Disappearing license

[ftkalcevic]

Since I've owned AD, I've had a copy running on my fast desktop pc and a copy on my laptop (to use in front of the TV). A couple of months ago, I upgraded my laptop and had to request a new license. All fine. A few weeks ago, I installed Windows 7 on my desktop pc and again had to request a new license. This time, all my licenses, but one, disappeared.

I contacted support and they said 'Our license agreement was update some time ago,before that change you would have had access to 3 active installs'

Anyone else been stung by this? Should I demand a 66% refund?

Frank

 

[AndrewTing]

you can request for them to remove the previous laptop's machine ID and your previous desktop's machine ID, and you'll be back to 2 license used with 1 unused.

 

[ftkalcevic]

Here's the full support message...

Your account is only authorized for 1 active install. You currently have a personal level single user license. Our license agreement was update some time ago,before that change you would have had access to 3 active installs. Unfortunately the only way to increase you license grant would be to upgrade your account. You can contact our sales dept...

I'm not sure why I was downgraded to a single license.

 

[DavidJ]

This does appear to go against some of the assurances given previously by Alibre personnel that 'you'll never lose anything you've paid for'.

I can see that the newly labelled Personal Edition might not allow the same number of installs as higher versions - but taking allowed installs away from an existng user sounds dubious.

I have had misleading (or even plain wrong) answers from a particular individual at Alibre support in the past, so it's possible that your question was 'misunderstood' or there has been a simple error at Alibre. It would be good to know exactly what the situation is for both new and existing customers. Perhaps Max could clarify this for us?

 

[JordanCClark]

Frank, just so we're on the same page, what version do you have installed?

 

[ftkalcevic]

My account info shows...

Alibre Design 12.1, plus: Advanced Drawings, Advanced Import/Export, PhotoRender, Sheet Metal, Translate

I keep getting offers to upgrade to professional and expert, but seeing I have individual licenses for all the good bits, it is not a good deal to upgrade.

 

[AndrewTing]

wow, yours seem like a pro version.

 

[Max]

Frank,

You are absolutely correct, and the Support rep. you spoke to was incorrect.

You were a customer before the change occurred, there was confusion on our end, which is our responsibility, and not your fault.

I have adjusted your license to allow you to have 3 installations. No excuses on our end - I will take care of it for you and other users in the same boat. I apologize for your experience and will do my best to ensure things of this nature do not happen again.

Max

 

[ftkalcevic]

Thanks, I appreciate the effort.

Frank

 

[MikeHenry]

What is the policy on number of installs for new Alibre purchasers? Does it differ by version?

On occasion I'll recommend Alibre in hobby or machining forums, pointing out that multiple installs are allowed. If that's no longer the case, I don't want be making the point.

Mike

 

[Max]

New P/E licenses have one install. Pro/Expert have 3.

Max

 

[MikeHenry]

Thanks Max.

 

[wathavy4]

Frank,

You are absolutely correct, and the Support rep. you spoke to was incorrect.

You were a customer before the change occurred, there was confusion on our end, which is our responsibility, and not your fault.

I have adjusted your license to allow you to have 3 installations. No excuses on our end - I will take care of it for you and other users in the same boat. I apologize for your experience and will do my best to ensure things of this nature do not happen again.

Max

Max, could you verify about this sentence?

You were a customer before the change occurred, there was confusion on our end, which is our responsibility, and not your fault.

I used to have 5 licenses available, and today I have only 3 with my Expert.
Why the same sentence does not apply with my case?
And please do confirm if I lost 2 licenses, with whatever you have with your reason.

Thank you.

Best regards.

 

[Anonymous]

Frank,

You are absolutely correct, and the Support rep. you spoke to was incorrect.

You were a customer before the change occurred, there was confusion on our end, which is our responsibility, and not your fault.

I have adjusted your license to allow you to have 3 installations. No excuses on our end - I will take care of it for you and other users in the same boat. I apologize for your experience and will do my best to ensure things of this nature do not happen again.

Max

Max, could you verify about this sentence?

You were a customer before the change occurred, there was confusion on our end, which is our responsibility, and not your fault.

I used to have 5 licenses available, and today I have only 3 with my Expert.
Why the same sentence does not apply with my case?
And please do confirm if I lost 2 licenses, with whatever you have with your reason.

Thank you.

Best regards.

