a special offer email). I had a need, so I got it for AU$49.99 instead of the full price of AU$69.99.

2 Weeks later I've received a "New Version" notification with the "possibility" to upgrade for AU$29.99.

It's simple math:
AU$69.99 - AU$49.99 saved me AU$20.00.
AU$49.99 + AU$29.99 = AU$79.99 which is AU$10.00 more than the new versions full price on your website

So if I would have waited 2 weeks, I would have saved AU$10.00 by purchasing the new full version from your website. As I mentioned in my PM, I still have the option to get a refund as part of your policy (within 30 days without any reason, well, I've got one... I'd save AU$10.00 if I get the refund and purchase the full version). Problem solved.

Regards
Thomas Blatti

Robert Frost wrote:

Jonah, we put out a new version annually. If we put out new versions every 3-5 years that might be feasible. We stand by our policy, it is not changing to my knowledge. But again, anyone who feels they are in an exceptional situation, e.g. bought a discounted version withing 30 days, please let us know, we will work with you.

Rob

OK Rob if you say so
I don't agree but hey its your call not mine.

this is why I got involved in this I am not really that bothered because I fixed the issue myself but then you started with the justifications (amazing actually last thing I expected was for you guys to care, I was wrong about that I apologise for my earlier dismissive posts).

As a core and long time user (and big fan / promoter) of Acronis I wonder what your market research is actually telling you. Personally I think that most of your users and therefore up-graders tend to be power users / professionals like myself who actually know what the difference between a backup and an image is. We use it for testing con-figs, for infecting machines deliberately and rolling back, for getting a clean image of our customers (in my case) machines so we can restore them to working order in minutes and play guitar hero instead of re-installing for the nth time.

I actually sell Acronis myself to my customers who are told to buy a copy, I make an image with it and keep the image on my backup server and they have never moaned at me about your upgrade policys or your prices because they have no idea what it is, why it is, what it does and they don't care because I said it was needed and they pay me for my expertise so they do what I tell them to do.

The guys who have moaned at me profusely this week are a couple of web design guys who bought 10 from Amazon a few weeks back now after I had demoed Home 11 beta to them and also said "you will be able to upgrade to 11 home in a couple of weeks when it is released". Therefore 2 of the "upgrades" you have sold this week were me buying them because you lot made me look like a t**t. I bought full copies for them from Amazon - because I can trust Amazon and their policies are really clear its done and dusted.

It is not the money Rob its the principle I couldn't care less about $100 or so but my living depends on my reputation as a IT guy in Guernsey.

You see my point I hope, the customers you are really upsetting are the guys like me in here who know they are being shafted because they are not amateur newbies.

Jonah

If I purchased a a full version of ATI 2010 from Arcronis and skip the ATI 2011 upgrade, do I get the upgrade price for ATI 2012.

The Acronis folks seem to be privately taking care of the perceived (and actual) unfairness of their upgrade policy of purposely having a sale and then a few days later purposely excluding the people from the upgrade who took advantage of the sale on the basis that they didn't pay full price. With one more promised step, my complaint will be taken care of.

What's been interesting have been the posts from different members of the Acronis Leadership "Team," some of whom actually seem to feel a little guilty about what any normal human being can see is a miscarriage of "justice," as the folks I've dealt with have done.

And then we have the Rob guy, who is perhaps the Joe Biden of the Acronis Political Team, who keeps trying to say, "This is fair; this is fair; this is fair," as if saying so will make it so. As a teacher, webmaster, and recommender of thousands of dollars of software for a large school system, I have never yet run into an "industry standard" upgrade policy like this one. They're either very cheap, or, if within 30 days, free or almost free.

In addition, it's pretty obvious that a company selling hundreds of thousands of copies of software through all sorts of vendors isn't going to be able to check to see if "full price" was paid, as there are all sorts of discounts a purchaser can get, ie "$20 coupon" if you buy more than $50 in merchandise - which isn't specifically related to Acronis, but to the store. Can't you just see Rob looking closely at "proof of purchase" receipts to see if they got a discount, and then telling the customer, "I'm sorry; you didn't get the right discount, so you have to pay the additional big bucks for your upgrade." Yeah....

