The Crappy Upgrade Companies

Dont buy from Polar, Ahead Nero or Corex Cardscan

I have started to get a real grudge against the companies who cheat their users of upgrades at reasonable cost.

If you read more on my blog – you can see my grudge against Polar, who is NOT providing an upgrade of their running software – and prefers to do a name change to convince people to buy a new watch – but the software is still the same – that kind’a makes a bad taste in my mouth. One that really inspires people to be pirates and copy the offending companies software. But now I got a couple more.

But I got TWO new additions to my hall of shame and blame

Ahead Software – Nero. Well you go out buy a nice DVD burner drive and get Ahead Nero. Yepiii you think – only to find out the version included is Nero 6 – and does not work with Microsoft Windows Vista. Vista is even nice enough to tell you that Ahead got an upgrade for Nero 6 to make it work – but Nero tells you otherwise. You need to buy an upgrade to get Vista Support. Only Nero 7 runs on Vista. Great you think – until you find out that the upgrade version is only about $10 cheaper than buying a brand new copy.

Well okay I thought – I got a FULL version 6 I bought once - the discount on that might be a lot higher. But nope – a few pennies more in discount – upgrade cost 80% of new price. Hurray... All i wanted was a freekin’ DVD burning software. But says Nero – we have put so much more in the package.. I DON’T WAN’T MORE – I just want to do my basic tasks such as burning a DVD on Vista. I don’t want a multimedia madness centre that fills my computer with unusable features. If I wanted them – I would PAY for them.

Calling it an upgrade is an insult...

Which moves me on to... CARDSCAN

Corex Techologies / CardScan has been in my arsenal of business tools for a long time. The software works by scanning business cards and putting the data into Outlook – a really nice feature –and I have been a very happy client.

I got 2 licenses – a 5 user license and a single user. To make the story short – I paid $79 for my full version of CardScan 1 ½ years ago. I got a nice mail telling me Version 8 was online and I could upgrade. Cool I thought might finally recognise Danish language, a feature I have been missing for many years.

But surprise surprise - Cardscan has almost doubled the price of the software to $149. And if you are an old customer – they value your upgrade with a 20% discount... Yes – 20% - from $149 to $119. Damn still 50% more than the license I bought earlier. And the news? Well now you can directly print on dymo labels + they have made an affiliate program – giving lead referrers an 8-13% referral fee. Hurray.. Not really ground breaking upgrade warranting a 150% upgrade cost is it?

But thanks god my CardScan 7 works on Vista so no need to upgrade at all – and that was last time my companies have done any business with them.

So in SHORT – DONT BUY UPGRADES or products from Ahead Nero, Polar and Corex CardScan – don’t even think about buying their products unless you are fine by being screwed for your hard earned dollars.

The Joys of (missing) Upgrades

I’m the lucky owner of a Polar 625X running and exercise watch. A gadget that follows me on every exercise. And in short a gadget that keeps me going back to the gym again and again.
The reason is that all the data it collects, including how far I run (??) is stored in that watch and then transferred to my pc - so I can follow my progress and if I become better and get more miles to the gallon. :-)

The software is called Polar Precision Performance v. 4 (actually 4.03.046). Great software with updates from time to time (latest April 2007) but a bit of a Windows 3.11 (yes..) interface and a bit harsh on the eyes. But in general it works. And to update it – you NEED to have the software installed or have the old original CD available, so you can install the old version and then upgrade to the latest version. A bit annoying but “ok”…

Then I checked out Polar – and they have now made some new watches – like the RS800 and the RS400 – clearly with a couple of new features – and damn – a NEW software called Polar ProTrainer 5. And I thought – what is this ProTrainer 5 software. I got the Polar Precision Performance 4?

Well in short – the software is not new. It is just the old Polar Precision Performance in version 5 in a slightly new dress-up.

But to avoid giving out upgrades to the old owners – and thereby giving them the opportunity to “BUY” a new watch.. (read the sarcasm) to get the software – they (Polar) must really think the average user is stupid.

What a shame. ProTrainer 5 is not that big an upgrade to v4 – but now the graphs and other graphics are updated to an XP+ kind of look – and seems a bit more user friendly – and it even works out of the box with my 625X watch?

I am a capitalist and like supporting brands I use. But not even giving me the opportunity to throw in a few dollars for an upgrade to V5 – seems a bit stupid. Maintaining two products will in the end turn out more expensive than charging me $5 or $25 for an upgrade.

But trying to cheat your users calling the software a new name?.. Well do they think we are stupid sports-jocks all of us? Polar - get a grip and stop treating your user base as idiots. We just might stop buying your products.

And since it is illegal to tell people to be software pirates I’m not able to tell you the software might be available for download on some – what is it called? Torrent Sites?? As ISO files… bypassing the need for transporting your original V4 CD with you all the time.

But Polar – I would PAY for an upgrade if YOU provided one at a cost relative to upgrade value of the software (somewhere between $5 and $25 – anything else would be highway robbery)