This only applies to Standard accounts who purchased before August of 2009 and paid significantly more for Alibre Standard which at the time had many more features than our current PE license but are internally classified as the same type of account which is why there was confusion initially. The most a user can acquire regardless of when they purchased is 3 license keys per seat of Pro, Expert or Standard purchased before August of 2009. All other PE licenses purchased at $99 after August 2009 will get 1 license key. We feel that 3 installs is plenty for a single user to be productive and we can deactivate licenses as need should you want to move the install.

Alibre Management

 

[DavidJ]

Hmm... - I appreciate Alibre's position, however it has been categorically stated on the forum by Alibre previously that users won't loose features they have paid for. My Expert licence dates to when 5 installs were allowed (though I don't think I've ever exceeded 3). I presume from your comment above that I'll now find I'm limited to 3 installs.

I can't get too excited about the specific change, but it does contradict previously given 'guarantees' (at least it that's how I interpret it). There will eventually come a time when I will be inclined to not believe any statement from Alibre, but just treat it as 'this week's policy'.

Other than removing complexity in licence management, I wonder if this move actually has any value, I suspect it will leave previously loyal users feeling somewhat frustrated.

 

[MikeHenry]

FWIW, I'm much less likely to recommend Alibre now than I was a year ago or so. I still think it's a good product*, but it's embarrasing to recommend Alibre, telling someone that it has feature "X" only to find later that the feature has been removed or or some policy has been changed, often silently. I suppose that it is bad marketing to broadcast product changes that limit the user, but it can be good to make these changes silently either.

* Aside from Vault

Mike

 

[Max]

This isn't new. In fact it's almost in the realm of years old.

The reason we scaled back from 5 is that after we looked into people that were actually using 5 it was more often than not they were blatantly abusing the license agreement.

At 3, our license agreement is still basically the best in the industry. Almost no people have 4+ personal computers. If they do, in general, they are a business and are abusing the previously overly generous 5 license grants. We made the business decision to stop that from happening by scaling back to 3.

We've heard all kinds of complaints about "well I had 5 and now I only have 3", but when they get on the phone with us and we start looking into it more often than not they are just angry that now Bob, Joe, and Ruth can't also use the software any more. That's just too bad.

It's unfortunate that some people that either didn't read or didn't care to follow the license agreement ruined it for everyone, but at 3 you are still given a pretty ridiculous amount of flexibility on when and how you want to use your license.

As a software company we are directly affected by peoples' negligence or disregard for the terms of the licensing. Our choices are to take steps to prevent that from happening without unduly crippling everyone or to just raise our prices. We don't feel that allowing you to have 3 simultaneous installs is unduly crippling, and now we are in a better position to keep our prices lower. Additionally, if we didn't feel it was significant enough to warrant addressing, we would have left it alone. But after hearing over and over from customers that the shop guy and the marketing guy can't use the license any more, it was time to put our foot down.

Max

 

[DavidJ]

I agree with Mike - it would be much better to explain these changes and the reasons for them to those affected, rather than let them find out eventually and feel hard done to.

I honestly thought until today that I was still entitled to 5 installs if I chose to use them. Now it's clear that isn't the case - I can cope with 3 installs; I just have to be a bit more disciplined if (say) I wish to use a copy on the PC in the workshop, I'll have to remove a licence from the PC in my lab (other installs are on my main office PC and my laptop).

My gripe is not anything to do with Alibre's licensing policy - it is to do with the poor management of communications with your customers.

 

[jhardy1]

Max,

Something funny seems to be happening with my licence(s). I am a long-time Alibre X-CAD customer (one of the first 10,000), and have since upgraded to PE, but I am supposed to have the extra features of shelling, full 2D drawings, import / export functionality, etc. When I tried to fire up today, I got a message that my licence will expire in 5 days. I thought I was supposed to have perpetual licences.

Maintenance is another issue, and I know my maintenance expires soon, but I thought my licences and all features were "forever".

(See attached screen grab - site key and licence key obscured for privacy / security reasons.)

Thanks,

Julian

 

[Anonymous]

Max,

Something funny seems to be happening with my licence(s). I am a long-time Alibre X-CAD customer (one of the first 10,000), and have since upgraded to PE, but I am supposed to have the extra features of shelling, full 2D drawings, import / export functionality, etc. When I tried to fire up today, I got a message that my licence will expire in 5 days. I thought I was supposed to have perpetual licences.

Maintenance is another issue, and I know my maintenance expires soon, but I thought my licences and all features were "forever".

(See attached screen grab - site key and licence key obscured for privacy / security reasons.)

Thanks,

Julian

This indicates that your maintenance is going to expire you will get a perpetual key when this one expires, just make sure the email on your account info link is correct so you get the key when it is emailed.