Very disappointed with upgrade price for VV4 + DVD

fdooman wrote on 2/4/2003, 5:44 PM
Very disappointed with the latest upgrade prices for Vegas Video 4 +DVD and this is the reason I’m moving on to Adobe premiere. I got the program and ready to get the plug-in from Pixelan for my new Adobe. I can’t believe Sonic Foundry has ignored their customer who purchased the 3D Plug-in pack that now is part of the version 40. I paid $139 and some change for it and they want me to pay $200 to upgrade to Version 4.0 and $400.00 to upgrade to version 4 + DVD. Not me brother I’m not going to pay all that money just to have new features like Bin in your version 4.0 I always used DVD IT PE form Sonic and very happy with and they are coming with new version 5 in march of this year and from what I heard they do appreciate their customers and they offering very reasonable upgrade price to their register users. Since Sonic Foundry are ignoring there Customers who purchased Plug-in Pack and 5.1 plug-in that now is part of Vegas Video 4.0 + DVD. paying all that money it is a big risk for me to a company in financial trouble.

Comments

Paul_Holmes wrote on 2/4/2003, 5:53 PM
See this post from a Sonic employee about
long-time customers.
watson wrote on 2/4/2003, 7:49 PM
This is a good opportunity to support a great product.
Adobe is hardly known for generous upgrades.
Version 7 will most likely be a hefty upgrade price. If you can't afford this upgrade, wait and save. VV-3 is as good as or better than AP.6.5.
Personally I think it is a bargain.

Very dissappointed?
You will always be moaning if you want to be the first to adopt any new feature in the computer world.

Ive got a 9 gig SCSI drive that cost me 600.00 at the time I bought it.

That is just the way it is.



Spot|DSE wrote on 2/4/2003, 8:01 PM
NO company on earth supports their customers like SOFO does. If you have an issue, contact their customer support team. They are fast, compassionate, and open. SOFO is rarely a "these are the rules and we're sticking to them" kind of company. Never have been. Hell, I've been in Germany on a tour and had SOFO fix me up. So you bought the plug in pak. Fine. Let them know. But for 300.00 you get a top end, soup to nuts application pak. That's a tough one to complain about. But, call em' anyway. I'll bet they'll work with you.
fdooman wrote on 2/4/2003, 8:11 PM
This is your opinion. Wait, it is just matter of time
MyST wrote on 2/4/2003, 8:12 PM
"Very disappointed with the latest upgrade prices for Vegas Video 4 +DVD and this is the reason I’m moving on to Adobe premiere. I got the program and ready to get the plug-in from Pixelan for my new Adobe."

Oh well, hope you're happy with your decision. Personally I don't think you gave SoFo much of a chance. Did you call them? Did you get an official e-mail from them? Maybe registered users in your situation get a different upgrade deal. How do you know if you didn't ask?
Read MOST of the posts from longtime SoFo users, and you'll see not too many of us are worried about fair pricing practices from SoFo. We trust them. They've earned it.

M
taliesin wrote on 2/4/2003, 8:17 PM
I can NOT second that. I find the upgrade price up to version 4 is VERY fair!
The value you get for that upgrade price is worth more than any other dv software.
My opinion - and I worked and work a lot with other editing software too.
Maybe there's another NLE which fits more to your needs but I think it's no doubt Vegas 4 is the most powerful dv-editing software at the moment.

Marco
rwsjr wrote on 2/4/2003, 8:25 PM
I think some of the speculation and expressions of disappointment today about VV4 pricing is a bit premature. Assuming someone got their hands on a catalog ahead of the rest of us, the catalog price may not reflect any introductory offers or other incentives for buying when the product is introduced. There's nothing about this on the web site as of right now, so I’m not getting too worked up about it. Sonic Foundry has been good about sending e-mails in anticipation of special offers and they have had introductory pricing in the past that is lower that the stated upgrade price.

