TSSuport Letter sent March 30, 2008

Questions about MultiCharts and user contributed studies.
traderstuff
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TSSuport Letter sent March 30, 2008

Postby traderstuff » 30 Mar 2008

Greetings,

In your update letter, among other things regarding the scheduled price increases, it includes the following -

" MultiCharts 3.0 will sell at a significant price premium to MultiCharts version 2.1. By purchasing MultiCharts version 2.1 now, you will save money and be able to take advantage of our FREE upgrade policy. All registered users enjoy free upgrades, up to and including the Gold version.

With kind regards,
Your TS SUPPORT Team "

***

This seems in conflict with many previous promises/statements in the past and also shown on your Current Website, where it reads exactly under 'Purchase Conditions' -

" Pricing and Conditions
We offer four types of licenses:
• Lifetime license at $899
• Annual license at $499 (~$41 per month)
• Semiannual license at $299 (~$49 per month)
• Quarterly license at $199 (~$66 per month) "

and on the same page under 'Purchase Conditions' [this is a direct copy so if there are spelling mistakes, they are not mine :) ]

" Upgrade Policy
We don't not charge for upgrades. "


In the latest note support seems to be saying that free upgrades for those who purchased the Lifetime License ends at the release of the 'Gold Version' .

Somehow this does not seem fair as previous purchasers were promised a Lifetime License and no charge for any upgrades.

Please explain this apparent discrepancy.

Just a couple of scenarios -

1. After the 'Gold' release, BUGS are still showing up.
2. Brokers such as IB change something in their api or whatever, causing MC 'Gold' to become inoperative.
3. After the 'Gold release new features are added that were disussed previously. - no, I will not post examples of this here.

Hopefully I am misunderstanding this policy, and that Lifetime purchasers also receive free upgrades for life as presented on your web page.

Best,

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TJ
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Postby TJ » 30 Mar 2008

I think you misunderstood bug fix with upgrades.


Bug fix are corrections make to existing features that are not working properly.

Upgrades are new features that are not available in the previous version.
e.g. auto-trade was not available in v1... an upgrade to v2 gives your autotrade.

Going Gold is when all the promised features are completed.

If a feature that was not in the original concept of the product, but was made available after going Gold, I would imagine that will be sold as an additional charge upgrade.


This is just the normal practice for software products. I am not speaking for MC. MC can clarify and set proper customer expectation if this is not the practice they are following.

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TJ
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Postby TJ » 30 Mar 2008

Even after MC going Gold, I don't see why they would not continue to make competitive upgrade to their product. They are under no legal obligations, but I don't see why they would not make them available to existing licensees. Of course the keyword is competitive upgrade. (i.e. tweakings that make MC a better product.)

If MC come up with new features, eg. Elliot wave counter, Market Profile tick chaser, Quantum analysis, unequal sentiment dynamic rebalancing, etc. I don't see why MC should give these features to the existing users free of charge because these were not what we paid for in the beginning.

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Postby tortoise » 30 Mar 2008

"Up to and including" does not imply that upgrade privileges stop with the Gold version. I see nothing from tssupport that implies any backtracking from their stated upgrade pledge to lifetime license holders. Indeed, it seems as if you're inventing a controversy where none really exists...

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Marina Pashkova
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Postby Marina Pashkova » 31 Mar 2008

All the upgrades for the product known as MultiCharts will be free for the current lifetime customers. These upgrades include the Gold version as well.

From the very beginning, we have been aiming at developing a trading platform that would include a number of modules. MultiCharts Gold will have all these modules implemented. MultiCharts support will be continued even after the Gold version has been released. All the minor upgrades including datafeeds updates, bug fixes and such will be free for the existing customers.

At the same time, after the release of the Gold version we will start working on a new platform - based on MultiCharts. This new platform will include a number of major features and functionalities which will make it a new product, different from MultiCharts. The existing MultiCharts users will be able to purchase this new product for a special discounted price.

Our company is following the regular software development cycle. For example Microsoft customers who purchased Windows XP don't assume they will receive Vista for free. The same applies to our platforms.

