You will need to purchase the maintenance plan. I think the PayPal update is in the latest version (5.6). The PayPal issue was discussed during that period, that it would be necessary to subscribe to the maintenance plan to get future updates (including the already-known PayPal update that was coming Sept 1)

While I would agree with you to an extent -- you could take that another step -- why should not the people who are happy with BV4 also be able to get their PayPal issue fixed without upgrading to a new version?

As long as your BV5 version is not heavily customized, you could "hire" Marcus and the staff through the link on the staff to update the PayPal portion, I suppose, and then you would only pay for that work and not the entire maintenance plan -- but you also have the PCI compliance issue -- your SP2 will not be compliant if you accept Visa/MC

Omer,

The maintenance plan provides you with regular service packs and full version upgrades to the software. PayPal and PCI Compliance are just two issues that will require the latest updates but there are more. For example, UPS, FedEx and the US Postal Service all make updates about every 6 months to their services. Without the maintenance plan there is a good possibility that in the future those features may not work as they do today.

PCI Compliance is a long process that we're in the middle of right now. Within the next few months we'll release another service pack that will certify BV Commerce 5 as PCI compliant. The only way to get this update is to be on the maintenance plan.

In the early days we released service packs for free because they mostly consisted of bug fixes and new features that we wanted to implement. Unfortunately, a much bigger portion of our development time is taken up by updates to 3rd party connections like payment and shipping processors. The maintenance plan was needed to make sure we have enough developers available to keep things up to date. This also means that we will be able to support BV Commerce 5 longer than we supported BVC 2004.

Omer,

While I have issues with the maintenance plan as well, I feel a need to make a point to what you are saying. Paying the maintenance plan -- and you did have the opportunity to get in at a much reduced rate a couple of months back, by the way -- over the cost of a hosted solution gives you the added flexibility to customize your site however you wish -- as I understand hosted solutions, you can't go in there and make major modifications that would require added work for the "host" to perform updates. So there is value added to "purchasing" your license rather than a hosted solution.

Another point for you to consider -- I'm not sure what you sell or what your customer base is, but I know from surveys and my own customer base, that if you are sending customers to PayPal for the entire checkout process, you WILL lose business, as there is a fairly large population out there that distrusts PayPal.

Omer --

First -- and I had to double-check on this -- where are you getting the $1,000/year? If I go to the BV Software products page, it clearly states that the annual maintenance plan is $499 -- I had earlier thought this was a "special" price if you signed up by a certain date, but obviously this is the price you would pay if you signed up right now. So I think you would have to do the math again for yourself.

At a certain point your "warranty" -- i.e., the obligation of the manufacturer to fix problems -- expires. If you purchased a car back in 2000 and your state now required your car to meet certain safety or emissions requirements now, 10 years later, would you expect Chevy or Ford to make those changes for you for free?

While I would agree with you that "bugs" that are problems with the initial code (and unmodified by you or I) should be fixed for free through, say, "hot fixes" -- the problem becomes when a change is required by, say, PayPal, or Visa/MC, or Authorize.net, UPS, or any other outside party that you need to go through, BV should not be responsible for those changes after a certain period -- and then sometimes the Hot Fixes that you may get for free for "bugs" might conflict with new code that is required by those outside parties.

You do have another choice -- take your $41.50/month (if you agree that you have the wrong figure for the maintenance plan), and set that aside for a private programmer to fix problems for you (such as the PayPal SDK issue) -- though I can almost guarantee you that $41.50/month will not cover that (and I doubt whether $83/month would either).

If you are correct and the maintenance plan is going to cost me $1,000 next year, rather than the $499 I'm reading now, then that will weigh heavily on my decision -- $499 is probably a no-brainer, compared with switching to another platform and all the work that entails; but $1000 is about what you pay for other comparable platforms

Marcus,

1) I assume that you had some other customers requesting to get in your plan with $499 after the deadline but you are mixing up my name I think. Do you see anywhere in my posts that I requested a discount to join your Maintenance Plan? It's sad that you perceived my criticism as an indirect favor request. I opened this thread to ask if PayFlow update was before the Maintenance Plan so I can get it.

2) I do pay for web hosting and I'm not interested in any hosted shopping cart solutions. If I did, I would not be here wasting my time writing a post to you trying to explain that your plan is good for BV, not for your customers. Probably there are some merchants who need only 'size/color' option in their carts and you can try to sell your hosted solutions to them.

You stated:
"You can change your car's oil yourself or take it to the dealer or take it to the local Jiffy Lube. Same with the maintenance plan. Maintain the software yourself, pay us for regular updates or hire someone else to update it for you."

I take my car to a place like Jiffy Lube for oil change. I pay them a ONE TIME fee $29.99. I do not pay another fee until I change my car's oil again for another few months. They do not offer a Maintenance Plan, which is a good business decision. I suggest you stay away from those other oil change places where they offer a Maintenance Plan for oil change :)

If there is a serious problem with the engine, I'd rather buy a new car instead of taking the car to a mechanic where they charge more every time :)


Birdsafe,

In my opinion, there should be a new version release for all the major features/updates. So merchants decide if they want to upgrade to a newer version or not. I do not see any justification whatsoever for Maintenance Plan.... $499 or $999... it does not matter. The idea is to make more money out of existing customers WITHOUT the worry of a new BV license sale. The ethical business decision should have been to release service packs for bug fixes as they did before and release a new version for major updates. SO merchants would buy it IF they need it or they like it. In other words, if BV wants to raise their revenue, then they will have to work harder to release new versions with great additional features to convince existing customers upgrading their previous version... and that's not a guarantee. However, BV chose the easy way by this 'Maintenance Plan'. In other words, 'Maintenance Plan' turns existing(and future) BV license holders into extra revenue resources on ONGOING basis, regardless if you need updates/upgrades/features or not.

So that's it for me for this thread. I got my answers. Thanks you.

Marcus,

1) I guess it was 5.5 before Maintenance Plan was rolled out. Why am I still running SP2 if I wanted to get free updates? By the way, SP2 was heavily bug fixes in 2007, otherwise would still be on original BV5.

2) Upset? Just because I voiced my opinion against your plan straightforward? I guess you would get upset if you were in my situation so you assume that I am. This argument actually made me understand the increasing tendency towards open source software. So all is good. I will get everything updated. No worries.

3) Like other software companies, release service packs for bug fixes and new versions for the major updates. Even create plug-ins for extra 3rd party software upgrades if you can't release a new version and sell it to people like me who do not want to get other updates/upgrades/features etc. I will pay for it if I need it. However, release the product and then ask for the price. Not before.

4) I will not get into detail here regarding 'extra revenue'. I would explain more but obviously it would be a waste of my time. It's your business plan and you have your customers who believe in it.