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 How do I know what my previous license type was?

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Hvergelmir Posted - Aug 12 2019 : 3:57:56 PM
I think I started out with a Standard License, but I am not sure whether that was retained throughout the renewals of renewals ...

In theory a Personal License should be enough these days as in my sparetime I do not develop commercial software (but rather FLOSS).

Since I never got a response to an email last year nor to an attempt to get a _quote_ for a two year renewal (one license), this year, I am not sure what's going on.

The WholeTomato support used to be stellar, but these recent experiences really weren't.
12   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First)
sean Posted - Sep 26 2019 : 1:55:40 PM
Will do. Thanks for the update.
jase439 Posted - Sep 26 2019 : 1:53:37 PM
I'm not sure if recent communication from your sales/renewal team was precipitated by this thread, but I wanted to say the extended-term (multi-year) renewal offer - that not only offered substantial savings but waived the ridiculous "backdated support" condition - that was extended to me was a very positive step in the right direction by your management and sales team.

Mistakes have been made during this transition process but I do applaud and publicly recognize the effort to "fix" the problem and do right by your customers. To that end, I hope this wasn't just a 'one-off' offer to come my way and that your sales team is actively extending this opportunity to all of your end users. I would further encourage you to make this a standard part of your licensing practice and not just a five-day fire sale.

Please relay this feedback to those who make such decisions.
sean Posted - Sep 10 2019 : 8:59:19 PM
oof.
jase439 Posted - Sep 10 2019 : 7:04:10 PM
That would be something considering I last wrote to your Sales Department on December 29th of last year. Somebody may have written to somebody on Aug 20th but it wasn't me and if they did, that's really sad. I'm not sure which inspires less confidence: the fact that it took 8-months to respond to the customer (which I doubt actually occurred as I just checked the mail server for lost/junk messages) or that you don't know who the customer actually is. *face palm*

The wheels are really rolling off the wagon now. Derp.
sean Posted - Sep 03 2019 : 5:09:35 PM
@jase439, the sales department has told me that they replied on Aug 20. If you didn't receive the response, please check your spam folder.
sean Posted - Sep 03 2019 : 4:51:30 PM
I can't speak for the sales group, but I'll send on word of your post.

Regarding product, so far, the only change to product that comes from Idera is the change to the licensing process. And yes, it has been a very painful change.

The same development team that produced VA before the acquisition continues to work on it. If there is a loss of product vision, it's not due to the acquisition.

Please share any further thoughts with the team that is soliciting feedback at:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GZBQPJ2
jase439 Posted - Sep 03 2019 : 4:26:51 PM
Hvergelmir,

I just wanted to echo the sentiments expressed in your open-letter to Whole Tomato (in name only - it's really Idera now). I had a very similar experience to yours when it came time to re-up my license this year. Like you, I am stepping away from the product after nearly 2 decades of use having recommending this product to numerous colleagues and client organizations over the years. I penned a similarly-worded letter to the sales team which went completely ignored which, to me, affirms my belief that this new Whole Tomato (aka Idera) doesn't really care. Having worked for a number of companies and startups in my career which have been "subsumed" by a larger fish, I am no stranger to the damage these parent companies can inflict on an established brand by infusing the product and process with their own ignorance and technology-fleecing agendas.

WT aka Idera has lost the product vision. As a result, VA is incrementally losing its way and drifting away from the cornerstone features which made it awesome and indispensable. At $279 a pop, what used to be a no-brainer is now a non-starter. Even the licensing process has gone from easy-and-painless to drawn-out-and-broken. And that makes me sad. Great productivity tools are in such short supply, and this one is now one foot into the grave.

In any event, I wanted to reply to this post to let you know your sentiments are echoed - loudly. But Idera's non-response just affirms that we (the individual user) are among a customer base that is now considered chattel and expendable collateral under the "new order".
sean Posted - Aug 21 2019 : 4:40:32 PM
I too am sorry to see you go. Please share your thoughts with the team that is soliciting feedback at:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GZBQPJ2
feline Posted - Aug 21 2019 : 07:02:52 AM
I am sorry for the experience you have had here. I do understand your principles, and see why you have made this decision. At least we know what happened and why.
Hvergelmir Posted - Aug 21 2019 : 06:46:58 AM
Relevant quote from the email I received in response (not giving real names on either side):

quote:

Please understand that our renewal policy has changed, for more information about the renewal policy, please visit the link below:

https://blog.wholetomato.com/2018/09/17/changes-to-our-renewal-policy/

Please understand that the customers who have been off maintenance less than a year can request a quote to restart maintenance the date of purchase. The term will be for a full year. The cost to renew is $119 per user. This offer expired on March 12th, 2019.


My response (struck through one excess word stemming from some rewording):

quote:
Sorry, but in this case I will have to wean myself off VAX after being with you for nearly 15 years.

You have your policies, I have my principles. I contacted WholeTomato last year some time before Christmas and never heard back until your response now. So much for the "world class support" mentioned in your blog article ... or perhaps I didn't receive that support, because I was already "out of maintenance" even though what I was merely asking for a renewal? I had tried another time in spring 2019 also. But since I had to change jobs (and such purchase was out of the question) I didn't keep at it. As a last resort I then wrote into the forum and lo and behold this time contacting you via that email address worked (last few times were via the web form).

I have not been able to use Visual Assist X in VS 2019 for obvious reasons, nor have I been able to use a version that was released after the maintenance period ran out in September 2018. I am certainly not going to pay a full year's worth for what's now less than a month until the second year of the quoted maintenance period starts. Even if I pushed it, I'd hardly get 12 months of "world class support" in the remaining weeks, would I? So unless your offer includes time travel, I'm out.

While I really loved VAX and it has helped me a lot with Windows kernel mode development (where IntelliSense sucked particularly), VS has come a long way since 2005, the add-in community is thriving and while there is still a gap to VAX (feature wise) it's getting smaller and smaller with every year. While I used VAX with VS mostly for spare time projects of which several are open source, I kept renewing (Professional) at intervals to keep myself the option of using it for commercial development.

In short: Your policies and my principles seem to have diverged.

... therefore I have pulled two blog articles I had written, endorsing VAX (and no, I am not showing ads on my blog nor do I endorse _anything_ for money!). I will also make sure that the planned purchase for VAX (and subsequent renewals) at my new job will be stopped. Last but not least I will cease to recommend VAX to friends and colleagues. I will, btw, not regret having done that in the past, because in the past the product (as a sum of features, stability but also renewal policy and support) was brilliant (to quote myself). As a memento of better times, I am attaching a screenshot I took in 2012 when renewing.

Farewell and I wish WholeTomato the best for the future.

With best regards,

[...]


(the screenshot I attached to my response showed my own customer quote: "VA X is simply a great product")

Bye bye WholeTomato. It was lovely, while it lasted.
Hvergelmir Posted - Aug 13 2019 : 5:08:02 PM
Sure, I can try again. Thanks.
accord Posted - Aug 12 2019 : 5:30:01 PM
I'm so sorry about your email experience. We have a ticketing system and respond to every email (unless it is a spam), so I'm not sure why your enquiry did fall through the cracks.

Can you please contact sales at wholetomato dot com?

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