CFOG's PIP, June 1988, Volume 7 No. 4, Whole No. 66, page 59

Bargain dBase III+ Upgrade: the REAL story!

by Bob Lay

[This is the second story by Bob Lay that appeared in the Q-Bits newsletter of the Quad Cities All Computer User Group. -- bhc]

First, I'm looking for a really good recipe for crow. If you know of one, please call ... SOON.

Last month I told you how to get dBase III+ for $84.00. Well, I obviously jumped to a conclusion, as several of our members have found out. In return, thanks to their efforts. I can now well (some of you) how to get dBase III+ absolutely free.

Brian Gillette liked my idea so much he did just as I said in last month's article. He bought an MS-DOS version 2.41 of dBase III and registered it with Ashton-Tate and asked for his automatic upgrade to III+. He was informed that the did NOT upgrade any dBase II versions to any III versions. 0h boy!

Not being the type to give in easily, Brian wrote to A-T and subsequently called and talked to their V-P for Customer Relations.

I'll be as brief as possible in capsuling that conversation. The V-P confirmed to Brian that indeed they didn't upgrade II to III+. Brian told her that they did two weeks ago, and described my receipt of version III+ for DOS. She asked him who, by name, had received this largesse, and he gave her my name. In a few seconds she apparently had my file up on th computer and here, in essence, is what she told him.

"Mr. Lay," she said, "did not receive dBase III+ because he registered the DOS version of dBase II he recently purchased. Our records show that he registered his purchase of dBase II for CP/M with us in May of 1983. Ashton-Tate no longer supports this version of dBase (I don't know whether she was referring to Osborne or CP/M, but I think CP/M, ed.) so we now consider it an obsolete version. A-T policy on versions we can no longer support (i.e., "obsolete") is to replace them, at no cost to the user, with our current latest version of dBase for any new operating system our customer is now using, and in Mr. Lay's case that was MS-DOS. Thus, the dBase III+ he received is to replace the CP/M version he had been using and that old serial number has been purged from our records and is no longer a legal copy of dBase."

Brian was able to work out a very fair deal with her to acquire III+ because of the misunderstanding. After telling Matt Reed about all this, Matt decided to call and ask A-T what they were going to do about the CP/M upgrade he had requested more than three months ago for his registered version of dBase II (from 2.3b to 2.43*). They told Matt that if he wanted to switch the "obsolete" CP/M version for III+ for DOS he could do so at no cost as long as he accepted the fact that his CP/M version would then no longer be a legal copy and could not be used. He said fine, and FIVE DAYS LATER the UPS man handed him III+!

It would have been nice if they had told me that when they shipped my III+ last month! I had no way of knowing, or even guessing, that I got it for any reosn other than as an upgrade to the DOS version I was just registering. And I was never asked to agree to the fact that my CP/M version was no longer a legal copy of dBase.

Anyway, the implications should be clear to anyone who has read this far. If you have any CP/M version of dBase II that you have EVER registered with A-T, and you're willing to agree to consider it unusable (I didn't even have to do that because, as things turned out I didn't even know why I got it!) you can apparently have a copy of III+ for DOS for the asking! Just write AshtonTate, 20101 Hamilton Avenue, Torrance, CA 90502.

I suppose, for an additional $30.00 you could upgrade the III+ that you get this with dBase IV (until July 31st), too. And you can probably not do anything until A-T start's shipping IV in August, and get it for nothing at that time, but I'd be afraid to wait and give them time to change their policy. But perhaps I'm jumping to conclusions again.