$49.95 Upgrade from Pro Life Time to Ult Life Time

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luma
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Re: Ultimate Upgrade - Reason's to..

Post by luma »

CDRMaker wrote:Hello everyone...

I believe many folks are missing the obvious.
I believe yourself and ultimately Nikos are missing the obvious.

I think that us, as paying users, don't give one whit about software protection schemes.  It does nothing to benefit me, and it takes time away from development of actual features as opposed to this endless rat-race of chasing pirates (who, eventually, have proven over and over will win).  Every minute we spend dealing with your licensing details is essentially "punishing" your legit, paying users.  Pirates will just download a pre-packed torrent or what have you and continue on their day.

As near as I can see, outside of the priority support (which can be valuable to some users), the only feature "added" to Ultimate is one that was removed from Pro.

I just ran across this software this week and got the go-ahead from my boss to buy it today.  I've purchased pro with lifetime, because I don't personally need the portable version. If I had done so previously I would be furious with this change.  

If you want to add features, by all means do so.  That's not what's happened here - features have been removed and then re-packaged into a more expensive tier.  What is to say that other core features of pro or ultimate won't be removed and then placed into xplorer2 hyper-plus edition?  Based on current behavior, users have no reason to expect this won't happen.

Further, you've now removed the value proposition behind the lifetime license.  You've decided to create tiers above existing license levels and will be adding features to these tiers that won't be present in existing tiers.  By doing so, you've pretty clearly demonstrated to your customers that the lifetime license isn't worth the paper it's printed on.  Yes, you'll get updates to new versions, but new features or performance enhancements are being added to a new tier beyond what was already purchased.  Of course, you are able to receive these new features too - for just a little more money.  That isn't a lifetime license, that's just regular old upgrade pricing with a new name.
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Post by armsys »

luma,
Exactly you're describing the whole truth and fact.
In my case, I was deceived twice already. As such, there's no reason why Nikos won't repeat the same renaming tricks again and again to punish his legitimate loyal paid users.
For the same life-time upgrade cost from Xplorer2 Pro to Ult, you gain superiorly higher values by licensing XYPlorer Pro life-time. Immediately you enjoy the speed beneift to accomplish more tasks while still waiting for Xplorer2's phoning home.
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Post by IneedHelp »

There's no x2 home phoning, but please do tell what firewall indicates that and where is x2 trying to connect to.
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Post by thericochet »

I think the writing is on the wall and eventually (perhaps as soon as a year from now) the Professional version won't be updated at all (or token 'updates' with no meaningful changes) based on Nikos saying the feature sets will eventually diverge. From here on out Ultimate version becomes "THE" version (slowly at first to not stoke the already angry customers), thus nullifying any benefits from a so-called "lifetime" upgrade warranty we purchased in addition to the Pro license.

Dirty pool.

I can see a reasonable $20 upgrade that included both the new Ultimate license and the lifetime warranty, but forcing current so-called "lifetime" warranty purchasers to buy yet another one is pretty low. You'd breed a little bit more goodwill from customers willing to continue to support your efforts financially if you kept Pro+Lifetime customers at just the $20 upgrade level that included the new "lifetime" warranty. As it is now I don't see myself upgrading at all because I don't want to be locked out of future versions of Ultimate if I do not purchase the extra warranty for a second time.

From my point of view it feels like you're taking advantage of the people who were confident enough to trust you enough that something like this wouldn't be pulled. Why should we trust you now?
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Post by armsys »

The actual cost of upgrading Pro Life Time to Ult Life Time is US$40, not $20 which Nikos fooled us in the beginning of this thread.

The following is the Mar 8 private email from Nikos:
----------------------------------------------------------
Anyway what I am trying to say is that the ultimate upgrade is $20 and the lifetime cover EXTENSION is another $20. I am not sure which one you don't need

At any rate if you don't want to pay extra, you can always remain with the professional version you bought

Hth
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Post by armsys »

On Oct 16, 2011 I took a leap of faith in Nikos to pay US$42 for upgrading my Xplorer2 Life time (bought on Jan 3, 2006) to Xplorer2 Pro Life Time. Now Nikos expects me to pay another US$40 for upgrading my Xplorer2 Pro Life Time to Xplorer2 Ult. So within 5 months, I've to pay US$82 for the functionally similar Xplorer2 Ult.
That's a true story how Nikos punishes his loyal paid users.
XYPlorer Life Time costs me only US$69.95 and runs faster and more robustly than Xplorer2. Above all, I can develop my own UDCs and scripts on XYPlorer. XYPlorer never plays renaming tricks.
Last edited by armsys on 2012 Mar 15, 06:36, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by IneedHelp »

No one expects you to pay anything. While the development of a different x2 flavor is debatable, technically Nikos didn't screw anyone, furthermore he's not the first to try this marketing scheme (e.g. SafelyRemove/Zentimo case). Negative user feedback will leave marks, but it's not fair to make false statements.

And since you mentioned XYplorer in your edited post, I'd want to say that it is a file manager with many features which I'd like to see present in x2, but stating it is faster and more robust than x2 without providing any evidence sounds more like ill-will and disinformation. Not to mention that XY doesn't even have a 64-bit build and also doesn't support file grouping (I wonder how XY users cope with that).
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Post by nikos »

interesting practical experiment in consumer psychology! What exactly did I remove from the professional version? And what kind of evidence do you have that I will screw up professional version holders in the future? How dare you insinuate such @@@? profanity censored

I don't often lose my rug but false accusations drive me up the wall
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Post by luma »

nikos wrote:interesting practical experiment in consumer psychology! What exactly did I remove from the professional version? And what kind of evidence do you have that I will screw up professional version holders in the future? How dare you insinuate such @@@? profanity censored

I don't often lose my rug but false accusations drive me up the wall
I'm coming into this as a new user, so I might have misunderstood some details.  Let me lay out the facts as I understand them, and please tell me if I'm misrepresenting something.
  • Up until recently, you have offered with the 1.x series a lifetime license for the pro version.
  • This 1.x pro version included a portable option.
  • Now you've upgraded to 2.x which presumably includes new features.
  • You've also split 2.x into 2 pricing tiers.
  • The portable option is now part of a new "Ultimate" tier.
  • To upgrade from pro lifetime to Ultimate lifetime is $40
Are all of these statements factually true?