Some members of the team seem to recognize it for what it was, a sneaky way by the marketing department to get people who wouldn't normally pay $80 for a ATI11 with Pluspack to buy it for half price and then have to shell out another 1/2 price for the "upgrade". They suckered me in - though they are taking care of it "privately" now. ...and the folks I'm dealing with are VERY nice....
Thanks folks!

The thing that bugs me a little as well is that 11 isn't really a new version of ATI11. It's sort of an incremental improvement, which evidently still has plenty of little bugs, as mentioned in some posts. It's like they decided that in the middle of a bunch of bug fixes, each year they'd tack a new number on it and act like it's a new version, which it evidently isn't. Windows 95 was different than Win 3.1 (Remember?); Win 98 was different than Win 95; Win 2000 was different than Win 98; I don't know what Vista was.... But ATI11 isn't much different from ATI10, which is why exorbitant and sneaky upgrade practices should not be done.

Some of the Team get the message; some don't. It would be nice if all of them would be on the same NICE version of the page.

Again... They've almost taken care of my concerns privately...
Thanks...

Thomas, I got your PM and replied last night. I willl follow up again this afternoon in PM with the promised solution. Thank you for your patience.

Jonah, i hear yoy loud and clear. Sharing your feedback, it is important to us.

Richard, yes. You can skip a version and upgrade to the next at the standard upgrade price.

Thanks,

Rob

Jim, lets agree to disagree. Otherwise, reread my posts it should clear things up, I hope. I really want this to be clear for everyone. If you purchased ATIH 2010 at a discounted price within 30 days of the release of 2011, let us know if you would like to upgrade. We will take care of you because we believe it is the right thing to do.

Rob

I normally don't post in forums, but could not in good conscience let this one slip by. I purchased TIH 2010 on 7/24/2010 because of an email sent to me offering it at 29.99. I thought this was a great deal so I ordered it and registered it on the Acronis website. Before installing on 8/24/2010, I logged into the Acronis website to check for any updates, and was downloading the recovery disk image while checking my email. Boy was I surpised when an email from Acronis showed up while downloading from Acronis offering me an upgrade to TIH 2011 for 19.99. I was infuriated to say the least. After calling Acronis sales and being told that I should go into chat for support for the Home products, I did just that. I explained that I would have waited for 2011 had I known that the new version was coming out in 30 days or less. I explained that I did not want to have an upgrade serial number for TIH 2011. I would also have to enter my TIH 2010 serial number when installing the product. I have purchased and recommended Acronis products for years. The online tech sent me a link to the upgrade policy, and said it was my only option. I then explained that 29.99 + 19.99 is only 1 cent cheaper than purchasing the full version @ 49.99, and if I was going to pay full price that I was going to have a full serial number not an upgrade serial number. The reply was that upgrading at the "special" upgrade price was my only option and that is what I should do. I promptly requested my original purchase price to be refunded, since I was in my 30 day return period. He said he would and I thanked him for his time. I have since received my refund of my purchase price of 29.99. I downloaded and installed the trial version of TIH 2011 and have only looked at it briefly. I was planning on purchasing TIH 2011 at the full price of 49.99, but have since thought about the upgrade policy and the deceptive marketing email offering the discounted TIH 2010 product, and have decided that I will explore other backup solutions before committing to Acronis again. If Acronis wanted (or wants) to keep my business they could have addressed my serial number issue right then and there. After reading the entire posts in this thread, at this time I will not purchase Acronis TIH 2011 or any other product from Acronis until I feel they are addressing this poor choice of marketing. Had they sent an email out stating a new version was to be released on 8/24/2010, I would have waited and purchased the product at full price and had no complaints about how it was sold. Because of the deceptive and misguided marketing department, Acronis has lost my business as well as any future recommendations for their products.

