Yet another question about seats

[Darin]

I have a developer updating some of our modules. Yesterday he was working in the admin. If I logged in at the same time, did I just incur a $50 charge for that one moment? If so, am I supposed to be calling anyone who is helping me to determine the exact time they are logging in and logging out and try to coordinate it?

[Darin]

Re: Yet another question about seats

The interesting thing is, I purposely avoided logging in yesterday. Now when I check today, it shows two concurrent logins yesterday. Did my developer log in twice and cost me $50?

It seems ridiculous that I'm scared to use my shopping cart because of possible fees.

I've also asked this question three times in a ticket and never received an answer: If I inadvertently close a browser tab, or my browser crashes without loggin out, will my logging back in incur the fee?

[PCINET - Andreas]

Re: Yet another question about seats

Miva doesn't charge you additional seats without your consent, you have to purchase them or the second person has to kick out the first.
IMPORTANT: Browser tabs don't count as a additional seat but a different browser or PC does!

[Darin]

Re: Yet another question about seats

Is that true for 5.5? I was told there is no way to "kick out the first." Plus, I got a charge for $100 (two months?) without my consent.

[PCINET - Andreas]

Re: Yet another question about seats

No, not true for 5.5 but you can tell Miva that you need only 1. Miva is planning a developer seat which you don't get charged for. The $100 are an estimate and you should upgrade anyway to avoid charges like this - 02/12/2015 is the deadline!

BTW there is a entire article about Miva 9 seats. Don't have the URL but Rick for surely will chime in and provide it.

[Darin]

Re: Yet another question about seats

Can you show me the information on the "deadline?" I can't find anything on it in the seats blog posts. Are you saying that all 5.5 users are supposed to transition to 9 by next Thursday?

[PCINET - Andreas]

Re: Yet another question about seats

Don't have a link but Phosphormedia sent out an email stating this deadline so I think they know what they are writing about.

Rick, could you please chime in and clarify.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: Yet another question about seats

Don't have a link but Phosphormedia sent out an email stating this deadline so I think they know what they are writing about.

Rick, could you please chime in and clarify.

Wow! Another person who actually reads our Newsletter...cool, we're up to about 10 :)

(just kidding, we've actually had several people tell us this was news to them...and got them to update).

FYI. We've done about 20/30 upgrades. For the most part, its pretty basic. Update ALL module's that you intend to continue using and either remove or deactivate those you are not. Place in maintenance mode. Run update. (Of course, doing this on a dev copy is safest, but if its a pretty basic site, its fine to do it on a live site.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: Yet another question about seats

Ok, a few things.

Darin if we bill you incorrectly while you're on 5.5, just tell us and we'll fix it. Once you upgrade to 9, then it won't be an issue as Andreas mentioned.

When it comes to upgrading, it's your choice.

PCI requires that all people upgrade to the latest product software within 90 days of release, otherwise you're not PCI Compliant. In addition for us, support costs for many many versions (there was a time we were supporting close to 20 unique versions) are untenable.

So we charge a Non Compliance Fee if you don't follow the PCI upgrade rules. This has been going on for a year or so at this point (I'm sure you were notified back then and I'm happy to find the letter if you need it).

Our competitors who host their product (software-as-a-service products) go a different route and force upgrade you (you would've just logged in one day and already been on 9). We don't ever want to nor plan to do that, so instead we use this as a tool to to economically incentivize you to keep up to date.

So yes, 90 days from the release of Version 9 is coming up on Feb 12th, so if you're not upgraded by then, you'll both not be PCI Compliant and get a NCF.

However what's stopping you from upgrading? There's very few module incompatibilities and we've had zero catastrophic upgrades (where upgrading broke your customers ability to shop). So I would encourage you to upgrade as soon as you can (plus it's a much much better product than 5.5).

[Darin]

Re: Yet another question about seats

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the further clarification. The reason I had someone else logging in yesterday was to complete the upgrade now. I had attempted to do it myself in December, however I learned that several of our modules would stop working. So the delay was determining which modules would cause us problems. It turns out that we're needing to spend $50 a month now for new subscriptions to keep the modules we have active. That process is happening now.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: Yet another question about seats

It's worth noting that as long as you complete the upgrade anytime in February, you will NOT receive an estimated invoice for February (in March), so you could've had 100 sessions going yesterday and as long as you get to 9 by 2/28 it wouldn't make a difference.

I hope that helps. And if you did get an incorrect bill before, just shoot me an email.

[Darin]

Re: Yet another question about seats

Thanks, Rick, and everyone. I trust that within a few days we'll be upgraded and running smoothly.

[elisabeth_hale]

Re: Yet another question about seats

It's worth noting that as long as you complete the upgrade anytime in February, you will NOT receive an estimated invoice for February (in March), so you could've had 100 sessions going yesterday and as long as you get to 9 by 2/28 it wouldn't make a difference.

I hope that helps. And if you did get an incorrect bill before, just shoot me an email.

This discussion is very confusing to me. It's not yet 2/28, I've just upgraded to 9, yet my credit card has been charged for a NCF and for a $100 'estimate'.

[PCINET - Andreas]

Re: Yet another question about seats

I think it is the new automated billing system they are running and it's gone wild :) Miva credited our clients back who had this problem.

[elisabeth_hale]

Re: Yet another question about seats

That's good to know. I've waited on hold and submitted a ticket, but haven't gotten through yet. So now I know to keep trying!