What exactly is this promo email from ESET?

I just received a flashy colorful email from ESET touting a "free" upgrade to NOD32 v5 that reads:

***START****

Complimentary upgrade to your ESET antivirus software!

Dear Valued ESET Customer,

Your award-winning ESET antivirus software is even better than before. As a valued ESET customer, you receive a free upgrade to ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5—download the latest version today!

ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 new features/improvements:

• More efficient scanning
• One-click Gamer mode
• Redesigned interface
• Enhanced removable media control
• Complimentary Internet security training

For simple instructions on upgrading to ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5, click the “Upgrade Now" button below.

Should you need it, your ESET license credentials are included below for your convenience. If you have other valid licenses, they are also eligible for this upgrade.

Username: xxxxxxxxxx
Password: xxxxxxxxxx

Your license term does not change with this upgrade and, as usual, we will let you know when you are approaching your renewal date.

Thank you,
Your ESET Team

***END***

But since ALL upgrades between any version are free at anytime and ESET continues to charge the crap out of me at "renewal" time - what is the point of this since nothing is really free?

Is it simply to get an unsuspecting subscriber to make the mistake of taking his perfectly good v4 installation and completely trash it by moving up to v5? Or what?

VP

 

Hello,

Many antimalware companies do not provide free version upgrades. The version you bought is the version you are stuck with; and if the vendor stops providing signature updates before your license for that version has expired, you have to purchase a new license to get the latest version of the software and updates.

There are now millions of customers running ESET NOD32 Antivirus and ESET Smart Security v5 without any issues whatsoever. That said, I realize that some people have had problems with the software, and there are message threads in here discussing those issues. That is, of course, because this is a support forum for ESET's software, and the place where people go when they have problem. Not too many people are going to go through the process of creating an account here, go to the ESET section and post a message saying they purchased a license, installed the software and were bored by the entire process.

It's a given that any software as complex as an antimalware program is not going to work on 100% of all configurations. There are going to be compatibility issues with third-party software, borderline performance on systems which barely eke by (or fall slightly under) the system requirements, and all sorts of other weird and wonderful environments that cannot be accounted for.

ESET's developers treat bugs with a high priority—there a few times when they have had a customer ship a system in, or visited a customer site, just to investigate an issue they could not reproduce in the test lab. As a matter of fact, today ESET released a new version of ESET NOD32 Antivirus v5.0, just to address issues experienced by some customers. Not to send them a flashy colorful message or to charge them more money but to make the product work better for them. Does the new build solve all problems with the software? No, it does not, but it does resolve one issue for some affected users and future releases will resolve other issues as well.

Fortunately, anyone who does has a problem with their copy of NOD32, whether its v2¹, v3, v4 or v5 can post a message here or contact their local technical support for assistance in resolving whatever issue they are experiencing. Issues are typically resolved quite quickly, once enough information has been collected about the problem.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

¹Support for NOD32 v2.70.39 ends in February 2012.

 

And that's exactly what this email is about a "FREE" upgrade to V5 from V4.
Personally I think it's good that ESET sends out emails like this and notifying their customers, because everyone doesn't know that it's FREE to upgrade from V3 to V4 to V5 etc...

 

The way this email looks - tho - sort of implies that I am entitled to get my license for free. As in - the payment I make for a 2 year term.

Just found it odd - since I know I can run any version anytime and there is no price break or anything for the actual "term" payment.

VP

 

Hello,

It seems a little odd, I'm sure, but remember, you're probably in a small minority of ESET customers who actually read and pay attention to details of how software is licensed. There is a larger population of folks out there who don't, so email like the one you received serves as an educational tool for them.

There should be some sort of option mentioned within the email (a URL or an email address) to contact should you want to opt-out of such messages in the future. You might want to consider making use of that, or, alternatively, creating some kind of filter or rule in your email client that forwards messages from ESET into an ESET folder. That way, you can go back and look at them at your leisure.

The latter is actually what I do for my subscription-based software programs that send out emails, and seems to work out well by (1) keeping my actual inbox clean; and (2) alerting me to the occasional renewal or sale.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky