Charging to change URL?

[MattHonest]

Why do we have to pay for a URL change after we use the free one every 6 months?

 

Day light robbery, we already subscribe for a license, and paid the initial fee to get the software, makes no sense to charge even more to do a simple task that nearly every software vendor offers with no additional costs? Two URL changes in 6 months, out costs a $25 USD 6 MONTH renewal price..

[Meddysong]

It's nothing to do with robbery and everything to do with disincentivising people who run several licenses but keep all but one inactive, and then change their licensed URL frequently so that they can get support and upgrades without paying for them.

[MattHonest]

3 minutes ago, Meddysong said:

It's nothing to do with robbery and everything to do with disincentivising people who run several licenses but keep all but one inactive, and then change their licensed URL frequently so that they can get support and upgrades without paying for them.

 

There is endless ways to combat that issue, charging a fee isn't a solution, only a "quick" fix to a problem, rather than a solution.

New to IPB, I'm a long term vBulletin user, this wont matter to me really, just not keen on seeing fees, and renewal costs which is off putting for me to move over my other 4 forums, more of the principle of it if I'm honest.

[Meddysong]

The fees and renewal costs pay people's salaries. In return, we get top-class software with frequent updates, plus easy access to support. I don't expect anybody at the firm to work voluntarily, and don't view the renewal costs as unreasonable.

[beats23]

Maybe IPS should charge to add features to the app. I need EXIF data to show on photos uploaded to the forum.

[MattHonest]

14 hours ago, Meddysong said:

The fees and renewal costs pay people's salaries. In return, we get top-class software with frequent updates, plus easy access to support. I don't expect anybody at the firm to work voluntarily, and don't view the renewal costs as unreasonable.

The renewal costs aren't unreasonable, I am perfectly fine paying them as I know development costs to keep constant updates going, I think that's reasonable enough, but if you weigh up the costs of everything it gets quite expensive, the full package is $625 USD, with $210 yearly for renewal, just seems absolutely absurd to charge. Perhaps they should allow free URL changes if it's renewed..

14 hours ago, beats23 said:

Maybe IPS should charge to add features to the app. I need EXIF data to show on photos uploaded to the forum.

You would be best off getting a custom plugin developed for that, not sure that will be implemented any time soon.

[Morrigan]

Unless its changed I'm pretty sure you are only charged the 15 dollar domain change fee if you are changing the url within 6 month of the last activation of the license.

[MattHonest]

1 hour ago, Morrigan said:

Unless its changed I'm pretty sure you are only charged the 15 dollar domain change fee if you are changing the url within 6 month of the last activation of the license.

 

That's correct, I don't anticipate on changing URLS often, more of the principle that, and hoping we can get it included with renewals..

[Meddysong]

8 hours ago, Morrigan said:

Unless its changed I'm pretty sure you are only charged the 15 dollar domain change fee if you are changing the url within 6 month of the last activation of the license.

Correct. And the support team often offers courtesy changes, particularly if you don't have a history of often changing your URL, or the change is on the same domain, such as moving to a subdomain.

[The Jimmo]

10 hours ago, JamesMiller said:

 

That's correct, I don't anticipate on changing URLS often, more of the principle that, and hoping we can get it included with renewals..

 

4 hours ago, Meddysong said:

Correct. And the support team often offers courtesy changes, particularly if you don't have a history of often changing your URL, or the change is on the same domain, such as moving to a subdomain.

Owned one of my license 10+ years and haven't changed the URL once; then another 2 years and haven't changed that either. If you're changing URLs more often than every 6 months, which aren't accidents or small changes that the support team can assist with, may want to evaluate your community strategies :) .

[Dean_]

Why on earth do you need to change a URL every 6 months anyway? 

[Morrigan]

17 hours ago, JamesMiller said:

 

That's correct, I don't anticipate on changing URLS often, more of the principle that, and hoping we can get it included with renewals..