Please note: great-grandchildren of the current customers will not be entitled to the support of MultiCharts:-)

2haerim
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Explain more about the new platform

Postby 2haerim » 31 Mar 2008

[1] Will the new platform will be developed under the same name "MultiCharts"? Or a new brand and replace MC with it eventually?

[2] What features are planned? And ETAs for each?

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Geoff
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Postby Geoff » 01 Apr 2008

All the upgrades for the product known as MultiCharts will be free for the current lifetime customers. These upgrades include the Gold version as well.

From the very beginning, we have been aiming at developing a trading platform that would include a number of modules. MultiCharts Gold will have all these modules implemented. MultiCharts support will be continued even after the Gold version has been released. All the minor upgrades including datafeeds updates, bug fixes and such will be free for the existing customers.

At the same time, after the release of the Gold version we will start working on a new platform - based on MultiCharts. This new platform will include a number of major features and functionalities which will make it a new product, different from MultiCharts. The existing MultiCharts users will be able to purchase this new product for a special discounted price.

Our company is following the regular software development cycle. For example Microsoft customers who purchased Windows XP don't assume they will receive Vista for free. The same applies to our platforms.

Please note: great-grandchildren of the current customers will not be entitled to the support of MultiCharts:-)

That all seems normal and reasonable. However I cannot find any list of which modules and features will be included in the Gold release. Publishing this would avoid any confusion or disappointment, I would hate to find that something like the Quote/Radar screen that has been promised forever failed to make it into the Gold release.

traderstuff
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Postby traderstuff » 01 Apr 2008

Thank you all for your replies and especially the 'official' tssupport one from Marina.

My initial post cited several 'what if' examples that were just taken off the top of my head - so to say.

The third one - ie:

" 3. After the 'Gold release new features are added that were disussed previously. - no, I will not post examples of this here.
"

' ' Should ' ' be self explanatory, and I left it vague on purpose, because over the years certain features, requests, promises, and of course the 'no we will not be including this or that' have surfaced.

Over time 'some posts on this forum have disapeared, and I may be mistaken, but the forum itself may have been upgraded in the past -- please take this with a grain of salt as my memory is not as good as it use to be, and occassionally I have a 'senior moment'. :((

As I have stated in the past, I, along with all other MC purchasers have a vested interest in the continuing success of the product and your company.

Best,

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Marina Pashkova
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Re: Explain more about the new platform

Postby Marina Pashkova » 02 Apr 2008

[1] Will the new platform will be developed under the same name "MultiCharts"? Or a new brand and replace MC with it eventually?
The new platform will be absolutely new. It will have a new name. We can't speak about a replacement here, because MultiCharts will still be supported.

[2] What features are planned? And ETAs for each?[/quote]

We can't provide a list of the planned features at this point.

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Marina Pashkova
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Postby Marina Pashkova » 02 Apr 2008

That all seems normal and reasonable. However I cannot find any list of which modules and features will be included in the Gold release. Publishing this would avoid any confusion or disappointment, I would hate to find that something like the Quote/Radar screen that has been promised forever failed to make it into the Gold release.
Scanner will be included. As for other features, we will try to provide a list later on.

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Postby Geoff » 03 Apr 2008

Thanks Marina, very reassuring.

Some joker over at ET claimed to have inside information that 3.0 would become the gold release in the next few weeks.

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthrea ... ost1863618

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Postby miltonc4 » 08 Apr 2008

Hi marina
I have a permanent license for MCharts, and currently use
Version 3.0 1180.4173

Thought the next upgrade was free for those who already bought multicharts, but the correspondence indicates this may not be the case ?
Is the upgrade 15.4.08 the Gold version?
Do I have to pay another additional amount to get Ver3? Or is it for the gold version ? or is the gold version a free upgrade to existing customers
I don’t quite understand. Can you clarify my confusion?
Thanks
Milton

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Marina Pashkova
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Postby Marina Pashkova » 08 Apr 2008

Hi Milton,

The version that will be released on April 15 is NOT the Gold version.

If you own a lifetime license you will receive ALL the upgrades (including 3.0) up to and INCLUDING the GOLD version for FREE.

Regards.


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