Licensing for Students - on-going eligibility for student upgrades

[shulow]

Thank you so much nigelfry, really appreciate your quick response and sharing this info with me and everyone. I've just submitted a case on this from the case link you shared with us, hope Avid will help me sort this out soon before the 10 days run out...

Will post back on this forum once i hear back from Avid support.
Hopefully is good news.

Best Regards,
Shulow

[shulow]

Some updates to my situation:
No luck after 3 emails to the Case i opened on 21 dec trying to explain the issue and get it sorted out - the reply i got is:

Case i put up: i explained the issue of my 4year is up only in July 2016, and I pointed to this forum post as to how this issue was resolved for nigelpry where he wasn't forced to upgrade now since his 4 year upgrade is not yet up until oct 2016 but was fairly given a upgrade and support plan that allows him to renew at $99 from Oct 2016. I asked if Avid could sort this out for me as I'm in same situation that i do not want to be penalized to have to pay $299 by the time my 4 years is up to go on a support plan then.

First reply from Avid: ...I've check you've got an existing update in your Avid account under "Products Not Yet Downloaded". Kindly have it activated so you can get a Pro tools 12 downloads and license available in your account.

Thought I wasn't clear enough, I emailed back to ask:
My question is: what happens when my 4-year upgrade ends in July 2016?How do I continue to get upgrades at that time in July 2016 at $99?

Second reply from Avid:
If you want to make sure that you will get update for your Pro tools software you should do an upgrade using the link below: (points to the Annual Upgrade and Support Plan at $199, $99)
This way you can make sure that you will get the latest update for your pro tools software.

Third try, emailed back again to Avid to ask specifically whether it is possible to sort it out the same way as Avid did for nigelpry. And I also put this in the reply:
I'm not asking too much, this is how Avid should be responsible to us who bought the pro tools 4 year free upgrade having trust that Avid is a company that will not put us in a situation that we have to upgrade our license before the 4 year is up for fear of the penalty of paying $299 after dec 31, 2015.

Third reply from Avid support: Yes you should still receive your 4 year free upgrade for 2016, I do apologize but after the 4year free upgrade you have to purchase the upgrade for your Pro tools software.

So I'm none the wiser! Sigh....

Back to square one!
it looks like Avid want us to forgo our 4 year upgrade plan even if it hasn't expired and to upgrade now at $99 (or is it $199?? not sure which is the right one if you have PT12 from the existing free student UG) otherwise we have to pay $299 to upgrade then if we wait until our 4 year is up in 2016 or some students in 2017.

And time is running out to the dec 31 deadline....

[nigelpry]

What country are you in?

Probably a case of someone not being aware of what was done for me, although my UK contact said that he would make sure all customer care offices were made aware of how to resolve these cases.

Try quoting case number 02787167 to them, they should then be ablr to see how my case was resolved. If they are still uncertain how to proceed, ask them to speak to Toby at UK customer care, he'll be able to explain what was agreed.

PS ... I always felt that leaving it to be dealt with on a case by case basis was a short sighted move by Avid, but I think the issue is that it is a manual intervention task, and it needs the Avid customer care person dealing with your case to a) understand the issue, and b) be proactive in taking on board the task of sorting things out for a 'values customer'.

Avid does itself no favours when these kind of back and forth emails become necessary because they haven't bothered properly briefing the people who have to deal with cases as they arise.

There has been so much inaccuracy and ambiguity in its communications in recent times, and they don't seem to appreciate how much damage it does to people's confidence in them.

Anyway, I hope this additional info will help get things sorted out for you.

Do come back and let us know if it continues to be an issue.

The bottom line, I would say, is that you shouldn't worry about the 31st December deadline.

Avid will have an obligation to sort things put for you, even if, for reasons of incompetence, it takes them beyond that deadline to get it resolved.

Bear in mind that there could be people whose four years of free upgrades don't run out until as late as April 2017, and some of these peope may still be completely unaware of the quirks that have emerged in getting things properly sorted out

[shulow]

Hi nigelpry, I'm currently in Singapore, and bought my PT10 as a student in Sydney. Thank you very much for all these help! I have just emailed to Avid support and quoted your case number, and mentioning that he can speak to Toby from UK customer support.

I hope Avid will do the right thing to resolve it fairly and properly. It has taken me reading through almost all the related forum posts for many days, and reading so many Avid knowledge base articles before i came to this post and was really relieved to see your post - at last a post that is able to precisely bring up the real issue.

Fingers crossed.... hope someone from Avid will truly understand the situation and find a good solution for us. I bet many students are still unaware and will be caught by surprise like me (i only got to know it recently through an email from Avid in Nov/Dec about the new all access plan).

[shulow]

Good news finally!

Called up Avid and finally able to speak to Avid CS who totally understand this issue/situation. Phew! He clarified as follows in an email (I requested he send me an email on what we spoke):

============
Since you are within the 4-year Academic free upgrade for Student until July 21, 2016 to be exact, you are eligible to receive any future upgrades of Pro Tools until this date and you do not need to worry about purchasing the $99 Upgrade Plan right now because technically, you are within the Upgrade Plan until July 21, 2016.

Now if ever you wanted to upgrade your Pro Tools after your 4-year academic upgrade plan expires which is after July 21, 2016, then you only need to purchase the $99 Upgrade Plan. Like I've mentioned on our conversation, the other $99, which is the Annual Plugin and Support Plan is for "Technical Support" and this will be another option that you can purchase if you wanted to have a Technical Support for year.
============

He pointed me to:
http://www.avidblogs.com/get-special...ds-dec-31-2015

And asked me to look at: "Upgrades from Pro Tools 11" and said that for those of us in the 4-year free upgrade we are already in the Upgrade Plan and when our 4-year free upgrade expires, to renew the upgrade plan, we will pay $99. The $299 is only for legacy customers who are not already on PT12.

He said please also inform your friends, and I told him I will post this to the forum here.

Hope this will also help other students/former students in this situation.

And thanks once again, Nigelpry for your quick responses and help!