Our reseller Hagerman tries to charge us an extra $100. per license for our Revit Subscriptions.

They want the Subscriptions paid in April prior to the release of the new update…..which makes sense.

However, for the last 5 years the first update is unusable because of bugs. The Service pack that solves some of the bugs come out in June or July. Then some brave firms test it out & tell the rest of us whats been fixed or not. Usually the SP is test & deemed usable & safe by August or September. SO that’s when we are ready to pay our yearly subscription fee again…you know- when the upgrade is usable!!

But every year Hagerman tries to charge us a late fee without a viable explanation (because there is none) And every year we threaten to go to another reseller & we can our subscription about 2-3 weeks after we pay.

Does everyone else have wait 2-3 weeks to get your renewal Subscription after you pay?

I don’t understand why everyone using advanced software nowdays has to get the bitter taste. I mean, an Architect can’t expect his tools to perform accordingly if he’s not as experienced in software and hardware trickalldo’s as any computer engineer must be.

Maybe my common sense is outdated as my computer but shouldn’t it be the opposite? The software should be there to help you improve your performance (at least).

The only thing we need now is for Autodesk to block drawings from older versions and force the universe on their favor again.

I find this a very interesting argument. Why and how does anonymity add credibiltiy to your argument, ‘John Doe Reseller’, or, make it ‘any more’ possible “to talk some sense into you.”?

If your a person of ‘substance’ in industry, or our industry, then surely using your name re-enforces your point? Else the reverse is true!

Further more, whilst you may see your ‘costing’ as the ‘cost’ and of little significance, you are also not taking the whole cost into account and you are, equally, not taking into consideration, for instance, the income needed to be earned by a contractor, for whom upgrading of software may need to come out of ‘disposable’ income – when there is not a lot available. I have yet to meet a software dealer that has any ‘genuine’ insight into the real cost CAD inflicts on many of its users.

Please don’t try and counter with the – productivity improvements pay – argument as this has been for a very long time, for many, simply trash!

I have a question for you. If you had to go to the hospital for surgery, would you pick a hospital that didn’t have their equipment serviced annually because they didn’t want to pay for it? Would you fly on an airplane if you knew they refused to spend money on maintenance?

AutoCAD subscription is $450/year. That’s $37.50/month or about 22 cents an hour. Wow. You’re right. Autodesk asks for so much money from you.

Patrick, yes it was all tongue in cheek, and I said it to be an extremist. As Civil3D, Map, Inventor and Revit all start to be required by clients, what will you tell them about your R14?

Patrick, I don’t respect your opinion, because it’s not in your best interest. Technology is important. Parametric modeling, energy analysis and many other features of these new technologies will save the architectural industry from itself. While I appreciate and admire your stubbornness, I can only stay in business, if you stay in business. So, I do want you to succeed, make money and want to pay Autodesk every year.

Yes, I’m harsh, but if I don’t create some anxiety here, you’d never move forward.

Autodesk have just announced they will not be supplying any media (disks etc) to subscription holders unless they expressly request them.

Pricing is important but this next step of Autodesk’s should be taken as a warning of things to come. Not that this could not be foreseen quite a while ago and R.K. McSwain’s comment – “The number of people who will gripe about Autodesk but turn around and write them a check far outnumber those who will drop them as a vendor and turn to someone else — and I think Autodesk knows it.” – applies here as well!

I realize you addressed Dan and Brent but I don’t think that Autodesk’s pricing is unreasonable as much as the recent upgrade policy. Let me state that I say that without even knowing what the annual subscription cost is and for that matter the current price of AutoCAD. I really couldn’t care less. When I’m ready to update I’ll obtain a license and go antother 10 years or so.

My point is that not upgrading is “Jane’s” other option, and if more entities embraced “Jane’s” choice a modification to Autodesks pricing policy would ensue.

Of course with other things, cars, food, groceries I can shop around, but doing that doesn’t require any retraining. It just seems like there are a lot of services out there that are helping out the economy by giving consumers a little bit of a break, but in this instance…there is none. It used to be you were just excited to receive a new version on your computer, but now users even question the upgrades when they see their co-workers chair empty and wonder if maybe we didn’t upgrade he would be still sitting there.

I’m pretty sure all those regular computer or vehicle budgets have been extended out a few more years then usual.

Moreover, a small business should have a business plan that includes things like software needed to run said business, regardless of the costs. If your business requires that you have a 4WD truck onto which you will put 75,000 miles a year, then you will probably budget for a new truck every 18-24 months, why not do the same for software?

Lastly, I certainly don’t claim to be an expert on any of this, and I’m not necessarily defending Autodesk in particular (…how they are any different than McDonalds, Ford, or the neighborhood corner store?) — Thanks.

And perhaps Mr. Reseller was posting “tongue in cheek”.

I agree…let’s stay on topic and not attack each other, or each other’s company practices that’s really no ones business but their own. We’re talking about a piece of software here aren’t we…it doesn’t have feelings.