We've tried that, but people were choosing that option even if they weren't ready to handle the issues and complexities they ran into, ultimately coming back to us and complaining that it was our fault.
Sorry, Lukas. I don´t want to start blame wars here and was thinking the last hours about, wether I should comment on that or not. Not only because it´s just quite offending to the customer base of Themehouse, most of them customers for over a decade. On the other hand, it's not correct what you have written. Our last ticket is now about one month old and basically it's all about the same bug that everyone else here seems to have. With subliminal messages like in your quote I have had to deal in our ticket now unfortunately more than once and such an attitude annoys oneself as a customer. Especially if you're already exchanging information with other users of the same add-on, and to find out that you're not so stupid after all and pretty much everyone else has the same problem - of which you told me until recently that it was me or my server. I don't know how many customers there are who can't cope with the documented setup of your flagships - I obviously don't know any of them - but such a sweeping statement is quite violent.
I understand very well that your X-Series, in view of the necessary commitment of Manpower & Time, is no longer financially viable at all. But to blame this on the customer and at the same time to use it as a reason to raise the price to dizzying heights that AFAIR has not been reached here, I feel as "brave" - not to say outrageous.
I may still understand that you now make the setup of the software a requirement for all new customers. That saves you a lot of trouble, the customers a lot of trouble and on top of that you get an additional $100/h in the till. This is certainly a win-win-win situation for you - but not for the customers. And that´s where this ship gets a flip side. Because now that the majority of customers have been trying to use the products for almost a year now, but - and I'd like to emphasize this - due to the large number of identical and reproducible bugs in the software and the increased ticket support for this circle of users, this price increase unfortunately feels to me more like deterring new customers and giving you some air. But nobody here puts on the pants with the pincers and in view of the fact that the price increase concerns also and in particular the existing customers, who bought the products for a completely different base price and also a completely different renewal price, a customer nevertheless feels a little "irritated" that it shall be them to pay the coal mine now and to restore thereby the profitability of the products.
Your argument is the customers would be those responsible for the drastic price change, since they aren´t able to configure the software. If this would be in fact the case, I´ld have no problems with that. Period. But the point is, that this would - and first of all - imply, that the software is error-free and the increased need for support is actually indeed due us incompetent customers. But this is not the case here, as the homologous, reproducible errors show in this thread here alone. The fact that Themehouse has to process tons of support tickets due to this erroneous functioning of the software is, of course, annoying for you. Not only because it costs time and money for Themhouse, but also keeps you from working on other things. Since the cause of the support - at least in our cases - is owed by the software, this is a very classic case of support. Just to break the leash recently, because somebody has calculated the whole situation through and found out that you have taken over with it and there is no break even anymore.
But then to unilaterally change the terms of purchase for the existing customers in order to achieve a loss compensation and thereby at the same to finance the developing time for the bugfixing, seems to be a very questionable business practice and I - personally, as a business economist - feel unable to consider this as serious. And it doesn´t make it iany better to read a statement, that it would somehow be a generous demonstration of Themehouse´s
good will to continue the ticketsupport for the already existing customers free of charge, is nothing but a resounding slap in their face. May be you forgot about that - but they already paid for it. And may be you forgot about that too, that it have been the same folks, which have supported Themehouse in all the past years with their purchases.
I have been a Themehouse customer for 20 years now. Ultimately, I was always just about having working software, which basically - with perhaps a few, occasional hooks and lugs - was something I could rely on. But at the moment I do not like the path that is looming with this at all - and I do not see that I would be willing to go on with it from here on, since this feels like a breaking point. And that´s a pity.