Update: As of noon on Thursday August 28th, SolidWorks has rescinded the penalties that were soon to take affect. You can read the email that went out to the resellers and customer here. Good move on the PR side. SolidWorks is listening to the customers, plus the resellers don’t look like bad guys to the customers.
happy angry beavers about some new penalties that came out recently for not renewing you SolidWorks subscription support in a timely fashion.
You may not know, or even care, that there’s a $1295 cost, in addition to the $3995 price of the SolidWorks software, to receive support from your reseller, software updates, access to the Customer portal and more. The penalty is tacked on if you don’t pay the $1295 each year. So what?
The worst secenario
So, basically, you (your company) are paying $1295/seat for a new version of SolidWorks each year. Not so bad right? You stay current on your subscription, you get no penalties, all is well. And this is what most people do.
A small percent will renew a couple years later. Those people will have to pay $850/year plus the $1295. So two year later, you pay $2995 for the new version of SolidWorks. Four years later and you can buy a new license of SolidWorks.
A couple resellers have informed me that approximately 5% of regular users do not renew, but the resellers now have to explain the new penalties to 100% of the customers and the perception is that SolidWorks is a money-grubbing corporation that doesn’t care.
While I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that, I will say the subscription service, the penalties and the perception needs to be looked at, scrubbed, polished and set out on the rack to dry.
The vote
Matt Lombard has been covering this and has voting for the Subscription Service model you would like to see.
I know, this is about the most boring topic ever right. But I think you as users can have an affect. So go vote. This is all I’m gonna say about it, but I hope SolidWorks is listening to this and is willing to consider revamping the idea of Subscription Service and the perception that has gone along with it.
What’s your opinion? Is the $1295/license each year a big deal?
Happy Beaver Image from 3Dretro.com
