{"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_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[4],"tags":[292,172],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1TKYv-i6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1540,"url":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/1540\/","url_meta":{"origin":1122,"position":0},"title":"Delphi and Oxygene – A Cost of Ownership Comparison","date":"31 Aug 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In a comment on my previous post, David Michael made some observations about the cost of Oxygene being comparable to Delphi. This surprised me, so I did some checking. The results surprised even me. DISCLAIMERS I should mention that I took advantage of an upgrade pricing offer when I purchased\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Delphi"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1283,"url":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/1283\/","url_meta":{"origin":1122,"position":1},"title":"Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics (and the Margin on Spirits)","date":"17 Nov 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I have decided I need to explain more clearly why I am so skeptical of the confident claims made for the \"health\" of Delphi based on the sales performance announced in the press release by Embarcadero earlier this year. Not that I don't wish it were true, only that I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Delphi"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1141,"url":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/1141\/","url_meta":{"origin":1122,"position":2},"title":"XE3 EULA: The Facts vs The Spin","date":"04 Sep 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I wasn't going to say anything further on this as it has been pretty much covered in the forums and on other blogs, but when a duly annointed \"MVP\" suggests that I should publish a post explaining that the news about the proposed changes in the EULA were FUD, then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Delphi"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1392,"url":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/1392\/","url_meta":{"origin":1122,"position":3},"title":"Adding Insult to Injury","date":"30 Apr 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Having just installed Delphi XE4 \"Professional\", provided as part of my employer's current SA, the initial \"Welcome\" to the new version, and seemingly the \"baked in\" Start Here landing page invites me to set-up Delphi for iOS development: And this for a product that doesn't actually include this capability because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Delphi"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2013-04-30-at-14.31.41.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1133,"url":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/1133\/","url_meta":{"origin":1122,"position":4},"title":"XE3 Released. Available to Download Now for SA Subscribers","date":"03 Sep 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I just got an email from Embarcadero announcing the availability of XE3 for download from the Maintenance Portal. Both a 51 MB web installer and a 3.1 GB ISO are available. I don't have any public links, and presumably anyone on SA will have received their notifications directly already. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Delphi"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1199,"url":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/1199\/","url_meta":{"origin":1122,"position":5},"title":"Oxygene “Nougat” is Mac and iOS !","date":"06 Sep 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Marc Hoffman has confirmed that \"Nougat\" is to Mac\/iOS as \"Cooper\" was to Java. \u00a0Some have speculated that this will be based on Mono, but Oxygene has had Mono covered for some time already, so I strongly doubt that this is the case. Far more likely is that just as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Delphi"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122"}],"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}]}}