TextPipe Pro

3.0 stars

"TextPipe customers are cheated by "subscription" scheme"

April 30, 2009  |   By smcay

Version: TextPipe Pro 8.3.4

Pros

Mostly, TextPipe Pro provides a very efficient interface to develop, test, save, target & run very long, complex multi-layered search & replace filters w/ many types of regular expressions. Includes many helpful tools & scripts. Good documentation.

Cons

If you buy TextPipe Pro in Jan 2003, then renew in Jan 2004, but don't return until Jan 2009, you will then have to pay for 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009 -- even if you simply want a bug-fix release from 2005! Is this a subscription ...or extortion?

Summary

I would recommend this application if the developer used a fair and traditional subscription model of service.

[*] Like many customers, I'm sure, I was very upset to learn that I could not let my "subscription" lapse, then pay for one year, and either [1] receive one year of program upgrades & updates extending from that day forward, or [2] receive one year of program upgrades & updates extending from the time my subscription last expired. The latter option should be available as a matter of course, because if back-payments are required, than back-releases should be provided.

[*] This is especially important because this developer also chooses to deprive customers of bug fixes unless customers are willing and able to pay fees for every month since the program was first purchased -- and then some. The developer justifies all this in the name of fairness to all customers, but there's nothing fair about paying for something that doesn't work as advertised, then having to pay extremely high fees again, and again, simply to get the original program to work as it was originally advertised. And yes, that's all that some customers want -- myself included.

[*] I'm certainly not interested in the "EasyPatterns" added to TextPipe Pro in recent years. With the excellent TextPipe Pro interface & documentation, creating powerful filters using Perl regular expressions is not difficult. And I like learning and practicing something that is also useful outside of TextPip Pro.

[*] Finally, I'd like to point out that the developer justifies his particular "subscription" model as being fair to all customers. But it is not fair to all. And doing it differently -- even allowing lapsed customers to pay for the current year and to receive the latest release -- would be no less fair than the most traditional software sales model.

[*] After all, when I let my TextPipe Pro subscription lapse for several years, I could not and did not use the better-working TextPipe Pro releases with all the bug fixes and additional features that other customers were using. As a result, I might have lost a good deal of time that others TextPipe Pro customers saved.

[*] And for me to pay later for a one year renewal in exchange for the very latest TextPipe Pro release does not help me make up for the time that I lost or the not make up for the time that I lost while working around bugs or going without features that were benefiting other TextPipe Pro customers.

[*] Nor would that type of renewal hurt those TextPipe Pro customers who paid for every year while my subscription lapsed. Those customers, after all, certainly received their money's worth -- one thing is for sure, the developer does update the TextPipe package frequently.

[*] According to the logic of TextPipe's developer, Adobe should force an old PageMaker customer to pay for InDesign 1 and InDesign 2 and InDesign C3 all at once, when the old PageMaker customer simply wants to upgrade from PageMaker to the latest InDesign version available today. Of course, Adobe would never do this. And why should they? Existing Adobe InDesign customers -- who purchased and used every InDesign version when released -- certainly don't feel that Adobe is being unfair for just providing old PageMaker users with the latest InDesign release -- and Adobe even sells InDesign at a discount to PageMaker users.

[*] So Adobe does not try to punish, or profiteer from, old customers who probably have limited budgets, but are faithful to Adobe software. And neither should the TextPipe Pro developer.

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