James Ferriter
Corporate Computer Services
Greensboro, NC 27455

Hi James, we have been talking about this in this thread. We were not trying to be deceptive with our marketing campaign. However, it definitely should have been MUCH more clear in setting expectations. We are using this as a learning experience and will make adjustments in the future. As mentioned several times in this thread we are working with anyone in your situation to fix this. I would like to talk to you about this further, we are not in business to lose customers.

Please let me know if you would like to chat about this, I am always available.

Rob

Robert Frost wrote:

Hi Kev, this is not a corporate product. We have a similar system with maintenance and free upgrades for Enterprise level products.

With Acronis True Image Home 2011 the upgrade is a 40% discount.
Full price is $49.99
Upgrade is $29.99

My previous email was focused on selling a discounted version prior to the release that would not be eligible for the free upgrade. My apologies for not being more clear.

Rob

Wow.... thats a 1.25 exchange rate.... that is VERY steep.
My UK price is £23.95 for upgrade. I could save around £5 per copy by buying direct from USA.

But say what you will...it does not change the fact that I paid £60 from your online store for 2 copies in mid May and I am now being asked £48 to upgrade them. That is not 40% of "my list price", it is you asking me to pay 80% of my original fees again.
The amounts are irrelevant and relatively small but that is not the point.
It is the principle that stinks here.

I will NOT be upgrading. I will be looking elsewhere and finding an alternative product once you withdraw support for 2010.

How long will this be ?
I think it is reasonable to ask how long I can use the product I bought before it becomes unsupported.

Regards
Kev.

Kev,

To be fair, varying exchange rates can't be taken into the equation, though there are companies that do fix their rates for a year, which results in a very poor rate of exchange for the purchaser so as they can cover for the worst rate movements.

However, I'm not disagreeing with the thrust of your argument.

I bought True Image Home 2010 for the Netbook on July 23rd at full retail (online) and then the discounted True Image Home 2010 with the Plus Pack on August 7. So, to date, there is no upgrade for the Netbook Edition and I have to pay to upgrade the other. Thanks, but I'll pass. I am not here to whine or beg but rather to express my disgust. When my licenses expire they will not be renewed.

Hi Steven, you don't have to pay the full priced upgrade if you purchased on August 7th. We will reach out to you directly to straighten it out.

Kev, can we talk about your situatuon in person and how we can help? I am available late afternoon Uk time.

Rob

I'm not sure whether I checked the 'Please keep me informed about...' box when when purchasing True Image Home 2010. Regardless:

Acronis KB article 13555 wrote:

“Customers who purchased from an online store between July 23 2010 - Aug 23 2010 will receive a discounted upgrade offering via email.”

Indicates to me that I should have received an 'upgrade to Acronis True Image Home 2011' e-mail. I would like to request one now.

Also: The knowledge base article 13555 should have read:
“Customers who purchased from an online store between July 23rd 2010 - Aug 23rd 2010 will receive a discounted”...

Sorry, Jonah... I forgot that this was an international audience...though Google might clarify the situation by checking out "quotes" or some such thing on the mentioned American political figure. I like UKisms as well, as an English teacher, and yours are particularly interesting. Sounds like something Prince Charles would say, as he's in the Joe Biden vein as well.

Not to get into politics too much on an upgrade website, maybe we can start another thread on the political ramifications of upgrading politicians and programs to no effect, which might be applicable. But it seems interesting how fixated folks are on the past political leader, as if the present one was doing such a good job. As the present party has been in control of "Congress" (an Americanism for "joke") for close to four years, and as almost all politicians of any party will sell their souls to get re-elected, there doesn't seem to be too much difference between what one group did and the other group did. They all start wars, do wars, screw up the economy, pass bills that help a little and hurt a lot, spend enormous amounts of our money, cause the loss of jobs, and make disingenuous speeches about how they'll fix the problems.
Most of us Americans (named after some obscure Italian adventurer) would just as soon get rid of the whole crowd and start over with Smurfs (try Google). The Brits could use some help in this regard as well...

