Sounds like us and our QuickBooks, I tend to upgrade every other year. First time I actually liked a certain new feature, mileage tracking and the like. It adds up after a while. Where as my last update to 2007 was because of compatablity issues. When I replaced a failed drive about a year ago, I couldn't activate and update 2005 as it didn't work with IE version 7. 2008 was nothing all that special so I'm holding my cards for the moment, if 2009 has something worth considering I'll make that call then.
Now with AC one of the main reasons I renew each and every year to to have access to AC support. Our recent issues between Trend Micro and AC come to mind. After AC had a "trend" showing of enought offices with the same problem they could days later advice to take appropriate action. Second reason is to at least access the various code updates, as flawed as they may be as pointed out much better by others than myself. And lastly, as Leslie quoted me, Jon certainly derserves each and every dime of it. And lastly, we do use one or two interfaces and so renewing is the simpliest and easiest way to keep all of that current. Again thumbs up to Jon and AC for such things.
But as Leslie said, as someone with loads of experience in business of all sorts, one does not put in contracts things they do not intend to use. How successful that attempt can or will be used, is a matter that could be debated til the end of time. But none the less, the insersion of such clauses and terms in all of our contracts with the company, show beyond any and all doubt that this is the official position and intent at the corporate level. Nothing more, but also, nothing less.
This is why we design and create contracts, to lock in what each parties rights and responsiblities are. Why any of us would ever switch from secure paper charts to something based in software that at any moment a company that can and does create a totally one sided contract that totally favores them and their interests, while beasically ignoring and destroying our own is beyond me. With a traditional old fashioned paper chart, difficult as it may be to live with these days on a day to day basis, it is none the less yours to have and to hold and your access to them can never be restricted. Just as with Me, Roy and Al and our Railing against CCHIT, this is really no different. If the entire world and gov't wants us to blaze boldly into this brave new "E" charting world, then the contracts and laws that encase them must fit our industry and the laws that we all have to function in. How this was never properly covered by blanketing federal law is still beyond me, but yet here we are.
Unlike my lease agreement that I actaully "hammered out" between my landlord (he's a lawyer so he represented himself) ourselves and our lawyer and reached a very nice mutual meeting of the minds, this contract was very much changed on us, with out so much as a single conversation, exchange of memos, emails, or meetings of any kind. It was just totally re-written and inserted in the software without so much as even a real honest "notice posted" anywhere. Heck we all get the update and newsletter emails, why was there not at least a notice posted via email that this has or was about to change? Many of us started under a totally different set of terms and conditions then we are now contractually under today? Where was our sides input, warning, or any sort of recoginition that we are the other side in this two sides relationship?
It's as though I went out and sold our house and bought a new one in a new city none of my family had every visited before, without discussing it at all with Nancy no less our two young kids. "Ahh, sure like thanks for including me, us in your choices and changes there... aand you didn't ask me for my perspective on any of this, why???" Why most of you are not offended by this radical change without any input or conversation is beyond me.
The idea that we responsibly and with good intent paid for our annual renew to access our codes, or support, or simply because we do feel that Jon and AC are entitled to fair pay for a great product, and to then have the most important terms and conditions of our contract changed and sort of just done, without notice or discussion is extremely rude and bad business form.
Yeah, sure for some reason we have grown to accept Bill Gates policies as the contract law in this one industry but it still doesn't make it right. We have grown complacent over a number of issues and laws lately, it still doesn't make it right. And AC was promoted to all of us, ever the newbies today, go to the website, as the "different" company that doesn't do these kind of things, and will treat us fairly. Will treat us as they would want to be treated themselves. Well this is not fair, this is not good sportsmanship, this is not how business is conducted in just about any other form of business, only in software licensing and for some reason many are just willing to allow it to continue... No Thank-You Please.
In closing, if any of us really wanted to, we may have half a leg to stand on, to fall back on the old contract that we all signed on with. It was a hoot. Now perhaps we can't exactly have that old contract with all the foul language anymore, but the intend and equitable policies that it represented is something we will not back down on attempting that we return to. That contract was the reason many of us did sign on in the first place, it was the whole package, the product, the friendly support, and the pro-consumer end user policies, terms and conditions.... And simply accepting that those days are gone in such a brief period of time, is just unbelievable. I almost can't believe what I am reading some times.
I guess we shouldn't care to return to the time when we only allowed real judges to rule on warrented searches either? Just because certain standards have rolled backwards in a negative direction, doesn't mean that any of us should accept such things, and simply allow them to continue or accept their continued insersion in new places; that is the weakest arguement of all, and yet it continues here regularly. And all of you are smarter than that, you are doctors and scientists with some of the best critical thinking skills going, and so when I see such happening, it disappoints me greatly.... We can and should do better then this. It was that old policy and philosophy that had many of us first thinking a long time ago about how to pull off something as cool as community as Branson. My personally, I'm still hoping to return to Waterbury Vt.... Any of you care to tag along or join???
