[TCP] Upgrade Anger to Tech Comm Suite.

[Gene Kim-Eng]

>From the number of mailings I receive from companies offering to to take advance orders for their upcoming products weeks, and in 
some cases months, before shipping, I would say there's something amiss in the idea that product ships can't be announced in 
advance. The exact date, maybe (though I get a lot of those announcements as well).

As for the upgrade price, what I read is that Richard just spent up to $899 for FM8 and is now being offered the suite for an 
upgrade price of $999.  That's *in addtion* to what he just paid, making his total price using the "upgrade" offer $1898 vs. $1599 
to buy it outright if he hadn't already bought FM8.  Stand-alone prices for the remaining components in the suite are: Robo 7, $995; 
Capitvate 3, $699; and Acrobat 8 3D, $995.  I'd say that for anyone who already owns the current release of any of these and doesn't 
have a burning need to have all of them this suite would not be attractive at the current upgrade price.  And how often does anyone 
need *all* the apps that make up a  SW "suite?"

Illegal or shady, no.  But really bad pricing and customer relations decisions.  But it's Adobe, so where's the big surprise?

So yes, Richard, getting angry is being unrealistic.  You should have just shrugged and said, "there they go again."

Gene Kim-Eng



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sue Heim" <sue.heim at gmail.com>


> Adobe is a publicly traded company. They cannot announce when a product is
> going to ship (the exact date) due to various regulations. For example, they
> cannot announce in August that a product is not going to ship until
> September. In fact, there's usually a moratorium on talking about releases
> during specific times in a quarter. Announcements such as this can affect
> revenues. Go check out the SEC regulations about product announcements for
> publicly traded companies..
>
> That said, the difference between what you paid for FM (if you paid full
> price) and the upgrade is only $99. I'm not sure that's enuf to be so angry
> about. And seven weeks is actually quite a long period.
>
> To avoid this in the future, it may be better to establish a working
> relationship with a salesperson. That person cannot tell you to hold off
> ordering because something else is coming out in two months, but that person
> may be able to assist you with upgrades. Of course, this may not be possible
> if you are a single user.
>
> Nothing Adobe did is illegal or shady. Everything they did is by the books.