If paying forever for a consignment software program (or ‘support’) isn’t your thing, then the path has already been blazed through the malaise of misdirections and obscurities to the best programs for the least cost. Follow me!
Imagine chasing your customer to her car to inform her that because she bought something from you, she’s going to have to pay for something you didn’t disclose before or at the time of her purchase? You’d soon be out of business (if not in jail) for such practices but isn’t that the prevalence in online software sales?
- “Oh did I fail to mention that you will have to pay full price for the software if you open other locations?
- “Did I fail to disclose that IF you don’t buy the “optional support plan” you will be denied personal service (phone, email, chat) and if that doesn’t force you to pay up, then you will be denied software updates?”
- “I may not have mentioned that your data for our ‘cloud software’ is on our server and there are conditions which might allow me to not give your data to you if you terminate.”
- “Did I say anything in pre-sales conversations about my right to increase the monthly or annual fee (for software or support) or make up new fees after you’re locked in?”
Yes such chicanery is unfortunately prevalent in some software circles so to avoid stepping into price traps and ‘agreements’ that discriminate against us and favor the software developer, we have to become experts in unsavory business practices in order to protect ourselves from them.
So we read reviews, not really knowing if they are fake or not. Most are either fake (submitted by people representing the software vendor) or they were made because some incentive was offered. Here’s a quote from Capterra (an alleged ‘software review site’ that seldom if ever reviews any software program!) to a ‘reviewer’ of consignment software:
“If you are responding to an incentive offer from us, know that only eligible and published reviews will be sent a gift card.“
Capterra
Ok so reviews aren’t trustworthy so we ask other shop owners. If we’re lucky we’ll ask someone who made wise decisions but the chances of that may be no more than 20%. More than likely the shop owner purchased ‘cosignpro’ or ‘Liberty’ or any of the pay-forever programs and wanting to believe they made a good choice, will recommend their choice if only to reinforce their decision. Sigh…
“There is absolutely no reason for or value in paying $1,000 and more for software (up front or over time), especially when there are additional payments after purchase. There is no software program for consignment that is worth several thousand dollars over time. Craziness like this is a reason why some shops don’t last a year.”
Confusedus
What’s my thing? Protest. I will be putting information out there that will hopefully blow away the smoke so anyone considering any software program can clearly see the road ahead – adverse policies, hidden/add-on/increasing fees, value… Enough with these surprises and exploitations after the money-back period expires.
Up next: A deep dive into why your business should not be built upon a ‘cloud’ and how you can gain ‘mobility’ for free.