lettersign

[MOD EDIT] - embedded post removed as it has been hidden. I'm talking about the v1 purchase date after which a free upgrade to v2 is granted. If you think it's ok that you weren't granted a free upgrade for a v1 purchase made 2 months ago, then I don't think so. I sincerely wish all the best to Affinity and want them to correct the mistake they made. I have explained my position clearly enough above. And I'm not going to abuse you @HippoWorld or demean you in any way on the subject of you being able to afford a re-purchase after two months, even I think you have been fooled. Why you make this toxic comment to me?

I will try to repeat my position again. 1. You give a 40% discount and call it a gorgeous discout for customers of v1, but it is a regular "launch offer" not higher than the % that many companies give on launch. OMG you call it on the site «launch offer" and the launch offer you pass off as a discount for old customers. But this is manipulation and not true. It is a sales promotional discount, a tool to promote sales, not a gift for v1 users. 2. Later it turned out that you give an extra 50% discount on the Suite to owners of any v1 product and a free upgrade for the v1 product they bought already. But you do it secretly, without publishing clear and open criteria for what period this discount is for (without a specific clear date). Still this data has not been published. Although it is correct to do so before such a deadline for a reasonable period. Traditionally, the free upgrade period for design products is 365 days. If you shortened that period, you should have warned users and customers for 1 year before the v2 release, you need to aware that they weren't getting the upgrade to 1.11 or v2. You should have warned that the support and evolution of the product people buy will end after 1 year and they won't get the free upgrade. You did not do that. Now a lot of users are outraged (of course the was maybe just 1%, but they are and you decide to ignore them and make money from them twice. It’s not fair.), you lose their loyalty and the loyalty of long time users who recommended others to buy Affinity and those got caught up in this situation. 3. Why am I writing all this? I believe this situation is taking a huge toll on the trust and loyalty of Affinity products. People will not forget what happened. As soon as become rumors, 2-3 years from now, that v3 might be out soon, people will immediately stop buying v2. Users will come on the forums and tell them to wait, "Don't buy!!!", they will remind new possible customers that Serif doesn't give a new version to people who bought Affinity at a bad time. Which means your sales will drop, the number of users will stop growing. And all users will get a worse product because of luck of budget. It's fair to give a free upgrade to anyone who buys a license 1 year before the next version is released. It's fair to give all other users 50% for the upgrade. This is fair to the user community. It's transparent and clear criteria, understanding that people won't be afraid of a new version release when buying an old one, because they will know that Serif doesn't want to leave them fooled. It's a simple and obvious solution. Everyone here defending the flawed solution with the v2 release is hurting Affinity. In order to ensure that what has happened now never happens again, all Affinity users and Support must be interested to make changes, to give clear realictic criterias (now stupid abstract few weeks, but 6 оr 12 months) for the upgrade and use them in the future. I hope it will happen.

I’m dissapointed. I told this many times. I was in shock after your reply and I felt terrible about writing back. Are you seriously answering like this from official account? You form some kind of toxic community. And according to other forum members' responses, that's exactly what it is. Crazy. This is an entirely inappropriate reaction, that provocates toxic comments, from a Head of Quality Assurance and Support 🤦‍♂️ Why you ignore all my other messages where I explained my position and posted this manipulative answer only for the one last comment? Neither the price nor the quantity paid has anything to do with what many of your customers have already expressed in this thread. But you ignore all they write. A lot of people have commented here who feel the fact that you are ignoring them as new customers of v1 is unfair. You lost their loyalty and loyanty of all your future customers, because they all will know about this situation without upgrade. Instead of considering these comments, you're busy putting likes under the complimentary comments in this discussion. It looks strange...

@debraspicher I personally bought a licence for v1 ten months ago to support the developers financially because of their ideology and to stimulate the release of v2. I haven't even had a chance to use v1 yet, because it need time for adaptation. But instead in response to my support of their product I received a disrespectful attitude, no free update and tales of how gorgeous offer I received and from community sentences about how ungrateful I was. It's a very unpleasant experience, completely the opposite of the impression that Affinity has formed through user reviews.

