{"id":1122,"date":"2012-08-30T16:53:56","date_gmt":"2012-08-30T04:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/?p=1122"},"modified":"2012-08-30T16:53:56","modified_gmt":"2012-08-30T04:53:56","slug":"sa-increased-unexpectedly-check-your-ts-and-cs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/1122\/","title":{"rendered":"SA Increased Unexpectedly ? Check your T’s and C’s"},"content":{"rendered":"[Estimated Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes]<\/span><\/span>

Two days ago I received a renewal quote for my XE2 Professional SA. The quote included an increase that I wasn’t expecting, having not been made aware of the clause in the SA T’s and C’s<\/a> that allows for an annual increase of up to 5%, regardless of the fact that the cost for a new SA subscriber taking out the same agreement on the same day is not charged the increase. Or at least any price rise hasn’t yet made it to the on-line store.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I initially queried the increase on the basis that the product that is now covered by this agreement is now reduced in functional capability compared to the product that the agreement was originally taken out for.<\/p>\n

I was clear that I was referring specifically to the removal of iOS support and the lack of any confirmation that it will be restored in any Delphi SKU at any point – with every indication so far being that it won’t (not to mention we recently lost our local reseller, leaving us unserviced by any local office in NZ<\/em>).<\/p>\n

In any event, Embarcadero completely ignored my questions about the reduced value of the product (I mean, literally, there wasn’t even an acknowledgement that I had made any such point. Not even the usual boiler-plate “We’re sorry you feel that way” PR non-apology). Instead they simply quoted, verbatim, clause 7 of the terms and conditions, highlighting the section that mentioned the right to increase the fee by up to 5% (the actual increase is 4%).<\/p>\n

For New License contracts, the support services fee quoted for the initial order period will be the basis for the renewal fee in the two subsequent years, subject to price increases not to exceed 5% per annum<\/strong>.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh well, the game is up. They got me bang to rights etc.<\/p>\n

Except that I then noticed the very next sentence<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

The Licensee will be notified of any increases in the Fees at least thirty (30) calendar days prior to the automatic renewal<\/strong> of the Services.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The problem for Embarcadero being that I received my first renewal quote, my first indication of any price increase, on August 28th<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

My SA renewal date is 5th September<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That is considerably less<\/em> than the required 30 days notice.<\/p>\n

Furthermore (and I didn’t point this out to them as it wasn’t necessary), there is section 12 (e) to be borne in mind:<\/p>\n

Any notice required to be sent to a party under this Agreement will be in writing, effective on receipt by that party, and will be sent by fax, first-class mail or personal delivery to the addresses provided by the parties at the time of ordering. Either party may change its notice address by giving written notice to the other party at the other party’s notice address.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Needless to say I never received any<\/strong> such written notice, which I believe would cover the notification terms in the fees clause. The only notification I received was the renewal quote, which was not faxed and not delivered by post or personal delivery, but in an email.<\/p>\n

But I didn’t need to mention this.<\/p>\n

The very next reply was a revised renewal quote, restoring the renewal fee back to the original, un-increased amount.<\/p>\n

No apology.
\nNo explanation.
\nNo admission that they even messed up and sorry for any inconvenience.<\/p>\n

The moral of the story: If someone throws terms and conditions in your face, take the time to double-check that they are in compliance with those terms and conditions themselves. Don’t just assume that you<\/strong> are the one that “messed up”, just because they don’t offer the possibility – or later admit to the fact – that they have.<\/p>\n

As for me, I’m still tossing up whether to renew or to put the money toward a new Oxygene subscription<\/a> instead, or to spend on some Lazarus\/FPC Bounties<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Estimated Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes]<\/span><\/span>Two days ago I received a renewal quote for my XE2 Professional SA. The quote included an increase that I wasn’t expecting, having not been made aware of the clause in the SA T’s and C’s that allows for an annual increase of up to 5%, regardless of the fact that the cost for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[292,172],"class_list":["post-1122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-delphi","tag-delphi","tag-sa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1TKYv-i6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1122"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1126,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions\/1126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}