Hello.
CCC 4.1.10 (our most recent release -
https://www.bombich.com/download) is qualified for macOS Sierra. I
searched our database and located your purchase of CCC 3.5 in 2013. If
you need to upgrade to CCC 4, please visit
http://bombich.com/store/upgrade and enter your 3.5 regisration code to
receive your 50% off discount.
If you have any questions, please let me know
and
I'll be happy to help. Thanks.
Eddie Bell
Bombich Software, Inc.
Eddie are you kidding? I mean, are you telling me that
I
paid $40 for a program that stops working after less than 3 years, and
now I have to pay another $20 to get it working again? That is nothing
but daylight robbery! I use freeware that I downloaded 15 years ago and
it is still being upgraded with each new OS.
If I had known that the program would stop working after
less than 3
years I would never have bought it!
And how long is this next one going to last, another 'less than 3
years'? And how much will you demand to get it working again?
I wouldn't pay you $20 for the newer version, I wouldn't pay you $1 for
it!
Have a great year.
Hello.
Unfortunately Yosemite broke CCC 3.5, we couldn't get it to work
reliably on Yosemite. We explain the dilemma here:
http://bombich.com/blog/2014/09/29/why-doesnt-ccc-3.5.x-run-on-yosemite.
I'm really sorry it worked out that way. If possible, we would have
preferred to get CCC 3.5.7 working on Yosemite. We had absolutely no
intention of making people feel forced to upgrade to CCC 4 when they
chose to upgrade their operating system. We discuss our approach to
future upgrades here:
http://bombich.com/blog/2015/12/02/will-i-be-able-use-current-version-ccc-on-apples-next-os-upgrade.
We don't want our customers to pay for something that offers
no
perceived additional benefit. At the bottom of this response, I have
included a list of CCC 4 features for reference. We are asking $19.99
USD for the upgrade, which we believe is reasonable given the effort
involved with making CCC compatible with Apple's yearly OS releases. We
can't promise that a future OS won't break CCC 4, but we can, and do
promise to make every effort to qualify the current version of CCC on
Apple's next OS. For example, suppose we come out with CCC 5 next year.
CCC 5 would require an upgrade license, but CCC 4 would be qualified on
Sierra (already is - free update for CCC 4 license holders), and we
would also qualify it on the next major OS after that. So you could
continue to use CCC 4 after Sierra. It wasn't our goal to not have CCC
3.5 work on Yosemite (and higher).
That said, I don't want to suggest that even CCC 4 will continue to
work in perpetuity for the next ten+ OSes that Apple produces. At some
point CCC 4 will be broken -- the technologies that it is built upon
will be deprecated by Apple, and we will once again be forced to adopt
major new, under-the-hood technologies. If you choose to upgrade your
OS, that will eventually happen.
The only software we develop is CCC and it's only available for the
Mac. Our continual goal is to provide the most reliable backup software
available for the Mac and offer that solution at a price that allows us
to continue its development while providing high quality support for
our customers. Based on your response I thought that a straightforward
explanation about the transition from version 3.5 to version 4 was
appropriate.
We truly do appreciate your original choice to trust Carbon Copy Cloner
in backing up your data and we respect your choice not to use CCC in
the future.
Sincerely,
Eddie Bell
Bombich Software, Inc.
Dear Eddie, thank you very much for taking the trouble to write out
such a detailed explanation. However, it doesn't answer my point or
solve my problem. I totally understand that the Apple company and
systems are a pain in the neck to deal with, but you advertised
yourself as a company that was able to deal with that and had developed
a program that was able to do a certain task, i.e. back up the whole
hard drive.
After extensive research and reading many customer reviews and Apple
forum comments I decided to purchase your program, since I had become
aware that when a hard drive goes, it's gone!
If I had known the program would only work for 3 years I would never
have purchased it, and I don't believe anyone else would either. I
would certainly expect a $40 program to last at least 10 years.
Now, I have zero technical knowledge and also zero interest in reading
about your problems in making 3.5 work with Yosemite. Since you
actually did succeed in making CCC 4 work with Yosemite it obviously
wasn't beyond your abilities. I have read the 2 links you sent me and I
have no sympathy with your problems, I have enough of my own.
I feel that I have a right to demand that for $40 you have an
obligation to provide me with a program that works, that does the job I
originally bought it for. Whether that means upgrading or installing a
totally new program I will comply with all instructions in order to get
what I paid for.
I will be quite honest with you, I bought the program, I read the
instructions, I set it up to do exactly what I wanted, to back up my
hard drive once a week, and I never opened it since. I repeat, I have
never even opened the program. I set it up to do a certain task, which
I understood it did superlatively, thank God I never had to find out,
and I had no further interest in it. I am more than busy enough with
the work I am doing.
That is to say, all the new features and abilities of CCC 4 are of no
interest to me whatsoever. And I am sure you have a lot of users like
me. I wanted a program to work in the background that would take none
of my attention and need no tweaking or adjusting. That's what I wanted
and that's what I got.
Now since you say that 3.5 no longer does that, but that #4 does, I
feel you should provide me with a free copy of #4. I paid you $40 in
good faith to provide me with a working program for a reasonable length
of time, and I don't regard 3 years as a reasonable length of time.
