I don't understand how it is difficult - let alone impossible - to keep , if not all, then at least the "big boys'" from the Pro Edition to the Cube, parallel to your other offers. From what I read in the forum, problems with upgrades started with people who buy one note and articulation at a time - "How do I get the brass without getting the woodwind again.... the extended appassionata without the plus percussion" and more convoluted requests as everyone is trying to tailor-make a library according to their bank and purpose. Surely the customers that buy the big products cannot be punishable for that situation which VSL itself created by offering the library a piece at a time... If VSL considered that this practice could make more money for them that is fine by me, but as an old owner of the then Rolls Royce product (Pro Edition) I expect the commensurate treatment. If there is any credence to be accorded to Herb's claim that "it is not possible to offer all upgrade paths parallel" (highly questionable but for the benefit of the doubt...), then at least an exception for people that spent many thousands of euro in one go (as opposed to many hundreds of euro - there is a BIG difference) should morally be made in my opinion, and that is certainly not giving them a 3-month 5400 euro ultimatum (more like extortion given the time period), but,@herb said:
Most of our users have already upgraded, and there are hundreds of requests of upgrade options from Special Edition and Special Edition PLUS to the big DVD collections.
It's not possible for us to offer all upgrade pathes parallel.
Therefor we have announced this upgrade grace period of three month were you get also special discounts (free extended libraries).
And on July 15th we'll switch to the new VIP pathes.
best
Herb
is it because the company suddenly needs cash and foregoes its good word about not paying for the same sample twice?.. I certainly hope the reason is not that there is a new kind of Cube coming along in December or early next year (better sampling rates, more articulations, 64bit new software, what-have-you) for which the owners of the current cube could upgrade for thousands of €€€€ and of course the same would have to be extended to Pro Edition users and this current scheme is to have them pay twice that in less than a year or even two...
I ask that you reconsider your ultimatum as this hurts a lot of your loyal customers deeply, the ones that refused to buy pirate 'complete orchestral packages', the ones that felt you deserved to get handsomely paid for such a magnificent product and got strange looks from others who happily shared their softwares, and who paid thousands of €€€€ for the only item of expensive musical equipment they possessed that they could not legally re-sell... You are asking these loyal MUSICIAN customers to put aside a whopping €1800 per month aside from their huge monthly profits(....) in order to make your seemingly arbitrary deadline. I wonder what your mortgage-paying musicians, secretaries, electricians and other staff would think if someone asked them to do exactly that. That is €21,600 after tax, after debts, after living expenses, disposable income in a single year!
Please re-consider,
Best wishes,
Errikos.