Gosh, dear adepts, loyal fans and faithful defenders and advocates. No one is attacking your favourite software, no one is attacking you personally. Don't take it so fervently. There are specific categories of clients who are well understood about the specifics of creating programmes, none of them are concerned about money and none of them want to get anything for free. All they already paid. All the issues in this discussion refer only to the topic of keeping promises, the commitments made by the Serif and the fact that they do not care about their customers at all. Acting in a secretive way. To some customers they send a free upgrade from v1 to v2, here's a screenshot, but me who bought a v1.10 license less than a year ago and many others they have completely ignored. All this is done secretly, non-transparently and smells like blatant fraud. Why are Affinity doing this? It damages their reputation. Next time, in a few years, when there are rumors of v3 coming out, people will stop buying licenses for v2, because they will know that the developers will cheat them and will not provide an update. This means sales of your favourite software will fall, developers will get less money from license sales and they won't have anything to create v3 with. The fact that so many advocates have come here, regular forum users, with registration from 2016, i.e. these are people who have had a license for 6 years minimum, and these people talk about how honorable users they are and willing to buy software every day, after at least 6 years without paying anything. Sorry, but I don't believe you. Don't tell users who bought the software just 6 months ago what you would do in their shoes. You are not in their shoes. If you love Affinity products, want them to grow and have a future so that people buy new and new licenses in the future without fear of getting screwed, then you should all be interested in Affinity giving a free upgrade to everyone who qualifies (those who bought v1 within 365 days of release v2, in my opinion). That would be fair and it would be a case for the future so that sales don't drop a year before v3 is released. Don't be blind advocates!

I am comparing identical business models, identical products with version upgrades after 8 years, with identical cost (120€ discounted Affinity versus 150€ discounted Glyphs), identical conditions and in the same design software segment. For me, the question of price is completely absent. It is a question of respect for its new users. Their trust. Keeping promises, matching the commitment to the values that Affinity claims. Exactly the values by which Affinity have earned a loyal audience have been violated by their indifference to recently purchased v1 licences. @Sam Neil You don't belong to the category of users I'm talking about, so you can't decide for them and shut them up. I have seen many of these users: on Twitter and on this forum. It's time for Serif team to admit this mistake and fix it.

Dear Sam, please calm your emotions. Here is a prime example: Glyphs font editor. The release date for v2 of Glyphs is end of 2015. Around 8 years ago. Exactly the same as Affinity. Glyphs v3 is released in June 2021. And they gave a free upgrade to everyone who bought v2 after June 2020. 1 year. Not 2 stupid weeks. ONE YEAR. Such examples exist and I'm not joking you. It's normal and that's what all design products, that respect their users usually do. Here is proof: https://glyphsapp.com/news/glyphs-3-make-things-you-love (and Glyphs even smaller editor than Affinity but they think about their new users ahead) UPD: Another example. Another font editor Robofont. Robofont v3 was released on 5 July 2018, with the free upgrade from v1.8 to those who bought previous license after 8th March 2017. ONE YEAR AND FOUR MONTHS. Proof: https://forum.robofont.com/topic/489/robofont-3-0 This is normal practice.

I'm agree with @monzo How many excuses can you make? Make a free update for everyone who bought the software within a last year. That's fair, truly fair. That's what all respectable software manufacturers do ( for example, font editors, which are released as infrequently as Affinity and cost about the same). People bought the app knowing they would receive updates without a subscription and could expect to be updated with modern up-to-date features. Instead, they bought 1.10, which will never get any new features. It is very clear from this topic that you knew that such users existed and decided to sacrifice them: This is not fair and until you ignore the existence of fresh new customers of v1 and offer a fair solution for them, people will continue to be angered. Admit the mistake, provide a free upgrade for those who bought less than a year ago and the topic will be closed. It is so easy to get the most loyal users for the future and so easy to lose them forever...