I mean technically it is. Since the renewal time frame is once every 6 months. If you change the domain when you renew you'll be able to change it again in 6 months when the renewal comes up again.

[Makoto]

The only times I've run into this issue are development related.

i.e. needing to reset my URL's when moving to a new "virtual" development domain.

Otherwise, yeah. You shouldn't really be changing your URL's that much. You should ideally never need to move to a new URL, unless you're just doing major rebranding or a really better domain becomes available to you. I hope you're not rebranding more than once every 6 months though.

Lastly as said above, if you have a legitimate reason, just contact support. They're reasonable, they'll likely waive the fee for you.

[Hexsplosions]

I think I've changed URL twice since 2011, both times for free since it's not that often. It's hardly daylight robbery.

[ahc]

No personal offense to OP here, but usually people who get antsy or upset at simple deterrents are usually, in my experience, the people those deterrents exist for. 

Seems a bit premature for you to accuse and make insinuating remarks without properly consulting the appropriate people for more information.  Adds insult to injury when you turn around and state you probably wouldn't need to use the service to begin with.  I find it best to leave opinions in a constructive manner without the dramatics.

People who intend to abuse the system, like stated before, will either be discouraged or have to fork over the fee to make it worth the time of staff to cater to these types of "clients".  People who aren't abusing the system will likely be helped without any red tape.  This type of practice is very common and confidently exists in majority of companies today in some capacity.

[Lindy]

Generally, if you contact us and let us know the circumstances, we will change the URL for you if there's nothing funky going on and it's not an every day thing. We had to begin imposing a fee for a few reasons. Firstly, to reduce "license hopping" (multiple licenses and swapping URLs back and forth to obtain updates/support.) Secondly, it cuts down on those trying to actually have multiple installations (I won't get into the specifics for obvious reasons) on one license. Lastly, but perhaps most important, the most common scenario are "tinkerers" who install, tinker, remove, re-install on a new URL, tinker, remove, rinse and repeat. We certainly don't mind people cycling through various ideas to see what sticks, but very often, there is quite a lot of support involved and it's not unusual for those who reset their URL over and over to also have dozens of support tickets. The spirit of the standard support included with license renewals is based on a single installation. So, part of the fee is to recoup the overhead involved with supporting what amounts to multiple installations and sites, albeit not at the same time.  

Again, you're always welcome to put in a support ticket and let us know what you're trying to do. If it's simply a URL change on an existing site and/or you're not requiring support on repeated fresh installations, we will typically just do it for you and waive the fee. None of us are going to retire on URL reset fees - it just keeps the honest... honest, and helps ensure fair support to all customers. 

[MattHonest]

On 3/8/2020 at 8:11 AM, Lindy said:

Generally, if you contact us and let us know the circumstances, we will change the URL for you if there's nothing funky going on and it's not an every day thing. We had to begin imposing a fee for a few reasons. Firstly, to reduce "license hopping" (multiple licenses and swapping URLs back and forth to obtain updates/support.) Secondly, it cuts down on those trying to actually have multiple installations (I won't get into the specifics for obvious reasons) on one license. Lastly, but perhaps most important, the most common scenario are "tinkerers" who install, tinker, remove, re-install on a new URL, tinker, remove, rinse and repeat. We certainly don't mind people cycling through various ideas to see what sticks, but very often, there is quite a lot of support involved and it's not unusual for those who reset their URL over and over to also have dozens of support tickets. The spirit of the standard support included with license renewals is based on a single installation. So, part of the fee is to recoup the overhead involved with supporting what amounts to multiple installations and sites, albeit not at the same time.  

Again, you're always welcome to put in a support ticket and let us know what you're trying to do. If it's simply a URL change on an existing site and/or you're not requiring support on repeated fresh installations, we will typically just do it for you and waive the fee. None of us are going to retire on URL reset fees - it just keeps the honest... honest, and helps ensure fair support to all customers. 

 

That answers my question perfectly and I better understand it now, thank you for explaining.

 

This can now be closed 🙂