Annual Cover

[Josh Barling]

We have been considering adding another user to the software. For Business Plus this would push our cover contract to over £130 a month.

This now means we have hit a wall going forward. We won’t make any decisions until 2018 is released, but if we consider it a poor investment for our £2000 of cover already spent, then after 15 years as a user we will have to make decisions with our commitment to the software.

Hi Jason,

If you do not believe an additional user warrants the additional cost then I understand your decision to continue with the current contract.

We appreciate our customers loyalty and it would be a shame for you to stop using our services. Of course we want to avoid that, just as much as we want to continue to provide you with a great service.

Let me know if there is anything I can help with.

Thanks

[Josh Barling]

I think another factor is the ability, or willingness of support to actually solve the problems that are reported. I had an issue at the end of November for which I am still awaiting a fix. This has happened before.

Hi Jeff,

I've reviewed your ticket and I believe the team were waiting on feedback, but it sounds like there may have been some miscommunication.

A technician will be calling you later today.

Thanks

[Goz]

I've reviewed your ticket and I believe the team were waiting on feedback, but it sounds like there may have been some miscommunication.

It might be worth reviewing your processes, Josh, and contacting clients if a ticket has been waiting customer feedback for x number of days? Even if it's just an automated reminder that support is waiting for feedback.

[John Ennals]

Price rise?

With the Desktop 365 Plus service you will not see the 25% price rise.

My hosting and SSL is provided by a Sellerdeck Partner and I have Cover and SD Payments contracts with Sellerdeck. Even if I accept the 25% price rise and renew my Cover contract, I will still be paying less than if I were to move to Desktop 365 Plus.

Therefore in my case, the quote above is true, but not in the way intended - according to the Sellerdeck 365 calculator I wouldn't see the 25% Cover price rise, I'd see a whopping 30%+ rise in my total annual cost.

So unless I've got my sums wrong that's a no-brainer, now all I need to do is decide whether to renew the Cover contract at all.

John

[Mantra]

alternatively you can using our online calculator - https://2018.sellerdeck.co.uk/price-calculator.php

Hi Josh
When using the calculatator is the bandwidth to be used the total bandwidth or just the bandwidth used by viewed traffic?
Our webstats for January 2018 is made up of two components the first is for viewed content driven traffic roundly 14GB and the second is for not viewed traffic roundly 5GB which includes for traffic generated by robots, worms, or replies with special HTTP status codes considered to be uncontrolled external factors.

Thanks in advance.

Martin Nichols
Mantra Audio

[mje]

Hi Mark,

It's important you have the appropriate settings to receive our emails - you were definitely sent one. We also sent out a letter.

With the Desktop 365 Plus service you will not see the 25% price rise. We can give you a quote on the service, alternatively you can using our online calculator - https://2018.sellerdeck.co.uk/price-calculator.php

Thanks

As it happens I got an email today saying "We're sending this message again as it looks like you may not have opened it" - still can't find the original, but we did receive the letter. Thank you.

I very much doubt I will abandon my current use of services provided by a Sellerdeck Partner, hosting and SSL certificate. Because they work well for me and I'm loyal to companies that serve me well.
I have an unlimited bandwidth, and has worked just fine for six year, and costs less cost than Sellerdeck Bronze hosting, which has out of proportion penalties attached if you stray over your "limits" - a policy that gains you not one friend.

Likewise SSL certificates ... not broken at half what you would invoice, so no need to fix this either.

I will keep Sellerdeck Payments. That is not expensive, but lives in a ultra competitive market place which may explain why.

I put my existing products, Cover, Hosting, FeeFo, SSL Certificate and Sellerdeck Payments into the calculator and it gave me £1,623 a year for a one off payment or £157.50 a month (£1,890 a year) - a touch over 15% more. Plus of course VAT

I currently pay for all my products annually except Feefo which is a monthly contract, but the significant difference for me is that they don't all fall due in the same month, they are spread though the year. - Maybe you should consider 1/4ly payments of the annual fee, with out penalty to help peoples cash flow as I'm sure this would be a deal maker for some.