The current price to upgrade to Vegas 3 is currently $149.95. I recall a much lower introductory price Vegas 3 when it was introduced (I think $99). Precedence suggests there will be lower price if one acts right away when the product is introduced. I’d bet a current registered owner will be able to get the package (including the DVD feature) for the price SPOT suggests in his message.
Spot|DSE wrote on 2/4/2003, 8:30 PM
What is my opinion? That SOFO's customer support people are great? No, that's not my opinion. That's a fact. That SOFO helped me out while I was overseas? No, that's not opinion either, that's a fact. I still have the emails they sent me if you need proof of my 'opinion.'
Have you contacted anyone at SOFO? I sincerely doubt it. Their teams are headed up by a customer service director who has been known to stay after very late hours to help overseas customers. She is awesome. This too, is a fact, not opinion. There are many posts here and on other forums about the SOFO customer support team. Either way, 300.00 for an AC-3 encoder, DVD authoring tool, and an editing app is a GREAT deal. That's not opinion either. That's a fact. Give me any other solution that is that inexpensive, and I'll buy it for you. Premiere sure as hell ain't it. Premiere 7 isn't going to be that either. That much I know as fact, not opinion. But hey, use what you'd like. You'll be back to Vegas soon. THAT's an opinion.
fdooman wrote on 2/4/2003, 9:27 PM
Have you check the price on Safe harbor? $449.00 For Vegas Video 4.0 + DVD
This is a fact not opinion. Don’t get me wrong. I love Vegas video. If I didn’t I would not spent $450.00 plus $140 for the plug-ins total of $590.00. I have not received any E-mail from them and when I called them last week they did not have any idea on upgrade prices. So I hope this will clear everyone
Spot|DSE wrote on 2/4/2003, 9:34 PM
THEN WHY ARE YOU BITCHING!! You are going by the price of a discounter. SOFO didn't know the price last week. They just NOW got the pricing structure put together. They'll email pricing out when the product is released. So you are shooting at ducks in the dark. THAT is a fact, if that's how you want to present things. How about letting SOFO say what the price is, without going to a Safe Harbour or other retailer and guessing? Safe Harbour has existing inventory to sell. That may be their motivation. I'm not gonna second guess them and form an opinion on what that may or may not mean that SOFO is doing. I do know for a fact that Safe Harbor posted well BEFORE SOFO settled their pricing. Which was dumb, in my opinion.
wcoxe1 wrote on 2/4/2003, 10:19 PM
Hello, Spot.

I'm getting to like you. Keep going.

Bill Coxe
rextilleon wrote on 2/4/2003, 10:34 PM
Gentleman----what it boils down to is you either pay the price or you go elsewhere---I will pay the price.v
fdooman wrote on 2/4/2003, 10:47 PM
Absolutely!! I have many choices to make. It is very sad to see not to be able to express our feelings. And you Mr. Spot. You are doing a great job you may be entitle to a free copy Of Vegas video 4.0
Paul_Holmes wrote on 2/4/2003, 10:50 PM
I would hope so since he's writing the book on it!
Spot|DSE wrote on 2/4/2003, 10:57 PM
Yes, indeed I am. When SOFO locks it down, I'll be finished with the book. All I can say to everyone is this...
If you like the Beta, you "ain't seen nothin' yet!!" The final tool, in the Beta build I'm working in, is absolutely astounding. Coupla features that will blow your minds....
I have every nle out there from Avid to FCP (on my Mac) to Zygote's image editor....Vegas is my choice, and with the new DVDA, it's end to end. I'm finishing up a PBS piece that has not ONCE left Vegas 4.0. And will finish to commercial replication DVD from DVDA.
Cheno wrote on 2/4/2003, 11:27 PM
There... someone finally said it. Nice job, Rex.
pb wrote on 2/4/2003, 11:54 PM
I'll cross my fingers that SOFO takes into consideration I've been a loyal customer since the release of Vegas Pro and currently have three copies of Sound Forge 6.0, two Vegas 2.0, one Vegas 3, three noise reduction plugins, two Acid Pro 3s and many loop libraries. 400 USD for me is 600 Canadian dollars and though I like Vegas + DVD, business is slow and since we just bought a dolly, I cannot justify spending that much to replace DVD Complete, which despite what its detractors say, works fine for us at both locations.