If so, then the existing pro lifetime subscribers, who previously had a portable option, now do not as that feature has been bumped into a new, higher tier that did not exist before.  Existing users who paid double the price to receive a "lifetime" option have now had features of their existing product removed, and to get that feature back they need to cough up another $20 (to get it once), or $40 if they actually want that feature "for life".

If all that is true, then why would anyone have reason to believe that other features of pro, or now ultimate, won't be removed in 3.x and placed into some new tier that we haven't heard about?
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Post by Kilmatead »

luma wrote:Are all of these statements factually true?
They are not.  The Portable version was never part of the Pro License - it was always a separate product which was purchased separately and provided a limited number of "personalised builds" needed when new versions (even small upgrades) were released.  The new portable version has a different form of completely unintrusive protection, may be used as an installed version, and does not have the limitation of a "set number" of builds available for the license holder (excluding whatever its own "lifetime" policy might be).

In short, no functionality has been removed from x2, and though the two products (Pro and Ult) will slowly diverge over time, the Pro version will always be supported and upgraded as evidenced by the "Lite" version being continuously upgraded over the years, even though there's no benefit in doing so, as it's free.

Exactly how Pro and Ult will diverge is a matter for speculation (and most likely done at the usual glacial pace) - not even Nikos is entirely sure how to treat the issue, though it's unlikely to involve any useful options (as opposed to "frivolous crap") being "left out" of the Pro.    For now, the main object is Portability: if you don't need it, don't buy it.  Simple as that.  Users who recently upgraded to V2 licenses (Lifetime or not) and seem to feel irregularly miffed have lost nothing except their own perspective on things, which is a normal part of the aging process in modern society and (somewhat regrettably) has nothing to do with x2 licensing.
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Post by luma »

Well, it turns out that my statement was based upon a misunderstanding of the situation before I became a customer so I happily retract my earlier comments.

I bought this software because it's functionally superior to everything I've tried, so I don't want anyone to think I'm unhappy with the software.

Keep up the good work Niko!
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Post by armsys »

Kilmatead,
Thanks for your input. You miss the core issue. When users paid for the Pro Life Time, they were never informed of the forthcoming Ult. And the same renaming tricks will be repeated if the past record is our guidance. In my case, I've already paid for the Life Time versions twice since 2006.

The rest such as feature removal and home phoning are of non-issues.
Xplorer2 is definitely slower than XYplorer. Correct me if I'm wrong.
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Post by Kilmatead »

armsys wrote:When users paid for the Pro Life Time, they were never informed of the forthcoming Ult. And the same renaming tricks will be repeated if the past record is our guidance. In my case, I've already paid for the Life Time versions twice since 2006.
They were not informed because, as I stated, the portable version (which is the only difference, and indeed the whole point) was always a separate product, and it never had a Lifetime License associated with it.

Many users of 1.x versions were under the mistaken belief that just because there had been 7 years of "free updates" they already had a Lifetime license, when in reality they only had a "normal" Pro license.  We went to great pains to explain this distinction to people when V2 was released with its different license structure.  If indeed you purchased a "Lifetime" license back in 2006 (which is unlikely as I don't think they were even available then), please send an email to Nikos and clarify the issue.

As stated, if you don't need portability, don't worry about the Ultimate version or it's costs or little green leprechauns stealing your children.

Even if you had paid for a proper Pro Lifetime license previously, that never included the Portable version anyway so has nothing to do with the Ultimate version.  And that Pro License is still good for as long as Nikos continues to breathe.  If you have a fear that the Pro version will somehow be deprecated in the future, then that is your own fear and disseminating it as unsubstantiated fact is unproductive.
armsys wrote:Xplorer2 is definitely slower than XYplorer. Correct me if I'm wrong.
As queried above by another user, making such statements is meaningless.  If you wish to have such a conversation, that's fine - but start it with a "positive" - as you're asking me to prove a negative against no statement of yours.  There are many users on this forum (though I am not one of them) who will just love to have an extended comparison of File Manager X vs File Manager Y.  Start such a thread cogently, and you might get an interesting discussion.
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Post by gufus »

luma wrote: I bought this software because it's functionally superior to everything I've tried,
Agreed!

I've invested a total of $50 since version 1, currently running 2.1.0.0 ULT [Unicode] 2/27/2012

Well worth it. IMHO
3.1.0.1 ULT [Unicode] x64 11/12/15
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Post by Dark Wizard »

Just wanted to comment xplorer2 is much faster then XYployer, especially as a shell replacement.

Unfortunately for nikkos, xplorer2 2.0.0.3 (back in 2011) and 2.1.0.0 already have "keygens" available on torrent sites.

Though I'm considering purchasing, because it's an excellent product.. but I do have to say the cost for Ultimate Edition and upgrade cost from Pro to Ultimate (lifetime) is a little ridiculous. I suggest "nikkos" change his business practices before he really starts losing a large chunk of his customer base, especially when customers read some of his posts on this thread which are very unprofessional and deceitful in the way he tries to explain things.

I also suggest its time to start adding plugins like FTP, WinSCP before this product really falls behind, Total Commander and even free alternatives. If you do this, you'd probably take over the market and could even charge extra, which seems like a ever increasing theme nowadays.
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