John, at 20:09 on Nov 19 1996, you wrote to Bill Grimsley...

BG> Not specifically, but they do appear to be pretty heavily 
BG> into some less than salubrious business practices of late, as 
BG> shown by their complete lack of action re their seemingly 
BG> never-ending succession of buggy Sportsters, as well as their 
BG> outrageous pricing on Couriers, not to mention their decision 
BG> to charge Courier owners for the x2 upgrade when previous 
BG> SDLs have been free.

JP> This is completely new to me. I didn't know there would be a 
JP> charge to obtain the SDL containing the x2 code. I hope this 
JP> doesn't become a trend.

You really should be following this debacle in the USR_Modems echo, where
there have even been threats of class action lawsuits by disgruntled
Courier owners who maintain that feature upgrade SDLs should be free for
life (they seem to think that they were promised this by USR, although the
truth is that USR have very cunningly made no such long term commitment).

Maintenance and bug-fix updates will remain free, but it appears that the
x2 upgrade will indeed set a precedent for chargeable SDLs.  Having said
that, it also now appears that whilst USR have been extremely tight-lipped
about the expected cost, their web site now suddenly features a
registration form (I haven't had a look at it yet) which, if completed by
Courier owners by December 1, guarantees a one-off free upgrade to x2.  If
not, expect to pay somewhere between $50 and $100 for the privilege of
owning "the last modem you'll ever need to buy".

Regards, Bill

--- MsgedSQ/2 3.50