Pro to Ultimate Upgrades - COME ON COREL

[christopherpm]

I purchased the Pro version of VS4 last month (40 days ago, so outside of the 30 day refund period), for the same price as as what is now the cost of the Ultimate version.

When I phoned Corel yesterday, they told me that I wouldn't be eligible for a refund, and that they could happily let me upgrade for $79.99!!!

I think Corel need to rethink their strategy for existing customers and offer either a free upgrade to the Ultimate version if the Pro was purchased before the Ultimate version was released and announced, OR have a nominal upgrade charge to go from Pro to Ultimate.

Even I wouldn't agrue at paying say $10 - $20 to upgrade to the Ultimate from the Pro.

[Ron P.]

I agree 100%, this is bad, bad, business..

[Ken Berry]

I too am rather ticked off about the whole thing... And remember that Ron and I are the two Site Admin people here, yet we knew not a thing about an Ultimate version being released before it was actually released!!!

[dbz2000]

I am in agreement expecially since there are only a few NEW items added to the Ultimate package that Corel should feel generous to give any of the VS Pro4 buyers who have been loyal customers for a very long time. I just got the Pro version this spring and I bought the book and now I am being asked to re-purchase virtually the same software with a few new gimmicks. It is just good business to keep your loyal fan base happy and feeling appreciated.

[wstagner]

I'll wait for the 64bit version. That mite be worth upgrading for.

All of the products they're including can be purchased separately and evaluated for free at their respective web sites.

[Ron P.]

I'll wait for the 64bit version. That mite be worth upgrading for.

All of the products they're including can be purchased separately and evaluated for free at their respective web sites.

I'm not sure Corel will ever release a true 64 bit version. Wouldn't that be getting just too close to a professional program for them? They'd have to dump it like they did MSP and DVD WS2....

Sure both Boris and Prodad can be purchased separately, but that's not the main issue, I think the main issue is that even for the vanilla (Pro) version owners, the upgrade price is outrageous.

[wstagner]

Disagree about the 64 bit version.
There's at least 1 64 bit video editor in the SAME price range as VS. I've evaluated it and it's no where close to a "pro" program.
It does, however, allow you to find all of its "bugs" faster tho!

[christopherpm]

I have today written to Corel Customer Services (although I doubt I'll be pleased with the reply IF I get one), and I have also written to some of the larger PC magazines to express my disgust at Corel. People in general should know how much Corel don't care about it's customers...

[alanball]

It annoys me also that the inclusion of free offerings they have advertised over the past few months with the purchase of VS4 have not been offered to present users as a free download.

[Natal]

The main reason most likely is that the software bundled with the program in more recent versions of X4 belongs to a third party. The license agreement would not cover earlier sales of X4, so if they were to supply the new software to old users they would probably have to pay the third party a fee, and that isn't going to happen for a sale they have allready made before the licensing deal.

The new stuff is bundled in to provide an incentive to attract new customers. The downside for Corel is that part of that sale will go to the third party program owners so they make less profit, but that is OK if they can increase their overall return on their X4 investment since they are not spending money to get these new customers (as they would if they upgraded X4 itself). But it also means that there is no incentive for Corel to provide that software to old customers, if they did do that they would essentially be giving away money they had allready recieved in the past.