Back to Acronis (and politics): Upgrading sometimes causes problems....
If the good Acronis folks, who have now given me free upgrade numbers, for which I am very thankful, had just left the policy in place from the old upgrades to 10 and 9, instead of doing the "full price" routine, they would have been within the "industry standard."
But we wouldn't have had all of this nice debate, which is the spice of life to an old teacher.

Thanks all. It's been fun.
Sorry Rob... I'm sure you're really a nice guy... NOT like Joe B...

Rob
Sure happy to talk. Am clear from now onwards. Send me email and i will send mobile Num unless it's already registered. But. I am not interested in a 'deal for me' I am interested in changing your upgrade policy for all users. I do not intend to pay £50 a year every year. Not even Microsoft gets that much of my money. :-)
Kev

Why should I pay fo an upgrade at all. I thought I was buying the latest and greatest software. The upgrade should be free to any body who bought this product in the last month, regardless of the price they paid. Why make customers mad? Is that good business sense? I talked online with one of your online people and they said that they would refer this to another department and I have heard nothing since. Maybe they hope that I will just go away?

Pissed Off

Scott

Scott,

Did you miss the Acronis policy that if you purchased between 23rd July and August 23rd 2010 that you would be entitled to a free upgrade if you had paid full price for TI2010. I beleive there is a US$10.00 offer for those who purchased from Acronis a special priced TI2010 during the same period.

Interesting set of comments and responses. I guess for those of us who purchased an upgrade to the 2010 version and still fall within the 30-day refund period, asking for a refund is the thing to do in order to be able to get into the 2011 version for the same price (or without having to pay twice in such a short time period). But, rather than go the refund route, it would sure seem easier to have a new activation number passed along to us for the 2011 version. Maybe that's what's going on in the background between Acronis and the customers to whom it applies.

As my own side note, I purchased the 2010 upgrade apparently three days before the release of 2011 version, but just found out today that the 2011 version had been released (13 days after my own purchase of the upgrade). I'm glad I looked at the Acronis site. I sure don't recall receiving a notice of the 2011 release or an offer for a discount or anything, although it's possible I might have somehow missed it.

I've sent in my request and I guess I'll see what response I receive. Hopefully, it will be a positive response.

I purchased True Image Home 2010 upgrade on Aug 19 for $19.99 and got the email for True Image Home 2011 upgrade on the 24th. I contacted support by chat & mail and have not had a response for a free upgrade. I decided to buy the upgrade at $9.99 since I have backups I want to maintain, but this is the last time I upgrade any Acronis product. I will be going over to Norton Ghost with this type of upgrade policy. Like others, I believe it should be the policy that you are able to upgrade for free within 1 month like many other software companies or at least notify people 1 month before that you are releasing an upgrade on a certain date so people can choose to wait to upgrade. You have lost me as a long-term customer and I doubt I am the last.

Jonah Lloyd wrote:

"And then we have the Rob guy, who is perhaps the Joe Biden of the Acronis Political Team"

Who is Joe Biden anyway

Is he like that daft Alaskan woman but with balls?

Could be worse I guess Rob at least you are not being compared unfavourably to G Dubbya; incidently have you yanks apologised for foisting Wyatt Twerp the Texan Berk on the world yet? You owe us all one for that 8 years of hilarious buffonery.

hmmmm............

Def - "Berk" UK Colloquialism roughly means moron

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We owe you nothing, of course. There are appropriate forums for such comments, but this isn't one of them. Unless, of course, your colloquialism applies to you...

Fortunately, the upgrade issue is a non-issue here. I read the extensive number of posts here regarding how buggy 2010 was. I decided to try it anyway, given the 30 day money back policy. After a week, the decriers were proven correct, I contacted Acronis for and recieved my refund. I'll be taking a 'wait and see' approach where 2011 is concerned. Don't get me wrong, I've been using TI since ver 7 because it works and works well. I'm still using 2009 and it works well also. Everyone has a bad year or two...I'll hold out until 2009 doesn't support the HW I need and hope that Acronis has sorted things out.