Avid Discontinue Upgrade & Support Plan Re-instatement for Perpetual Licences

[WaterRat]

I’m quite new to the forum and by no means an expert, however, since my first post about upgrading my HD 10 rig I’ve had quite queries concerning this and, although the topic is mention in many threads, there doesn’t seem to be a dedicated one with definitive information so this is my take on the situation (any moderators or experts please step in an correct me if I’ve got something wrong)

At the end of 2019 Avid stopped selling Upgrade & Support Plan Re-instatement on their website, therefore, if you have let your plan laps, the only option for upgrading is to cross grade to a subscription (which is offered at a discount for the first two years)

However the good news is there are some third party resellers out there who still have U&S plan reinstatement codes available and this is the is the way I went, but be aware I believe there are only a finite number of these out there and stock will run out. (Can any resellers confirm how much stock they have?)

With the discount offered by Avid for the subscription cross grade, it actually works out around the same or possibly cheaper than keeping the U&S plan in place (At least for the first two years) however there are two major drawbacks;

1) The subscription will only give you a licence for the latest version, but if you upgrade a perpetual licence you keep the licences for your previous versions (as a locked bundle so can’t be used separately) which may be important. (It was to me as I have some project with plugins that won’t run on my new HDX system)

2) When your subscription lapses you can no longer use ProTools however a perpetual licence is, as it says on the tin, yours for ever so you don’t have to keep spending money to use it. For instance I bought PT10HD for £500 in 2012 and didn’t pay another penny until this year when I upgraded to Ultimate 2020.5 using a U&S plan reinstatement code I bought from a third party re seller for £550.

Due to the vast price difference between standard and ultimate, the economics work out slightly differently but the bottom line is that if you have perpetual licence with an U&S plan in place, think very carefully before you let it laps and if you haven’t got a plan in place (especially for HD/Ultimate) I would seriously consider getting a reinstatement code while you can.

I am seriously considering buying another reinstatement code while I can, which, theoretically, would allow me to let my U&S plan to laps and then renew it at a later date. I can’t see anything on the Avid site to say the code would ever expire so I think I would have a case for miss selling if they refused to honour it in the future.

[Stevenk734]

Well said. Every current , lapsed or future owners should read WaterRats post.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[unkJE]

Originally Posted by WaterRat

I can’t see anything on the Avid site to say the code would ever expire so I think I would have a case for miss selling if they refused to honour it in the future.

https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...nstatement-faq

Q: If I purchase a reinstatement and do not immediately redeem, will it expire?

A: No. When you purchase a reinstatement from a reseller, it does not expire and you are able to use it at a future time. Avid will continue to honor reinstatement redemptions during the promo and after we discontinue selling them.

If you pay via PayPal and have problems activating within 180 days of making the payment, then you can ask PayPal to sort it out on your behalf.

After that - it's between you and Avid.

However - Avid do not mention of any time limit in the FAQ or elsewhere - in fact, Avid says explicitly that there is no time limit

[WaterRat]

Thanks unkJE for pointing that out and it makes it even more likely that I’ll buy another code for use in the future.

[JFreak]

You know what else this "no time limit" means? Perpetual licenses are not going to be going away. Even though it looks like Avid is trying to get customers to subscribe, it also means perpetual licensing must be available as long as there are any reinstatement codes left unused.