Not so sweet deal for CS-Cart Ultimate edition upgrade, a case study.

General General Questions
1

Hi community members, this is my personal opinion, so please do not get offended.

Recently CS-Cart has kept CS-Cart Ultimate edition for pre-sale and has also published upgrade option from CS-Cart Professional edition.

I'm putting my case in light of me purchasing CS-Cart license for $285. And this thread applies to existing customer.



The situation for new customer currently is like this:

  1. Today's Pre-sale price for CS-Cart Ultimate Edition is $495.
  2. On that date and until the release the pre-sale price will grow up to $550.
  3. The retail price of CS-Cart Ultimate will be $650.



    However for upgrade process for existing customer currently is like this:
  4. Special discount price: $300 if pre-ordered before January 1st, 2012 (285+300=585; You pay $585 that is $90 more than new customer)
  5. $355 after that and up to the release date (285+355=640; You pay $640 that is $90 more than new customer)
  6. The upgrade fee will total $415 when CS-Cart Ultimate is released (285+415=700 You pay $700 that is $50 more than new customer)



    What I was expecting as loyal existing CS-Cart customer was like this:

    When I purchased CS-Cart license the price was $285, so;
  7. Today's Pre-sale price for CS-Cart Ultimate Edition is $495, so 495-285=210 (Pay $210)
  8. On that date and until the release the pre-sale price will grow up to $550, so 550-285=265 (Pay $265)
  9. The retail price of CS-Cart Ultimate will be $650, so 650-285=365 (Pay $365)



    Also;

    Additional CS-Cart Professional edition license for $235.

    Additional domain license for CS-Cart Ultimate edition is for $195 that is $40 less.



    In my opinion unless you have truly inter-related business stick to CS-Cart Professional edition, because if one site goes down at least another will be running.



    Note: I mailed CS-Cart team and asked “can I get discount for upgrade in lieu of support credit as an option” but got reply that discount is only available on final price that is $650.
2

That is a good argument but only for recent purchasers of the software. Those of us that have been around for a long time only paid $195 back in the day so it works out about even.



Also remember that those that have been around for a long time and have the lifetime upgrade, if you upgrade your lifetime license to one of the other packages, say “bye-bye” to the lifetime upgrade.

3

[quote name='The Tool' timestamp='1324055295' post='127952']

That is a good argument but only for recent purchasers of the software. Those of us that have been around for a long time only paid $195 back in the day so it works out about even.



Also remember that those that have been around for a long time and have the lifetime upgrade, if you upgrade your lifetime license to one of the other packages, say “bye-bye” to the lifetime upgrade.

[/quote]



I purchased my PRO version in March of 2010, and did not get Lifetime Upgrade license!



Also, I got an outrageous quote for an upgrade to Ultimate edition and while requesting extra licenses for 10+ domains got no bundle discount! That is a very poor way of doing sales and keeping customers happy!



It is gonna be cheaper to go with OpenCart for multistore!