Aloha Software Yearly Fee?

[lrouse]

Hi everyone,
When I worked for an Aloha dealer (back in the Iber days) a client paid for their key and that was it (unless they had maintenance or software contracts, of course) Having said that, I purchased an Aloha license, declining all of the software and maintenance contracts, did the install myself a few hiccups every great once in a while but all is well. I got an email from the dealer that I purchased my key from saying that I owe them roughly two hundred dollars for another years worth of usage of Aloha. When I told her that I wasn't aware that there was an annual fee to use the software and reviewed everything I signed and my original quote didn't say my key had an expiration date, she (the sales person at the dealer) informed me that this was a Radiant policy? Is my chain being yanked? Is this for real? When you initially purchase Aloha and get a key code, it has an expiration date??

 

[RokStar]

Yes and no.
There is a software "maintenance" fee that must be paid annually.
If you don't pay it, you can't upgrade to anything else beside the minor version you're licensed to.
So if you're licensed for 6.5, you can't upgrade to 6.6+.

If you decide at some point you need to upgrade, which will happen for many reasons, you'll have to "Back pay" all of the maintenance fees that you haven't paid in order to be eligible.

So it's your decision, but if you're in it for the long haul, you should pay the maintenance. With today's PCI requirements, versions are always expiring and new PCI/DSS requirements can come at any time.

I would be sure that this is what they are trying to "sell" you and it's not just their own little scam.