MM9 Seats/Close Session

[veniceninja]

Re: MM9 Seats/Close Session

Anyway possible to lower the price when buying more seats as a package? It's kind of crazy that we could log in as many people as we wanted to before, and now have to pay $200-$300 to essentially have the same amount of people before. $50 a person is a little excessive. For example if we pay $100, can we have at least 4-5 seats? At least give us a discount when paying a bigger plan. It's not like we are all using it at the same time all day, we just need it more flexible as before so people can get on it when needed.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: MM9 Seats/Close Session

You don't need to buy a license for every user, just Max simultaneous. So in your case you may only need 2 or 3.

[veniceninja]

Re: MM9 Seats/Close Session

minimum 3, so that already puts me at $100 extra, already. Thinking about 4 because my shipping guys need to add tracking, so that'd be $150. And I'm having the same issues as others where we have to check who we need to log off before we kick them out. I'd like to be able to just go in and do a simple update when I need to. I understand you guys need to make money, but to pay so much extra for what we were already able to do before, it's pretty excessive. It would basically almost double our our hosting fees a month. If you could do a package, that would be great. Wouldn't you want us to pull the trigger on buying a $100 package anyways? instead of debating over another $50 each time.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: MM9 Seats/Close Session

While we are examining some things like API users and Developer keys which bypass the seat requirement, we're not considering lowering the price in the case you describe.

While from a percentage standpoint it's a big increase, in an absolute dollar standpoint it's miniscule and noise level.

[veniceninja]

Re: MM9 Seats/Close Session

That's unfortunate. So far, I cannot recommend the new miva to others. it's more difficult to navigate the admin, the coupon system is ridiculously difficult to use compared to many modules that were available to previous versions of miva. I've been using miva since 2.0, and now considering other carts. i've also been a pro-miva customer when people ask my opinion of the cart, but now i've failed to see any benefits of the new miva 9, aside it loading slightly faster. With it being more difficult to navigate, it eliminates that benefit. The upgrade should have been a worth while benefit for us to even want to pay these seats to keep using miva. I'll have to debate on changing carts before I spend $200-300 a month on a few seats, seats that we technically already had before we changed to miva 9. If you add it up, $2,400 a year is a big dollar standpoint. I'd hardly call that miniscule.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: MM9 Seats/Close Session

I'll wager that after using the new admin for one month you'll find it so much faster than the old admin you can't fathom going backward.

I'll also wager that once you get your primary discounts configured and you understand the power of the new discounting system you'll see why we did what we did.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: MM9 Seats/Close Session

I'll also add that if you need four extra seats at the same time, then you have at least 4 if not more employees and considering they need it simultaneously I'll venture that they're either full time or full time equivalent. So compared to the cost of four employees, $200 a month is miniscule. It's going to be somewhere between a fraction of a percent of the cost of the employees to maybe at worst 2% of the cost of the employees if they're minimum wage and only part time.

So from that perspective is still what I would define as miniscule.

[veniceninja]

Re: MM9 Seats/Close Session

The package deal for seats was just a suggestion. There are plenty of other companies that also provide this solution. It's more flexible for the end user. Up charge is fine as long as it's justified. The new Miva has not impressed us at all, aside from seats or no seats. Whether it is fair to start overcharging for a function that existed for free previously is the issue. Quick example, it's the same reason that you don't see facebook start charging monthly memberships suddenly, but they charge for additional functionality w/ ads where you actually see increased benefits. Case in point, I haven't seen the benefits of the new Miva, just more difficult to use the admin than before.

Fair is fair. I'm happy to give it a month. Contact me anytime to discuss upcoming changes, because Miva 9 needs alot of updates on the admin side. I'm not trying to cause trouble, but I hope you take user feedback into serious consideration.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: MM9 Seats/Close Session

IMO: Equating Facebook with Miva is like comparing the effectiveness of a horse verses a dog cause they have four legs.

That being said, I here both what you say about the ease of the new admin and what Rick says. I'm actually developing a site in MM5.5 and THEN upgrading to MM9 because I don't want the relearning to slow me down. However, I'm putting off final judgement on ease of use until I learn the new system.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: MM9 Seats/Close Session

Veniceninja,

Not to go too far down the rabbit hole in comparisons, but Facebook is doing exactly that (to business owners).

Here's an article in the WSJ this past week about something that used to be free on FB that's going to end up costing most businesses far more than any change we'll ever make: http://online.wsj.com/articles/new-f...urs-1417133694

Self promotion for businesses on Facebook used to be taken for granted and the more valuable it gets, the less Facebook allows it for free. While I agree they'll never charge end users for the service (because giving it "free" and selling the data/ads is a better business model anyway), I don't believe that to be true for businesses. They'll keep increasing the tax on businesses until they "maximize" it.

[veniceninja]

Re: MM9 Seats/Close Session

i'm not comparing facebook and miva as companies. you missed my point. but it's useless to go back and forth. if i don't like the new system or if the upcoming updates don't solve the current issues, i'll just have to look for another shopping cart. it is what it is.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: MM9 Seats/Close Session

Venice,

Did you get my pm?

[ToddW]

Re: MM9 Seats/Close Session

If $50/user wasn't such a big deal then MIVA wouldn't care and wouldn't charge for every admin session.

This makes it VERY hard as a consultant to suggest MIVA as something to start with and grow into, couple that with the fact that e-mail ticket support time is getting more delayed than ever and license fees have continually gone up over the last 10 years it really opens the doors to suggest numerous other platforms to try.

It's rather upsetting to be honest to be hit with new fees, increased rates, and worse support.

[ToddW]

Re: MM9 Seats/Close Session

i'm not comparing facebook and miva as companies. you missed my point. but it's useless to go back and forth. if i don't like the new system or if the upcoming updates don't solve the current issues, i'll just have to look for another shopping cart. it is what it is.

Exactly.

As a developer, consultant and support rep for numerous companies it's become much harder over the last couple years to convince clients to keep using MIVA, and numerous are getting ready to start new businesses and will likely be testing out new platforms because of their years of experience with MIVA.

It doesn't matter how AWESOME the software is if it's completely out of the reach of a startup ecommerce business, and takes a long time to learn the entire system. My clients #1 complaint is that even MIVA Tech support reps are unable to answer their questions, not to mention the numerous problems we've found from MIVA developers (One Page Checkout, Mobile Version) that have worked on our site. (Forgetting to put things on OPC, mobile versions lacking features of OPC that were supposed to be included.) My clients are also upset that MIVA circumvents the developer and attempts to sell them directly, and then consultants like me have to figure out where MIVA developers made mistakes, and solve their problems.

To say I'm irritated would be an understatement.

[SpeakerRepair.com]

Re: MM9 Seats/Close Session

I think that having an ability to message the person you're trying to boot is going to be essential.

"I need to get into the admin right now to start my shift."
"Hold on, I need 5 more minutes to make sure this template code actually works. Kick me out if I'm not done by then."

Is this feature coming soon? We need it.

Thanks,
Eric