I am unmoved by Mike's bleating about what a tough time he is having
and such difficult decisions he has had to make. I also have no doubt
that you 'respect my choice not to use CCC in the future.' You've got
my money in your pocket, what do you care?
I feel I have been treated very shabbily by your company. You have
taken my money under false pretenses, and then tried to squeeze more
out of me. I feel that you should give me and all the other users of
your program a guaranteed, at least 10 years of usability, without
having to pay extra, whether that means upgrades or a new program, or
whatever.
I will be interested in hearing your thoughts on what I have written
here.
Thank you.
Hi,
I would certainly expect a $40 program to last at
least 10 years.
I think we fundamentally disagree on the value of software and the
effort required to keep it up to date. I'm sorry that we disagree, but
I see this from the perspective of having to pay my employees and
continue to support my users. All of that requires money, so if we have
any intention of supporting future OS versions, we need to ask that
people continue to support us financially. A one-time payment of $40 is
not going to be sufficient for me to keep up with Apple's yearly OS
updates. And this is likely very different for a simple drawing
application vs. an application that is tasked with cloning the
operating system. When the operating system changes, and when Apple
changes the filesystem, I have to make changes to my software to
accommodate them. It's not simply a matter of accommodating shiny new
OS features, I have to change the way I copy files, or create the
recovery volume, or mount encrypted volumes. I really think you're
oversimplifying the work we have to do to pull off this magical feat of
cloning the operating system.
And how long is this next one going to last, another
'less than 3 years'? And how much will you demand to get it working
again?
First, you need to understand that it was never my intention for CCC
3.x to stop working at Yosemite. Apple broke it with that OS release. I
explain the matter here:
http://bombich.com/blog/2014/09/29/why-doesnt-ccc-3.5.x-run-on-yosemite
Looking forward, I think we've struck the best possible balance between
allowing you to continue using your current version as long as you
like, and preventing accidental data loss that occurs because you're
using an older version of CCC on a newer/untested OS. I explain those
efforts in this blog post:
http://bombich.com/blog/2015/12/02/will-i-be-able-use-current-version-ccc-on-apples-next-os-upgrade
And in more technical detail here:
http://bombich.com/kb/discussions/coping-apples-pace-innovation-in-application-can-delete-files
I am unmoved by Mike's bleating about what a tough
time he is having and such difficult decisions he has had to make. I
also have no doubt that you 'respect my choice not to use CCC in the
future.' You've got my money in your pocket, what do you care?
Bleating? You're being ridiculous. And you used our product for the
last 3 years. A $40 investment over three years. I can't take my family
out to dinner for $40, yet this software which could rescue all of your
data isn't worth that.
I'm sorry we disagree, take care.
Mike
Mike Bombich
Bombich Software, Inc.
Hi,
It may well be that you can't take your family to dinner for $40, you
also cannot buy a 50 story building for $40...what does that have to do
with anything? The fact that you regard $40 as a trifling amount that
wouldn't even buy you lunch does not mean that we are all on your level
of affluence. I thought long and hard before I made the decision to pay
out $40 for a back-up program.
If it had said on the website that this program might only last up to
three years, or that a further $20 might be needed to continue using
it, I would certainly not have bought the program. I was not looking
for a $60 program and I definitely do not consider that having the use
of a program for a mere three years worth $40, even as an 'investment'.
The only reason I would consider paying at all for a program is if I am
convinced that I am going to get reasonable use out of it, and to
simply close it down, without any advance warning or even a hint that
there might be problems ahead, after three years or whatever, I do not
call being given 'reasonable use'.
Your extra technical description of all the problems you had working
with Yosemite count for nothing when you immediately go and bring out a
new program that successfully overcomes all those problems. Why should
I be concerned that you have research costs, or the size of your
payroll? Obviously, in order to create a program that sells for $40 you
are going to incur R&D costs. I don't pull out a tape measure and
measure the size of the pistons when I buy a new car...all that stuff
under the hood is the manufacturers business, I have no understanding
of it or interest in it. Similarly here.
You have forced me into making the choice between throwing away $40 or
paying out another $20, neither of which I want to do, and I don't
agree that this is acceptable business practice or that you have even
the slightest right to suddenly force me into making such a decision.
I hereby inform you that I intend to take this further.
Good day.
At this point our email correspondance came to an abrupt end. They
didn't answer my email. In other words, "Go fly a kite, we are having
nothing further to do with you."
That email I sent on the 20th October. I then sent them the following
email on the 26th October.
Hi Eddie, I told you that I was going to take this further, and I am,
right here: http://macbackupprograms.com/
You feel that it's ok to ignore my email, write me off as just a nobody
who does not need to be taken seriously. Personally I think that there
is no difference between what you are doing to me and a virus that
locks down your computer and demands money to restore it. More or less
that is exactly what you did to me!
Now, I only bought the domain name about half an hour ago, so I only
had time to paste in the basic material. It still needs a lot of
cleaning and prettying up. But I'll get there...
Please feel free not to reply to this email. Mustn't change the habits
of a
lifetime.
There has been no reply to this email either...no surprises there!