Bad ethics for long time supporters

Hi Ryan,

I understand that you are upset about the lifetime license you purchased years ago not including access to new add-ons. I can definitely understand why this would be frustrating for you.

Firstly, I want to apologize for any miscommunication on our part. Our lifetime license includes lifetime updates, but we realize that we didn’t communicate clearly enough that this would not include every new feature we release in the future.

However, I want to assure you that the value we offered at the time of your purchase has not been reduced in any way. We have continued to serve updates to those who haven’t paid anything in over 5-10 years. This is in contrast to many other companies who have stopped offering free options or one-time fees and have required their users to start paying or switch to a different solution.

That being said, we hope that the new features in the core plugin have been valuable to you and enhance your experience with Formidable. We will continue releasing great new add-ons, and we hope you will see enough value in them to support our company so we will be able to provide even more great options in the future.

Thank you for your feedback and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any further concerns or questions.

Hi Ryan,

I emphasize with you and am sorry that this happened. Not too long ago I experienced the very same gut punch situation with Affinity software and the thing I couldn’t get the company to understand was how betrayed I felt by them. It wasn’t just a “communication” issue it was a breach in trust.

As consumers and business owners, we spend our money on things we believe in and buy into the expectation that the people behind the product/service will continue to value and honor us even when they need to increase their bottom line.

There are still a few companies that get this concept. I can think of two: Elegant Themes and Webinar Ignition.

Years ago, I purchased a lifetime license with ET, which so far, they have honored in every way. Since that time, they have rolled out other products which they always offer us lifetimers as a separate service without making what we paid for obsolete or making us feel forced to abandon one thing for the other.

In the case of WI, I purchased a Pro license with them but after a few years, the company was sold several times. However, each new owner made every effort to honor what was already in place by offering any new service to us at a discount, once again, without disturbing what was already in place. As a result, I readily recommend each of these products to others.

Ultimately, every company can choose to do things any way they want but in my opinion, it’s always better to preserve customer relationships at all cost. Especially with those who have faithfully used the product over time and wield a powerful experience to share in the marketplace that will garner countless new customers.

It never pays to make such a loyal part of your customer base feel like they’ve just been steamrolled.

Thanks for sharing this. I was trying to decide whether to pay for Formidable or Gravity. THIS helped me to decide.

I have gone a few rounds with the other co-founder who is not as nice as Steph here is, maybe it’s because I went a few rounds with him in private email and not here in public.

I absolutely agree with you. They led us on with our purchase of a lifetime license and then threw us under the bus. In terms *he* put it in, we don’t make them money anymore (he even spelled out how much money they are not making from us grandfathered license holders) so they don’t give a rip about us.

It’s really sad how they are treating us and while they are one of the best in their field, I will never, ever recommend them to anyone again until they start making things right with those who own a grandfathered license. It’s not that hard to do what themejunkee has experienced with other companies have done for their long time users. To quote, create a “separate service without making what we paid for obsolete or making us feel forced to abandon one thing for the other.”

Read that last line @sswells and do right by your long time supporters! It’s still not too late!

• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by amciotola.

Hi @amciotola,

I have reviewed your support ticket and it appears that you had lost access to certain options that you previously had, due to a conflict with an old third-party plugin called Formidable Plus. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

I would recommend disabling the Formidable Plus plugin to see if you are able to access the options that were unavailable to you. Once you have disabled the plugin, please let us know if you are able to access those options again like Signatures and User Registration.

I’d like to clarify that we have not removed any features that were included in your original purchase. We have added new features such as form templates and style templates that are only available to users with a current license. These options were not available when you originally purchased your license, which is why they were not included with your grandfathered license. Due to the costs of creating, hosting, and maintaining these new features, we are not able to offer them to everyone.

Thank you for your understanding, and we look forward to resolving this issue for you as quickly as possible.

I uninstalled all additional Formidable plugins when I was told to; however, what I have issue with is that a lot of features remain locked. That’s what should not be happening. Nothing should be locked for lifetime users.

My biggest fear is that I have built an entire user only system that some day might stop working because some other feature may end up in some new plan where we may get locked out of.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by amciotola.

@sswells You have always been great with the support you offered and your insight. I understand what you are saying but there should be an option for earlier adopters to purchase or subscribe the new addons that are not included. I should not be expected to have to pay for an entirely new license that included everything.

@ryanb4614 I responded to your ticket in our help desk with details on how you can do this. Let me know if you run into any questions.

Thanks for the warning. If you acknowledge that you “didn’t communicate clearly enough” why not just make the customer happy in this instance? This kind of (company integrity) issue scares me away from buying this product.