[asterisk-biz] View from a side competitor

[Joshua Stephens]

Hi Craig,

----- Craig Lawrence <craig at mytel.net.au> wrote:
> We purchased a copy of Switchvox almost 2 years ago with the intention of
> being a reseller however we found that there wasn't really any support for
> a channel, as such. As a result the software has never been used. 
 

  I'm not sure who you were talking to, but it sounds like there's been some
sort of confusion here. I will admit that at the time that you purchased
your copy of Switchvox a couple of years ago there was not much in the way
of support _specific_ to resellers. In those years we've added many
resellers, most of those are pleased with the freedom our program allows.
Many of the ones we have in Australia are particularly pleased with their
ability to purchase just the software. More on that later.


> We recently went back to see if things had changed. We explained that we
> would had been waiting for Switchvox to get organized and support
> resellers. So when we asked for an upgrade to the most recent version we
> were surprised to be told we'd need to pay full price to upgrade. So we've

> concluded that nothing's really changed.

  As far as upgrades to the system you currently have, I'm not sure if
you're talking about an upgrade to the SMB product, or an upgrade to the
latest version. To get upgrades to Switchvox (except for security updates)
we require that users have a current support contract. You didn't purchase a
support contract originally, and I don't believe you have one currently. We
do let people purchase a support contract after the fact to be able to
download updates. Perhaps that's the fee you're referring to? We never make
people re-purchase the entire system. As a matter of fact, we allowed all
our customers from the original version of Switchvox to upgrade to the
higher end product for free. Because of when you first purchased Switchvox,
you would also be entitled to this upgrade. We allowed users who had
purchased the lower end product to continue purchasing support at the lower
cost as well.

That being said, our reseller program is actually quite beneficial to
resellers. We truly are enabling people to resell our product, you do not
become an "agent" of Switchvox. Our Program allows resellers to purchase
just the software and support from us, and install it on certified hardware
that they can source from their current channel. We don't require that they
purchase phones, hardware, or other products from us. We don't require that
resellers "sign over" their customers to us. The reseller retains the
relationship they've always had with their customer. In fact, we want and
expect that our resellers provide services above and beyond those provided
in our support contract, and offer those services to their users. If for
some reason a reseller is having some problem they themselves can't solve,
we're there to step in and help them out.

Let me know if there's any way we can help you.

Thanks,

--Josh

---------------------
Joshua Stephens
CEO
Four Loop Technologies
www.switchvox.com
858-457-8299 x101