I do not recall am opt out provision when V8 was pushed out to users. Why would I desire a Pro Version when I have selected a free license when I selected my initial configuration? Pushing the Pro Version to a customer who does not want it. Forcing a 30 day trial period complete with nag screens is not useful to all is a sales ploy not a customer benefit. Let us opt out in the future.
I agree with G_Rod 100%
I have been touting eM Client as the best email program to-date to my family and friends for two years. This ploy to install the Pro version is embarrassing me and probably lots of other users (paid or free) who recommended the program to their friends and family over the past three years.
Please never do this again with an updated version. This could easily drive people to an email program alternative. Email clients are great for some people but no everyone. You devs have done a super job of creating a sense of integrity and honesty with the world of email client users. Please don’t jeopardize your reputation.
1 Like
First of all, I think the title of this thread is misleading. I think the debate is about the intital 30-day trial of PRO features, whereas the title seems to suggest it’s about not being able to opt out of upgrading to v8.
NB PRO is not a different program version - it’s the same program version but the installed licence dictates whether you can access more than 2 email accounts. That’s it!
I’ll say up front I didn’t find the gratis 30-day trial of the functionality conferred by a PRO licence too offensive, myself. But that’s because the difference between PRO and FREE is so slight and neither of the benefits have any interest to me.
I guess my logic is this:
If I were interested in the only functional PRO feature (to be able to monitor more than two email accounts) and the only ethical PRO feature (to use for business rather than merely personal) then the ability to try out PRO would be intriguing if not useful.
In a situtation where I am trialling eMail Client for more than the two accounts in FREE I would want nag pop-ups reminding me the 30 days are almost up - because all but two of those accounts would no longer be usable. I wouldn’t want to log in one day and find all but two of my accounts had disappeared. (As an aside, since it’s not an experience I have had - how does eM Client choose which accounts to cut? last in first out? or do you get a pop out asking you to choose which to remove?)
As to having to stop using eM Client for commercial after 30 days trial period of PRO… I am not sure how the company would/could enforce that. Again the nags would seem appropriate as reminders that you ought to pay to play.
I think the big issue is that the difference between PRO and FREE is so slight that the initial 30-day TRIAL period seems fairly irrelevant - and the nags obviously do bother some users. But in the overal scheme of things I cannot believe it is too irksome - they do disappear when you are cast down into FREE status after 30 days. Remember we are getting to use a potentially excellent product for free (Ie, not benefitting eM Client at all) so 30 days is not too long to suffer, is it?
Another option would be to have a “try PRO” opt-in, but honestly I wonder who would use it unless it were offered right at the start. If you need 3 or more accounts and you have tried eM Client FREE then presumably you will either pay to go PRO without trial (you know what you’re getting) or with regret use alternatives for some of your accounts.
So offer a PRO trial opt-in at the beginning seems more sensible; then those of us who just want basic FREE or to test out the program don’t get the nag screens.
The obvious situation in which the temp trial approach works is if your PRO functionality is much more powerful than you FREE. Not sure how this would work for eM Client. Short of drastic limitations such as “you can’t save or print” examples within my experience of programmes with cut down trials include:
- a spreadsheet that only has a small number of rows and columns and a limited subset of functions in the FREE version;
- a music typesetting program that only has a limited number of instruments staves and clefs that can be used in the FREE version; or
- a PDF converter that will only convert documents with 15 pages or fewer in the FREE version.
A temporary lifting of any of these restrictions in an intial 30 day trial would indeed tempt users to go for a paid PRO.
@Senior_Adviser I must say I find your final paragraph a bit hyperbolic. I think eM Client should accept that the following “jeopardize your reputation” and run the risk to “drive people to an … alternative” far more than a slightly annoying free trial on first install:
- A help system/web page that is very out of date (it heralds new advances in version 6!)
- The myriad problems in v8 listed in this forum (either out-of-the-box or as an upgrade for v7 users) that have apparently prompted a lot of people to downgrade or walk away.
The latter point is receiving a lot of air time so I won’t labour it any more than saying as a user of some years the upgrade to v8.0.2951 pushed at me broke a superb program that did everything I needed. That rocked my confidence and did far more to damage eM Client’s reputation in my eyes than the trivial annoyance of a free trial period. I’ve downgraded and monitor these pages for some sign that v8 is evolving.
Man! You missed the crux of this whole topic. We users did not ask for a Pro Trial. We simply updated and found it to be a Pro Trial Version. That was wrong, period…
That’s the ony flavour it comes in. Suck it up and move on, I guess… 
LMAO! Gald you’re not an Admin here, Mr “you think you know it all”. LOL KMA