For comparison I currently pay £129 a year for SD Payments, £278 a year for unlimited hosting package and SSL certificate, £436 for Cover and monthly £41.50 monthly (£498 PA) for Feefo - a total of £1,341. - So currently £282 less than Sellerdecks one off payment and £549 less than your "spread the cost" option.

If I do pay your whopping price increases on the products I subscribe to and retain my 3rd party services I would pay £1,539 - an increase for me of £198 for the year, but still £84 less than your online quote for a yearly payment and £351 less for your installment option.

I don't doubt for one moment that SD hosting, SSL certificates etc are very good reliable products, but I remain unconvinced they are any better, or at least worth the extra expense.

There are viable, accessible, alternatives from Sellerdeck partners that work perfectly well.

[Mantra]

Mark

Thank you for your comparison which I have used to make my own comparison set out below with the exception of Feefo which I do not use.

£312 a year for SD Payments (12 x £26), £226 for SSL Certificate, £140.64 (12 x £11.72) for unlimited hosting and £436 for Cover - Current Annual Total £1115.

Using the the calculator for up to 350 SD transactions per month and 12 GB bandwidth returns Silver 12 - Annual Total £1474 with monthly overuse at £8 per GB an increase of £359 on year or 32% and for 24 GB Silver 24 - Annual Total £1733 increase of £618. On checking the bandwidth used on the site I expect that the annual increase in cost would be somewhere between these amounts.

I am considering options going forward including moving from my existing host as I do have some issues concerning the SSL shop part of the site that was set up years ago and needs to be integrated as one whole SSL site.

I see that your site has a Global Sign SSL certificate that is similar to the SSL certificate we have on our shop site and I wondered if you could let me have details of your SSL site host for me to make further enquiries on options available.

Kind regards

Martin Nichols
https://shop.mantra-audio.co.uk

[Buzby]

May be of interest to those thinking of cancelling.

Peblaco support

Maybe they can add to the "What we don't do list"

Hike prices by 25%

[fleetwood]

Like many I have paid for cover for an amazingly long period of time (started with v6), and have hardly ever made any call on support, other than version upgrades. I have seen my loyalty discount reduced, whilst prices continue to increase. This latest 25% hike is the final straw. IMO guys you are making a serious error of judgement with this, that may well see the already dwindling number of long term SD desktop users plummet furher. If the plan is to finally put the nail in the coffin of SD desktop then you are going along the right lines. The hope that all desktop users with move over to 365 may be an ill founded one!
The above dosen't even factor in the current dire state of the retail sector. Businesses are already needing to cut costs to the bone to ride through the next few years. Imposing HUGE price hikes is not the way to keep customers on board

[jeffnurse]

Technical Support

Hi Jeff,

I've reviewed your ticket and I believe the team were waiting on feedback, but it sounds like there may have been some miscommunication.

A technician will be calling you later today.

Thanks

Thanks for being proactive Josh, indeed I did get a call, although still not resolved. Truthfully, it had been in SD’s hands the whole time, just a solution hadn’t been found and I didn’t hear more.

Certainly from my point of view it isn’t SD bashing. You fundamentally have a great product but it seems from reading the forums that many loyal customers are disillusioned, and uncertain. As a businessman for 35 years I think your number one priority should be to keep your loyal customers happy. Then they will do the selling for you and pass on the goodwill by recommendation. Happy to discuss more if you wish.
Jeff

[mje]

Like many I have paid for cover for an amazingly long period of time (started with v6), and have hardly ever made any call on support, other than version upgrades. I have seen my loyalty discount reduced, whilst prices continue to increase. This latest 25% hike is the final straw. IMO guys you are making a serious error of judgement with this, that may well see the already dwindling number of long term SD desktop users plummet furher. If the plan is to finally put the nail in the coffin of SD desktop then you are going along the right lines. The hope that all desktop users with move over to 365 may be an ill founded one!
The above dosen't even factor in the current dire state of the retail sector. Businesses are already needing to cut costs to the bone to ride through the next few years. Imposing HUGE price hikes is not the way to keep customers on board

Nail on head.

Spent a long time fuming about this and I believe Sellerdeck just don't "get it" much the same as other companies providing "services" as opposed to buying and selling of stock.

