posted on February 7, 2001 02:58:48 PM new
STEVE...Try a "one time" fee of $200.00. That's what AA Pro cost and it did say upgrades were free. The few changes to be made are NOT a MAJOR UPGRADE..
Auction Tamer is on our long list to take a look at. Not sure yet which ones we will be doing full evaluations on (we just can't do them all).
rdee: I use Auction Assistant, and recently purchased Pro. I agree that Blackthorne's tactic of luring customers into buying the product (and the Pro screen does say you purchased it, legalese about licensing notwithstanding) with support and upgrades, and then switching to a subscription service, was....ill advised.
posted on February 7, 2001 04:25:42 PM new
Surely there is a lawyer or a spouse or relative of a lawyer who uses Blackthorn's AA that can give us a quick yes/no/maybe as to whether we have viable grounds for a class action lawsuit? Anyone?
posted on February 7, 2001 08:53:30 PM new
I was wondering when they would do this. They've basically been providing maintenance for free for quite awhile. This is just trickle down from what software companies have been doing for years on mainframes and minis, and recently micros - Norton, etc. Maintence costs per year for software on those systems are very expensive and are purchased as a form of insurance. Great for the software companies and paid almost automatically out of DP budgets. The price seems steep based on the initial cost of the program - Maintenance is usually about 20%. I'll keep Blackthorne - you get a year free. After that it may be back to templates and cut and paste.
posted on February 7, 2001 09:50:21 PM new
You know while everyone is trying to figure out what to do without their AA - I was talking to counsel today, and was reminded that when one company buys another, that they also buy their contractual agreements, (i.e.) when eBay acquired Blackthone they also purchased the old agreements Blackthorne made for free upgrades, etc. He suggest a Class Action Suit on this. I told him personally, I didn't have time to be bothered, but I should think someone out there might be interested.
I'll second the applause and appreciate for the Auction Tamer program - and their customer service which is OUTSTANDING beyond words. I couldn't make it without my Auction Tamer!
posted on February 7, 2001 11:15:21 PM new
If you're looking for alternatives, OAUA has a pretty comprehensive list of auction management tools for sellers (web-based and software) on its links page:
