Allow me to add this extremely valid point: 
You want to lose an annual payment of €82.92 and all the recommendations I have made towards your product just so you can steal €34.94 from me today. 

Does that really sound like good business sense to you?

Hi Adrian,

I understand your point, and I am sorry if this situation has caused any troubles, especially because you have been a customer for many years now. Unfortunately, I must confirm that the Credits do have an expiration date. Please consider that  However, consider that we warn about the Credits' expiration on both in our dedicated FAQ page, on the Credits' page , as well as by sending reminders via e-mails, which become more and more frequent as the expiration date is approaching.

We have decided to use the Credit system because it allows us to manage micro payments, so that we can keep the price of resources on the Marketplace low. Also, with this system we have aligned with many other companies that have adopted the same method. For example, if you think of Envato (Wordpress), you will find that there are some similarities regarding the expiry of unused credits.

Surely you are right, we certainly need to be clearer on this point: improving communication in general is indeed one of our priorities. 

Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you. Kind regards.

Sorry Elisa, you just declared war. There is absolutely nothing I wish to buy with those credits because I don't even know how to use v17. So, here's what I'm going to do:
1. Never purchase another product from you again. 
2. Stop recommending your product and tell my story to as many people as possible. 
3. I run several companies and built their web sites with your product. Even though the sites look good and work well, I will add a byline to the footer of all sites explaining how the site was built with Incomedia's X5 Professional but that due to the company's policy of stealing money from their customers, the next version of the site will be built with Mobirise. You are welcome to attack me with your lawyers for defamation as that will help the subject come to the attention of far more people. 

Like I said, I run several companies, all of which I am happy to say, have a 100% customer satisfaction record because I sell good products and always put customer satisfaction first. If I had a customer that had purchased a gift voucher from me but did not have any use for it, I would happily refund his purchase. Or, in the situation you put me in, I would tell him I could understand that he had no use for the voucher at this time and would therefore extend the validity of the voucher until such time as he did wish to purchase something from me. 

Another thing that I see as a slap in the face as a loyal customer is that you just asked me to purchase an extension of my license for another year. Was I permitted to use my credits against that? Was I hell!

I do NOT care what any other company does. I'm not doing business with them. I'm doing business with YOU! 

As I said to you originally, you were happy to promote your special offer on 85 credits and take my money but you try to lay the blame on my shoulders for the fact that you have nothing I wish to purchase with them. 

Enjoy the €34.94 you managed to STEAL from me. It's clear you guys couldn't give a shit about your customers!

Quote (Elisa B): "Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you."

Yes. How about refunding the €34.94 so we can put this behind us and pick up from where we left off? After all, you have nothing I want to purchase with those credits so what use are they to me?

For further consideration...

Although I find expiring credits distateful myself, and I would like to point out the similarity with buying gift cards at a store or online - and the fact that many juristrictions around the world now ban the practice of forcing gift cards to expire; I do want to offer one defence to the vendor of such credits or gift cards......

In business, when you sell a "credit" that remains unused, it becomes a liability in your accounting..... how do you get rid of it if people don't redeem it??  The only way is to have some sort of policy to expire them.

So... its not the end of the world that these credits expire..... but they could certainly be extended out a year or two to make more people happier....

My two cents worth..... :)

Adrian

From Adrian to Adrian (): With all due respect, they have already received the money. The sale has been made. We are not talking about tangible products. These are digital so, whether or not the credits are redeemed, stock levels will not change.

There can be no liability in their accounting because the sale has been concluded and has been entered in last year's accounting ledger. As the redemption of credits applies only to a digital product, it makes zero difference to the balance of their accounts.

In other words, the act of making those credits void is pure theft. The only thing they can gain by it is to create ill feeling and destroy a good existing customer relationship. I repeat, being that the products on offer are 100% digital, they stand to lose absolutely nothing if the credits are redeemed, now, 10 years from now, or never at all. 

Giving further thought to this situation, I am trying to understand what possible benefit there is to the company in expiring the credits purchased by their customers? 

Remember, the credits can only be redeemed for digital products (accessories to a site the customer may be building). Therefore, the company already has the customer's money. Being digital, the products themselves have no shelf-life and even if they did, they would be replaced by others. Besides which, if the customer had not used his credits to purchase any of the current items, it would be because he had no use for them. 

The only motive that comes to mind is that by voiding the validity of the customer's credits, the company gets to keep the money, without having supplied anything in return, and forces the customer to purchase more credits should he require any accessories from their store in the future. But would he agree to such manipulation? I seriously doubt it!

In general, a company's sales strategy should be based on providing a win-win situation for both the customer and itself. This credit expiration system is a clear "we win, you lose" strategy which can only create ill-feeling with customers. The company may consider it has won by taking the money and providing nothing in return, however the reality is they will always lose because the customer will not appreciate being scammed.

Sorry to keep going on and on but, given the lack of response from Incomedia and the intractability shown by Elisa B, I have done some research on this issue. 

Elisa quoted Envato as operating similarly. Yes, they do but they admit they are based in Australia and say they respect consumer law in respect of this practice in each different country. For example, it is illegal in France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal. The UK makes it very difficult to get away with unless the credits were purchased for a 3rd party (gift).

In the US, not all states operate the same laws. On average, the term of expiry is 5 years but in California it is illegal to expire them ever.

Amazon offer gift vouchers and place a 10 year expiry date on them. As they sell both digital and tangible products, it is unlikely that the vouchers will not be used with a 10 year period. 

As I am in France, I will file a claim for malpractice against Incomedia, unless the company changes its position and decides to respect both the law and the rights of its customers. Perhaps now would be a good time for Incomedia to get legal advice because this could end up costing them more than they imagine...

I guess filing for malpractice could be very well successful as a 12 months expiry is pretty short. For Austrian law there is a supreme court ruling saying vouchers short of 2 yrs expiry without good reason is illegal. Incomedias explainations of their reasons wouldn't be accepted as "good business reasons" here.
Still it is a long and not really funny process...

I rather think that it is a problem of customer satisfaction and trust that Incomedia destroys with their policy.
If you buy credits (you need to buy a larger package as you want to spend for the item you want) and some are left after your item purchase, it is unfair to have them expire after some time as in real it is the "change" you received for your item purchase.
The basic intention to buy a credit package is that you want to purchase some items, not that you want to own some incomedia credits.

For me this whole "buy a software and then we sell you add-ons for credits" policy is not increasing trust in Incomedia. It is a pain and rather unprofessional to me.

Inco: If you want to sell by credits, why don't you offer to buy "1 Credit = 1 Euro" so you can buy exactly the amount you need and that's it. Honest and straight forward.
Who wants to buy larger packages then this is everybodys free choice.

+1 for me too.

Does Incomedia is customer oriented or customer satisfaction ? not sure. 

but money ..yes ...

Like many people I am waiting important fixes since many months / years... nothing .... No new features but normal features  already implemented in all others softwares... Not the moon

Regards

https://wsx5.afsoftware.fr

Incomedia’s corporate direction is seriously misguided. 

They have very bad policies resulting in a reduced customer base (eg: non-refundable credits, upgrade protection, not fixing essential software features).

This is not sustainable in the long term.

Without making important policy changes, Incomedia is going to disappear.

@ Dieter D.
You make a very good point and one that I hadn't even considered!
Indeed, any credits left on your account after you have made a purchase are likely to be expired which is yet another way to steal from customers. 

Note how Incomedia still have not replied. My guess is they have already voided the credits of a few customers and are afraid that if they now backtrack on the policy, they will have to refund or reinstate those credits they expired.

@ Incomedia
Just reinstate all expired credits. You still keep the money and lose nothing. On the contrary, by showing that you accept one can make mistakes and are willing to make good on the damage done, you will recover your reputation and gain loyal customers again.

The longer you ignore the situation, the worse it will become. 

+1 for Adrian E.
I also don't find anything really interesting to buy in the Marketplace and I was forced to buy items that I didn't want to prevent my credits from expiring...