I just got an email with a slightly car sales patter advising me, a long time classic license holder, of my options for continuing to use SketchUp in the future:
" We’re always iterating and improving things here at SketchUp and we want to be sure you, our most loyal customers, don’t get left behind.
As our M&S program comes to an end, you’ve got two options:
Get the first two years of a SketchUp Pro Subscription for just $240 (a $358 savings!) and access every feature update past, present, and future.
I would like to continue my “perpetual license” and think it reasonable to pay a reasonable maintenance and support.
Ah, that is the, M&S Program that is ending.
So my perpetual license is not perpetual due to some shell game shuffle by Trimble. WTF! So, it says I can’t lose either way. Why do I feel ripped off?
It’s clear that Trimble have been listening to the complaints in this forum over the past months. The latest offer effectively delays any price increases for two more years. We have full use of Pro via the subscription for the same price as extending M&S on the perpetual. There are additional benefits within the subscription - whether they are useful to most Pro users remains to be seen, but since we are not paying extra for the additions, we can’t really complain!
I believe that perpetual licenses are still perpetual, regardless of the fact that Trimble will cease to offer new perpetual (classic) licenses as of November 4, 2020. In other words, nothing that Trimble have stated so far will cause your current licensed version(s) of SketchUp Pro 20XX to stop running in the future. If five or ten years from now you have a computer and operating system etc. that is capable of running the version(s) of SketchUp that you are running today, those existing versions of SketchUp should still run OK. Trimble says they will not retract those existing perpetual licenses.
I received the same email and thought I’d take them up on the 2 year / $250 deal. But when I clicked on the Subscribe button in the email, they added the 2 years @ $568! Huh?! Glitch? Has anyone else experienced this?
Would I be right in thinking that your current support lasts until near the end of February? If it does, would it make sense to do the offer then?
From what others have said, there is a point where you enter the email that is associated with your current license. In your case it’s a company email address, and not your Gmail one. I wouldn’t try that though, waiting for February will effectively extend the end date for the deal by four months.
There is an FAQ, where amongst other things it says that if you don’t have support, but do own a 2016 license or newer, you get 60% off until April 3rd, then 40% off until December 4th 2021. If you do have support, you get 60% off up until December 4th 2021.
I feel a deep frustration and sense of loss with this change of policy by Trimble.
I am not the fastest three-button mouse in the civilized world, but like many classic users, I go way back with SketchUp. I attended one of their earliest release exhibits at a computer show in Denver and met some of the folks who developed its innovative approach to modeling. Their excitement and enthusiasm was contagious. I visited their office in Boulder with a question and a tech came down and spent twenty minutes coaching me on the right gear setup to do design work.
I have followed SketchUp through its various corporate transitions, appreciated some of the bold changes made by Google, but was frustrated by their inattention to making simple improvements in its basic functionality. Trimble has of late been more attentive to making those improvements, but there is still a corporate sluggishness in refining the native program.
So, this change of policy means my becoming just another number on a long list of subscribers. It represents the loss of this history, the brushing over of traces that, for me, are part of SketchUp’s élan and my connection with it.
Paying a fair share of the maintenance and development is appropriate, but to whom do we make a case for honoring commitment and preserving in some fashion the historical distinction of the classic license? Is there an ear somewhere corporate strata that’s open to the issue or is there just a mindless, bean counter algorithmic incrementing the bottom line?
Be sure the promotion code (coupon) has been entered right in your cart. It supposed to do it automatically when you click on the link from the email. It should knock off 358 of your total on the right side of the screen.
I feel a sense of loss, as well. I have been a customer since the @Last Software days. I don’t think they would have approved of this course change. Will likely abandon ship with the 2020 version, if I can ever get it to install correctly…
Hi Colin,
I renewed my Maintenance and Support on my Classic Perpetual SU Pro license a few months ago … so it expires one year from that date, right?
I just want to confirm what you said - I’ve now got until December 4th, 2021 to take the 60% off deal?
Thanks
No, you would get 60% off if you migrate by the time your current support is running out. If you wait for December 4th, some time after your support had ended, you would get 40% discount.
If your support runs out between now and April 4th, you could still get the 60% discount on April 4th.
Thanks Colin,
So I have until my current M&S expires to get the 60% deal …
Is there a quick way to look up my current M&S, to see when it expires in 2021?
Thanks!
I think what this and other related threads amply demonstrate is that the Trimble marketing department have managed to thoroughly confuse everyone.
The move to a subscription basis is bound to annoy many and I am sure this was foreseen. But it is the way most things seem to be going, so hardly a surprise. Nor is it a surprise that the transition is likely to be a bit painful.
It is understandable that a company should wish to offer incentives to sweeten the pill. Ideally, the sweetener would be easy to understand and fair to everyone. So it shouldn’t matter when your license expires. Maybe rather than having a calendar date for the various discounts to kick in, it should be related to the number of months before your perpetual license expires? But that would mean changing things again and, as we have discovered with Covid measures here in the UK, continual tweaking just adds to the confusion!