DA's Trustpilot needs love

[Richard G]

The so called lifetime licenses I have used were for that version only.

Which prooves how special the licenses and attempt to please customers was from DA. And that they were kind of the only ones in software business. Especially with this kind of software. But it also shows they were a bit too enthousiastic and naieve to think a business could keep this up. And as long as they were with them 2 and maybe 1 or two others helping them they might have thought they could keep up. But not really a lot of new features appeared either.
Anyone who really thought this through as a professional business would have known that at a certain point in the future they would run into the limits of what is possible. DA found out the hard way.
Is that their own fault? Yes for sure, but at least they tried and are still trying but the limit is reached, which is clearly to be seen with the cutbacks now. They can't do anything else then breaking the promise to update the other software. They still keep their promise to keep our DA license active and updated.

In my thoughts you can't demand a company to keep something up which not even any other similar (let alone same branch) company is or have ever given. To me we can be glad that take kept it up that long and still keeping it up for the time being.

But it should still support them

It does. Just not with newer versions of OS and Mariadb anymore. And they never promised they would keep support and updates for all OS versions. And if an OS support stops, so will logically the software running on it. Becaue that will turn EOL at a certain time.
We were never promised lifetime OS support. We did however get it for many years but that stopped now.
And you do see the smilie and know the meaning of smilies right?

However I -do- agree the other point you make partly. If we would update all the software itself, then they should not prevent us from doing that by blocking MariaDB updates for example.
I said partly, because there is no statement in the official agreement (only somewhere on the site where MariaDB was not even mentioned), and not in the e-mail you got.
But since we with external licenses had way more expensive licenses we would have more reason to complaint anyway.

I know its 20 years later but I was supposed to get a lot more.

You mean a lot more years? Well... most company's don't even live that long in software. I'm glad they are still around and we still get updates. Our EOL issue starts in juli next year so we still got a year. And if they do what is suggested to give us the opportunity to have the OS keep it updated then even a couple of years longer.
So due time is given to change or the get over to something else for people who feel themselves downsided by them.

So concluding, did they dropped the ball on updates and for a big part on the lifetime licenses too? Yes they did, there is no disagreement in that.
But it's not fair to punish them so hard for it, because:
1.) Anybody with a real business mind could know this was something impossible to keep up on the long term and at least they tried while no other company did and still doing it in fact! EOL is next year! And maybe then we even get a way to keep MariaDB updated we will have to wait and see.
2.) And also always kept being the same while competitors or other company's just stopped licenses and at least were raising prices all the time.
3.) They are trying to compansate by giving the option to convert to half price modern licenses to keep their business running as well as the customers business!! They don't need to do that in this situation, but they do.
4.) Other company's would have accepted this mess threads, they would have closed them, declared the whole lifetime issue end of life and had been done with it, end of story. DA still does not.

There is a difference between things which are supposed to be and how things work out realisticly. And I do agree with you that it "should have been" that way, but realisticly it's just not possible anymore.
That does not make them automatically a bad company, they made some naive decesions in the past. Haven't we all?

So blaiming them they did wrong is fair.
But it's just as fair to also state that they tried the best they could and are still trying is just as fair and since almost nobody is doing that, I am. In spite of the fact that I'm dissapointed too, but it is what it is.

 

[floyd]

They are trying to compansate by giving the option to convert to half price modern licenses to keep their business running as well as the customers business!!

Even half price is still too much for a $5/month VPS. It doesn't help me at all.

 

[Richard G]

It doesn't help me at all.

Yeah well... realisticly no-one or nothing lives forever.
So time to make choices.

 

[netswitch]

We can go on like this forever.
There was a commercial / marketing mistake made at some point by DA.
DA fixed it on a way that was fit to them, not to the customers.


I am convinced there were other ways that would have been more acceptable for customers and more profitable for DA.
Suggestion were made but never addressed, the topic in which those suggestion were made was closed as soon as a good excuse to do it arose. (even if I have to admit that it went out of scope / too far but it also shows how sensitive the matter is)

Limiting the product features is clearly unfair / not in the spirit of what was promised. (When they changed the rules/pricing, they even allowed old resellers to buy a last batch of one time licences ! They never mentionned they would cripple the software a few years later.)

Now the pricing model is hopefully working for them so they have no reason to adapt it either.

We have no voice in this matter and can only contest with our wallet.

Final situation for us :
We took the new licences for shared hosting servers as, contrary to what was said in the past, it was against TOS to use internal ones for that purpose, and we move vps cusomers to other free or paid panels when the legacy limitations are an issue and/or the new pricing is too high (which it is 90% of the time for cheap vps services).
Loss for us as we have less margin and have to support other panels.
Loss for DA as, had we recieved a good commercial offer, we would have converted all our licences and sold more since then.
(the existing 50% deal on converted licences is still too expensive for most users)

I am not really convinced they did "the best they could" as, in my case, it ends up on a loose / loose situation.

 

[floyd]

the existing 50% deal on converted licences is still too expensive for most users

It would have been an extra $2700/month for me, a still struggling one man company.

 

[Richard G]

There was a commercial / marketing mistake made at some point by DA.

When they started their business yes. Nobody disagrees about that. It's even wondering it could be kept up until several years ago.

Now the pricing model is hopefully working for them so they have no reason to adapt it either.

Don't forget this pricing model for monthly licenses didn't change since they started. It was 29,95 and still is.

I am convinced there were other ways that would have been more acceptable for customers and more profitable for DA.

Most likely these other ways would not generate enough stable incomine, which is clearly required. Other ideas were only acceptable for half of the people so wouldn't work either.

Smart idea's can still be given, but if you need a steady income, what can they do?

contrary to what was said in the past, it was against TOS to use internal ones for that purpose

What do you mean? It has always been a clear fact that internal licenses should be sold bundled with a server/vps and not seperately.
So your customers can use them for shared hosting servers as long as you sell your customers the license and server together.

I partly agree about the 50% price, but that depends on the situation. With a lot of customers the price can easily be devided. With 15 people on a vps for example, it's 1 dollar per account. And most servers have more then 100 users on them.
Most hurt are people with a lot of licenses especially external ones as they paid more, but only using few of them.
What would have been a good offer? 3/month?

Other paid panels are more expensive. And free panels well.... it's a choice, but doubt if it's a wise one.
So how many profit did you make over all those years with those very cheap licenses?

They never mentionned they would cripple the software a few years later

Because this was never intended, as you can also read from my arguments, take the attempts to first try with support fee and paying seperately for pro pack.
So do the math, there is a reason.
If I look at everything what has happened the last few years and ideas given, most likely it's not that they didn't want to do better but they couldn't do better for us. You are with them from the beginning. You should now they never intend to harm us.
They didn't even raise prices for 23 years. Compare that to -any- other company.

It would have been an extra $2700/month for me

2700/15=180. So 180 servers/vps systems as 1 person company, that's a good job. Loads of customers then.
But you can survive by raising the prices then too. Looks like DA can not survive by keeping lifetime licenses supported paid for -once- and very cheap (I know some went even way cheaper than the 89/piece) and earned back multiple times over the years.

It's just a pity, but things won't change anyway, we can indeed go on like this forever, we have to find a way to live with it.
It bad for everyone, some a bit more than others. But imho reviews are made over the whole period, not over a small period where they probably have to make these decisions for existance reasons. Seen how fair and nice they handled over all these years, it's just unrealistic to think they want to scam us or that the issue can be easily fixed. I refuse to believe that.

 

[floyd]

.

I had a whole thing typed out and just deleted it because I don't think you want to hear it anyway.