Why does CDE have a free upgrade promotion

The majority of software companies provide a free upgrade window when purchasing a program within 30 days of when a new major upgrade is released. For example, if purchasing Corel Draw 2020 20 days before Corel Draw 2021 came out, Corel would usually offer the Corel Draw 2021 upgrade for free because it was within 30 days of purchase. 

As customers of different software products, such as Corel Draw as mentioned above, we have encountered companies that do not provide the same purchase protection. So if we purchased Product XXX Version 5 and 10 days later, they released Product XXX Version 6, they would require us to pay for an upgrade, which considering it's only been 2 days, is not really fair and not a policy we want to use with our customers.

We have chosen to provide an upgrade window that depends on the product. For our league software, we have always designated that purchases of BLS league software between June 1st and August 31st of that year would get the upgrade coming out that August for free. For example, if purchasing BLS-2020 on July 4th, 2020, one would receive a free upgrade to BLS-2021 releasing in late August 2020. This provides a more generous upgrade window of closer to 90 days, compared to other companies offering a 30 day period, plus is more in line with how league bowling is managed.

The free upgrade window for league products accommodates a few situations:
  • Allows centers that get hardware upgrades which the scoring manufacture included a license for BLS that was requested during that window.
  • Allows incoming secretaries to purchase the software during the window to get familiar with BLS and not have to pay additional costs to upgrade to the version coming out shortly.
We also provide a free upgrade window for our tournament products, but is not always the same length or time as our league products, as our tournament products usually have a different release cycle.