Hi, my hosting company just sent a $55 bill (charging my CC as well) for 'Miva Non-Compliance Fee FEB.2015'. It made me so angry that they charged without even informing about what we have to comply with. I sent an angry email to my hosting company and they explained the charge as follows:
This is just too much. Miva added $50 per seat charge and now this? This charge is just plain ridiculous and needs to go. These charges are getting out hand and these charges will turn people away from Miva. Miva should consider its roots which led to its popularity (including being a cost-effective solution) and focus on it if it wants to be successful. Illegally making money like this is not the solution and will not help.
Hoping for the best from Miva as I love new 9 platform and ready-themes.
Thanks
"As you may recall, Miva announced changes to their licensing policies and notified you in January 2014 (and we followed up in February 2014). They introduced what they call “Miva Non-Compliance Fee” - (we call it a “penalty”) - for any stores that are not on the latest version of Miva. Any time they release a new version, however minor, you have three months to upgrade. If you do not upgrade within three months, they assess a $55/month Miva Non-Compliance Fee. They released Miva v9 in November, which puts the upgrade timeframe, or deadline, to the first week of February. Your store appears to be still on Miva v5.5, hence why your license key came up on the report and they just sent us an invoice for February, March, April and May for these “non-compliance” fees. It’s ridiculous, I know, and quite possibly illegal for them to charge these fees, but it’s between Miva and you - as you are the license key user, we are just passing on the Miva licenses/fees along. We received no notice as to which domains were “non-complaint” and would be billed, so this is as much of a surprise to us as it is to you… If you’d like to complain, which we strongly suggest, please contact Rick Wilson, the CEO of Miva, at [email protected] or 800.608.6482, as otherwise Miva will continue these predatory practices and billing after the fact, without giving anyone any notice ahead of time. A note sent in January 2014 is not enough when they release new versions and updates every other month.
Please note that Miva just sent us an email last week announcing yet another bump to their Miva Non-Compliance Fee - the $55/month will remain in effect for domains that are 3+ months out of sync with the latest release, but if you do not upgrade within 12 months, the fee goes to $110/month. It’s basically a penalty for anyone who doesn’t want to upgrade to the latest and greatest version every month - synonymous with Microsoft charging fees if one did not upgrade to Windows 8 and preferred to stay on Windows 7 or XP, or Apple charging fees if you chose not to upgrade to iPhone 6 as soon as it’s released. In other words - this fee sounds completely bogus and ridiculous, and is most likely completely illegal - which is why we strongly suggest that you contact Miva to complain. Without complaints, Miva will only continue these predatory and quite likely illegal business and billing practices.
I see that you did upgrade to v9, but not until February 26th, 3:25pm PST. Miva billed us for your February 2015 Miva Non-Compliance Fee, and this is the transaction you are seeing now. We only learned about this last week ourselves, when we received the invoices from Miva for February, March, April and May 2014 for a number of domains."
This is just too much. Miva added $50 per seat charge and now this? This charge is just plain ridiculous and needs to go. These charges are getting out hand and these charges will turn people away from Miva. Miva should consider its roots which led to its popularity (including being a cost-effective solution) and focus on it if it wants to be successful. Illegally making money like this is not the solution and will not help.
Hoping for the best from Miva as I love new 9 platform and ready-themes.
Thanks
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