X-Cart forums

[WebsiteCM Support]

Originally Posted by cflsystems

QT decided to go another way though and simply started from scratch

* started from Lite Commerce

[cflsystems]

Originally Posted by WebsiteCM Support

* started from Lite Commerce

Yes that's true, I think the first version was called XC Lite or something like this.
XC5 is still full with Lite references. The main namespace is even called XLite...

[WebsiteCM Support]

LiteCommerce was something that at the time many XC4 users were aware of and intentionally didn't use because it was buggy and featureless. Then it was essentially packaged as X-Cart Next which alienated both XC4 and the few existing Lite Commerce users.

LiteCommerce is actually still up on GIT.

Also -> https://www.litecommerce.com/download.html

[Triple A Racing]

Previously, the annual fee for "Renewal of access to upgrades" (sic) on an existing X-Cart Business Licence was $99.00 USD Plus... the farcical, numerous, annual fees for any additional, applicable X-Cart Add-Ons being used by the store-holder. The latter being a stupid situation that X-Cart have avoided / never ever dealt with.

Today's impersonal but patronising, scatter gun approach, deliberately vaguely worded and intentionally unsigned, joke e-mail - sent by a Seller Labs Company (sic) way down in Georgia, Y'all - informs us, that this fee has been "adjusted" (sic) to.... $395.00 USD Read that again;$395.00 USD That's a 299% price increase....

As sick jokes go, this is up there with the very best. If you wanted to be convinced, that X-Cart / Seller Labs / New Names Inc etc wanted to kill off all self-hosted packages and switch everyone to convenient, cloud based rentals - here you are. XC have handed it to you on a putrid and unwelcome plate.

A 299% price increase, doled out for a product that is massively behind where it should be, has almost zero 'presence' compared to when it was launched and when all of the world, is in the middle of enduring new, monumental business challenges, due to the severe effects of COVID-19 is about as welcome as chocolate fireguard.

All the "senior people" or so it appears, are now busy trying to recover all of the costs they incurred thanks to their own mismanaged, recent shocking but spectacular X-Cart hosting failures by enforcing all of the other, easy target, non-hosting failure contributory customers, into funding all of their own inexcusable errors.

The preceding is bordering on extortion and is 100% untenable. HERE is the XC "Executive Team" Maybe you want to contact them directly? Quite soon?

[Triple A Racing]

Thanks to the new 'forum bots', who presumably used to work for George Orwell Inc & who have 'conveniently' moved the last post above, from a separate thread, on to the end of this thread, so as to try and avoid massive, extortionate price increases, being seen as an XC5 Problem The irony, is that this area is open to the public, not just forum members... They obviously thought it through in detail first and then planned ahead accordingly.... Wonder if they also work on X-Cart Hosting?

[Triple A Racing]

Within the anonymous, farcical, poorly-written, un-signed e-mail from X-Cart, that's demanding a price increase of 299% for the annual XC5 business licence renewal (Full Details HERE) but which also contains some splendid euphemisms, such as this one:

...The X-Cart team continues to keep a focus on developing our software and investing in making all products better, faster, and more feature-rich...

there is presumably, an assumption, that anything that's outstanding / well overdue / still accurately unanswered and/or just plain ignored doesn't count in amongst the entries(are there ANY?) on the '...just sell us more profit - labs!' hypothetical XC5 roadmap (the real one - if it exists, I have never seen...)

NB There's no mention of security, but don't even think of mentioning the very recent malware / ransomware / hostage to fortune XC5 hosting debacle

Here's some reminders to the bean counters that seem far too preoccupied with increasing the leverage for more cash, than providing a product & service:

Hideously overdue old bugs: https://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?t=78157

New bugs that nobody at X-Cart has rectified yet: https://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?t=78160
These are all still in place as part of the XC 5.4.1.26 upgrade process....

Timely and technically correct progress with Apache: https://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?t=78130

Timely and technically correct progress with PHP: https://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?t=78092

I was also going to add the written promise (posted here in this forum) of a X-Cart 5 release, that ran exclusively on Nginx, but historically, there's been so many subsequent examples of total avoidance / evasive answers only / hopelessly inept and technically flawed attempts at adding an 'option' within the existing Apache based system, that I've not bothered. A ghost is a ghost, no matter what marketing spin those lab boys try and apply to it.

These are just some of our own facts and observations. There are many, many more from other users. All of which, make the risible e-mail referred to earlier above, to be seem both seemingly delusional & very misleading. Great job all of those back at the labs, great job

EDIT - See The post above RE: 'forum bots' etc who have yet again 'conveniently' moved this post, from a totally separate thread, on to the end of this thread, so as to try and avoid ANYTHING that doesn't suit their current narrative aka being seen as a possible XC5 Problem. It's the same irony, in that, this thread is open to the public, not just forum members... oh & PRAVDA is no longer relevant

[john.hodson@iinet.net.au]

Yep, we have just become aware of the 299% price increase and will have to decide shortly whether to pay for the annual access to upgrades. When we asked X-Cart why this price increase, we were told:

"A big part of renewal is to ensure you maintain access to our newest software versions and our Product Team is working on the final stages of preparing for our next upcoming 5.4.2 release. Within this release, customers can expect not only ongoing work on general infrastructure and security aspects but also new features such as an enhanced Banner System and Admin Navigation improvements."

Right, so will the annual fee come down after the 5.4.2 release????

So, Triple A Racing, what did you decide to do? Paying for the annual price hike or say no to the "access to to the upgrades"?

We just migrated to 5.4.1.28, and are now seriously considering not continuing to pay for this annual price hike.

[Triple A Racing]

Originally Posted by john.hodson@iinet.net.au

.....so will the annual fee will come down after the 5.4.2 release???

Nobody that we know / regularly converse with, is aware, yet, of when XC 5.4.2.* will be released.
That might have helped people make their own, informed decision as to: Stay with Self-Hosted XC5 aka 'Subscription Service' / Switch to X-Cart Cloud / Bin X-Cart 5 altogether etc
Each to their own in terms of how they approach this new XC5 'Challenge', but when it becomes due for us, we will not be absorbing the 299% price increase

[mcinque]

The problem is that in order to continue to exist, a company must grow economically every year.

Having to grow economically leads to making market choices.

Their market choice, was the SaaS model (like many other companies had done).

The SaaS model allows a constant flow of money and is now the path that many are taking.

Although not psychologically pleasing, it is perfectly understandable in order to provide a product that needs constant improvements and updates.

But only if this pricing model didn't raise the costs by 10X.
The problem we're discussing is all there.

I don't think they launched a dice and found the new pricing randomly, this is a precise choice.

For me this move is not only a way to change their sales model, but also to completely change their customer base, eliminating the "little shops".

The sooner we deal with it, the sooner we can find an alternative product.

[neonrider]

Originally Posted by mcinque

This definitely put the XC5 out of my reach. I cannot build anymore stores for my customers with XC5 if there are these costs. This forces me to reconsider other platforms that I have snubbed so far.

Very sad. I never expected to leave X-Cart, expecially in this way (pratically kicked out).

The most urgent and important thing to undestand at the moment is:

What will happen to the XC4 and XC5 stores and licenses we currently have?
As you will surely understand, it's critical to keep the existing stores at the existing licensing conditions.

Me too. At least they could make the "mortgage" in the double digit figures instead of $199.