Hope I get an email from esales offering a more affordable deal on the upgrade to Vegas + DVD.

PEter
PixelStuff wrote on 2/4/2003, 11:57 PM
fdooman,

I'm wondering why you purchased the plugins if you didn't need them. If you did need them, then why are you complaining? You buy what you need to complete the job, be happy it was available early instead of waiting for the release of Vegas 4. However, if you bought the plugins for your own amusement then I guess you'll just have swallow and allow the happiness recieved upon purchase to satisfy you.

But, I agree with most other posters here, so don't despair to much. It is likely that SoFo will come up with some kind of email offer to registered users of the plugin pack.

JBJones
fdooman wrote on 2/5/2003, 12:19 AM
JBJones
When did I say I didn’t need it? Where did you get that and where did you see that? About 3 month ago I called Sonic Foundry and talked to a customer service since I was planning to buy 3D Plug-in. I asked simple question, If Plug-in pack was going to be part of the next coming version of Vegas Video. His reply was “NOPE” Now if he was honest defiantly I was going to wait another 4 or five month in order to save $139 I hope this time you get my point.
DGates wrote on 2/5/2003, 12:34 AM
It's still a good deal, and way better than Premiere. End of story.
PixelStuff wrote on 2/5/2003, 12:51 AM
I get the point. That's a lot worse if they told you it wouldn't be in version 4. But given the fact that you purchased it 3 months ago, something SoFo would see in your profile, I would just about bet that they would mark down the price just a little for you. I could be wrong, but I've had nothing but good experiences with their way of doing business.

JBJones
fdooman wrote on 2/5/2003, 1:02 AM
Hi JBJones
Thank you so much for you understanding.
Frederick
kkolbo wrote on 2/5/2003, 5:24 AM
I will chime in although a bit late in the discussion. Sir, you are complaining without listening or trying. If you do not want to work with SoFo products, that is your choice. If it is truely about the pricing, then you haven't been listening. I bought ACID 4 for the surround mixing before the AC3 encoder was ready. When it was released they offered upgrades that included purchasing ACID 4. That left me at full price. That would be a fair choice but I was bummed. All I did was call SoFo and ask. I had bought ACID 4 to prepare for the encoder and now I had missed the deal. They made me a deal I couldn't resist.

If you will not give them a chance with a phone call, then you deserve to move on to what ever product and pay whatever you have to. You do not deserve a company that takes care of it's customer base and produces such a fine product.

K
Spot|DSE wrote on 2/5/2003, 10:11 AM
Well said Keith. It's like listening to someone bitch about the temperature in their house...get off your a$$ and do something about it!! Geez, call SOFO. Write SOFO.
And in defense of the customer service:
A. They don't know what's being designed in engineering
B. Even if they did, they CANNOT comment on what a new product will or won't contain, at risk of losing their job.
C. Why on earth would you have even THOUGHT to ask if the plug in pack was going to be part of V4 three months ago? SOFO hadn't even decided that, so how and more to the point, WHY would you have asked that? Sorry, I ain't buying that comment. Not even for a cup of coffee.
At SOFO, you can call and talk to someone. You can mail someone. And someone WILL respond, usually within hours. Try it before complaining about it. Vegas is a great package, at a great price. It really sucks that you bring this ill informed negativity without at the least lifting a finger to talk to someone at SOFO.
I PROMISE you, if you get off your butt and mail or call Sonic Foundry about your complaint, they'll respond. I'll bet they would respond more nicely if you hadn't come forward with bitching and moaning FIRST.
For a complaint of less than 99.00 worth of upgrade, you are going to be missing out on one of the most powerful, complete tools ever. Your loss.
Go on, make the call. Send the mail. You'll be happy you did.