Vent about a competing product and another reason to go pfSense
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(Mod, feel free to delete if this is not appropriate; but I'll try and hold my tongue :P )
So I'm renewing a client's SonicWALL support contract - mind you, the client was behind in continual support of the device for about 13 months (we just took over the account). I apply the purchased support key to the account and learn that the support contract is retro active so now the client's support is only a month out of being active instead of being 13 months inactive. I phone into the SonicWALL support line and the agent uses the comparison that when I buy car insurance "it's retro active as well"… so I chime in, "so using your analogy if I were to have been in a car accident 9 months ago my retro active car insurance plan would pay the repair costs?!" I digress.
What a bad policy that is! Shame on you SonicWALL!
Plug of pfSense with commercial support. Well lesson learned that I'll pass onto my clients - never let your support contracts expire...Go with a pfSense.
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Seriously?? Wow. Our renewal charges a reinstatement fee if the user is out of compliance, but I've never heard of just taking their money and not giving anything back. What a scam.
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When I first called in the operator suggested I talk to her manager (this is after I explained her logic is completely flawed that talking to her wasn't getting me anywhere) and of course the manager "just stepped into a meeting". So they took my info down and I'm waiting for a return call.
We'll see if we can get any head way on resolving this so the client (or my company) doesn't have to double pay.
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It's common in the commercial software and hardware industry to charge a yearly support fee that's roughly 20-25% of the cost of the software license in the first place. If you end up falling behind on maintenance, you are often offered the option to either re-license the software at full price with a year's support or to pay for the missed renewals to get caught up. More often than not, for anything of about two and a half years or less time, it's much less expensive to pay the retroactive support.
The other option would have been to go out and buy a brand new device at full price.
Since you just "took over the account", I would expect you to be fully aware of this.
