(Dammit, it should have been clear the first time I bought the product that support would be worthile and that there would be value every year. After Microsoft's "Software Assurance" burning so many folks, annual fees would scare anyone. And I don't use telephone support.)
Absolutely! It may be clear to long time users of the product and to SlickEdit corporate that the maintenance contract is a worthy purchase, but this is not the case for first-time buyers. After being burned by CodeWright's support contract, and without the knowledge that program updates not only happen each year but cost more than the price of the contract, it's far from obvious ahead of time that the contract is a comparatively good deal.
The problem for users who didn't initially buy the contract, is that it's expensive to 'jump in' later on. We're left with the feeling of a no-win scenario as we contemplate the options of:
Paying $229 for the 2008 upgrade.
Paying the $139 upgrade each year.
Accepting the use of an old version for an extra year, and extra hassles of version leapfrogging and reduced ability for support.
How are we supposed to avoid the feeling that we're being punished for something that wasn't made clear to begin with? Or the feeling that SlickEdit deliberately hides these issues in order to extort extra money from its customers? What other motivation is there for not disclosing the details of the upgrade costs up-front, and not providing any mechanism for joining later on without a major penalty?
Please consider better disclosure to your new customers, because it's very frustrating to be in this position, and unhappy customers are not in anyone's best interest.
I hope you can also consider a revision to your late-join maintenance policy to make it less painful to recover from this situation. I simply cannot understand why we aren't allowed to back-pay what the maintenance contract fees would have been, or get a reduced-cost upgrade+contract bundle, or any policy that acknowledges our worthiness as customers. The current policy rewards only those who either researched or otherwise knew or guessed that the maintenance fees would be worthwhile, as opposed to rewarding all of the customers who buy your product. Because what other difference is there between the person who bought the contract with the program, versus the person who is willing to pay the same back-dated amount (even though he didn't receive the benefit of extra support during that period)?