As high street retailer who in reality plays at e-commerce, I live in a world of 18-20% gross margins now, where as 20 years ago that figure was 50-60%. Stock costs of course increase, but wholesalers, manufacturers need retailers and IME bend over backwards to KEEP our account - not so gas, electric, and of course rent, business rates also push us to the very limit...

Over the counter sales, footfall through the door are a well down in real terms compared to 10 years ago, ironically e-commerce having the finger pointed at it as to the reason why......How does an independent retailer make the extra money to cover these costs?

You can't whack up your prices as most are covered by manufacturers RRP or dealer agreements, plus if you are a few pennies dearer than a competitor, with social media folk get to know in a heartbeat. You try to sell more, but what more can you do when you already work seven days a week, open 60 plus hours a week, have limited floor space and money to buy stock... you jump on the ecommerce bandwagon as it passes by, but that is even more competitive and margin draining.

All you can do is look to cut costs, cut those that are not essential - pay the electric bill or pay your Sellerdeck support invoice? Pay your business rates, or continue with your Feefo contract?

You are forced into a position of having no choice other than to choose.

Those of you who are imposing these ridiculously excessive increases on your very loyal customer base have got this oh so very wrong - as I said previous, everyone in the real world accepts year on year prices increases as part of being in business, 3-5%, but Sellerdeck has created nothing but bad feeling with this strategy, you seriously couldn't of actually thought it a good idea?

There is not a single business that uses Sellerdeck software / services that would even consider imposing such increases to it's customers in a single hit. Not one, yet you expect us to roll over, have our bellies tickled and accept it.

Loyalty should be rewarded, not exploited.

[John Ennals]

Three thoughts and then I'll shut up...

Sellerdeck say that the 25% price rise reflects the increase in the support needs of customers using third-party hosting. Therefore I feel they should offer a discounted price to those of us who have hosting with a Sellerdeck Partner, since the compatibility of the hosting environment will be assured. I don't want to be subsidising those who use cheap general purpose hosting.

If you only buy Cover for the software updates, a money-saving strategy may be to buy a year's SD Cover only if and when they release a version of the software that you actually want or need. By the time SD2018 is released it will be about 2.5 years since the release of SD2016, so it may be possible to manage for a year or more without SD Cover with no ill effects.

On the "Sellerdeck: looking forward" micro site it says that in Spring 2018 Desktop 365 Plus customers will receive a GDPR white paper. Does this mean that SD Cover customers will not be receiving it?

John

[MDN]

Therefore I feel they should offer a discounted price to those of us who have hosting with a Sellerdeck Partner, since the compatibility of the hosting environment will be assured. I don't want to be subsidising those who use cheap general purpose hosting.

I am 100% in agreement, this should absolutely be looked into along with a no claim discount, so you build a discount for not calling on the services of support.

[fleetwood]

so you build a discount for not calling on the services of support

and then remove it when they feel like it

Loyalty discount was brought in many years ago to "reward" those who renewed cover every year without fail.
Then at a stroke, it was cut to a lesser discount.

SD pricing stadegy oevr the many years I have been a customer basically says FU to us long termers. They can't work out how to bring in any new blood, so just continue to abuse the loyalty of those of us who have stuck around! Thats they way it looks - happy to be corrected

I bought into SD many moons ago because it was very reasonably priced for all the flexability it offered. Nowadays, it is by far and away the most expensive software expense I have.

[Buzby]

What annoys me is that when sd2016 came out there was going to be a near yearly release.

£2000 on cover and I have not had any new software.

When SD2016 came out it was already lagging behind others, with no developments for 2 years, and only 1 new customer facing feature in SD2018 I feel absolutely shafted, and after shafting me they want an extra 25% for the privalage.

I was expecting multiuser to be introduced as standard, just to try and compete with other software, instead it is a paid addon, that also heavily increases the cover.

I have had 2 conversations with sales regarding what can be done with an extra user and they haven’t been able to answer my questions about the product.

I haven’t used cover much, and when I have it has been a bug in the software, so effectively I am also paying for help with their own problems. This is wrong from so many angles.