I post this here as the direct contact form with Pix4D constantly produces a Captcha error. Hopefully someone from Pix4D will read it.
We are a conservation NGO that received a generous one time donation to purchase a Pix4D Mapper perpetual license through DeltaQuad (attached), so we would not need to further invest in processing software. We use the software to monitor our 3400 ha reserve in the Middle Magdalena Valley of Colombia using a Deltaquad that was also generously donated. At some point, the software stopped allowing updates and now we received an email saying “If you continue to work with version 4.9.0 or older from the end of July, PIX4Dmapper will display a grey area instead of a basemap. To avoid this, please update your software”. We are very confused because we assumed that a 3.500 EUR perpetual license was supposed to be perpetual. However, not only we cannot upgrade anymore but neither use the software we had paid to use perpetually. The problem is that we need to explain that to our donors (that the perpetual license they donated for was not actually perpetual) and to raise further 1.200 USD every year which, for a small NGO like us, is hardly an option.
In that sense we wonder if 1) Pix4D assigned a non-perpetual license to our perpetual license by mistake or 2) Pix4D sold us a perpetual license that was not perpetual. If 2) is the case, we wonder if you have a non-profit program that could allow us to continue using the software for our conservation purposes, as that would imply not being able to use the software anymore. We appreciate you time and consideration on this matter.
Thank you very much and best regards,
Welcome to the Pix4D Community.
I’m sorry to hear that you at unable to submit a form for our sales team.
I will inform them, and they will reach out to you soon.
Thank you for understanding.
Regarding the basemap and PIX4Dmapper, the basemap is (was) provided by an external company and it has been decided to change the supplier. This has no impact on photogrammetry processing and results delivery.
The visual user experience will be lower and some operations may be harder to conduct.
You can find more information here:
Kind regards,
Daniele
It definitely feels like a “gotcha” to me. To ask perpetual license owners to upgrade their support & upgrades for pix4d mapper for $1,305.00 for a feature they had, but was REMOVED seems wrong. I understand the basemap supplier changed, but to your users this was a standard feature they didn’t know could be taken away from their perpetual license and then call it an “upgrade” to get it back.
Meanwhile, all pix4d users have been told from sales and support staff for the past few years is that resources will not be invested in mapper anymore for any new feature requests or improvements and to consider switching to Matic. I am definitely am not impressed with this Pix4D for this.
Hi @craig ,
Thank you for your message.
I understand your point of view and situation.
Please also understand that keep backward compatibility of older versions is challenging and, as in this case, not always possible.
Please get in touch with us and explain your situation:
Kind regards,
Daniele
Despite the change in the supplier of the basemap I think this is a lack of respect for your costumers. I purchased a PERPETUAL license for nearly 5000 Euros, and know you remove a feature that I had from the start (?) And to have it again I have to pay for an upgrade? This doesn’t make any sense! I’m very disappointed by this service, this shouldn’t be happening.
I really hope you guys can take this into consideration, because I think like me there lot’s of more costumers who are unhappy with this.
Hi @fmffernandes23,
Welcome to the Pix4D Community 
.
I understand your concerns and it might look like it doesn’t make any sense. Please understand that we have no control on external dependencies on older software versions.
Please get in touch with us and explain your situation:
Thank you for understanding.
Kind regards,
Daniele
I understand that you have no control over external dependencies, but that’s not the point here. The point is that you are taking away a service we purchased under a perpetual license deal, and now we are being asked to pay again to get it back.
There should be a free update so that users don’t lose this tool. It makes no sense to charge extra money for something we had already purchased. I’ve never seen this happen with any other software, and I think the reason why is quite obvious.
@fmffernandes23, please contact us here: Talk to sales
I contacted sales 2 or 3 days after this, and I haven’t got an answer.
Hi @fmffernandes23,
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
I contacted my colleagues directly, and they assured me that they would provide an answer by tomorrow.
Thank you for understanding.
Daniele
Thanks Daniele, they have already reached out.
Best Regards,
Francisco
Hi fmffernandes23, what did they reply? I’m in the same situation as you.
I’m in the same boat. It pisses me off what they did. This is something that should have been handled differently.
It seems that some people who were tha first adapters and helped your company grow and develop new sw, now we have pix4dmapper which is becoming an outdated product, even we paid for perpetual licence . Unfortunately even the new releases have only bugs and new cameras without any new feature.
Same problem here. Paid a lot of money for a perperual software license that was advertised with all the features, including basemap.
If there’s no need for new features, then upgrading is pointless.
Asking to upgrade because you don’t allow us to change the map provider ourselves, which should be pretty straightforward (if thought beforehand, and it should have been since it’s an external provider, something you have no control of), is ridiculous.
I’ll give a serious thought in the future if we will continue with pix4D software seeing this kind of problems arise.
Hi @ivica1,
Welcome to the Pix4D Community .
Please contact us here, Pix4D - Contact us , explaining your situation.
Pix4ds busines practice around users of the original mapper is disgusting to say the least, especially perpetual users. We purchased a perpertual license but still pay the annual service fee, the premise of this was to have access to continued development, but then they went off and developed matic with mainly the option to process more images, this was clearly a direct development of an issue Mapper had but by renaming it they bypassed the promise that they had made to us to continue building on the product. This was the the main reason we chose mapper at the time.
I have just had a surveyor try to log into find that they now they are not serving pix4d capture.. With no notice to users they have pulled this product which again was part of what we were all buying into.
How ever they might have justified it to themselves and there investors its clearly disgusting business practice, any one fancy chipping in for a class action law suit against them???
Hi Simon,
We sincerely regret to learn of your dissatisfaction.
Pix4D has indeed broadened its portfolio, leading to the introduction of new products and services designed to better cater to the evolving requirements of different industries. This strategic diversification enables us to foster innovation and present a more comprehensive array of solutions. This is why we work on PIX4Dmatic and other new solutions.
In the case of PIX4Dcapture pro, we could reach by email a few customers due to GDPR. This is why it was added in our documentation weeks in advance information about its end-of-life. But please note that our solutions (PIX4Dcloud, PIX4Dmapper…) work with images that can be taken from different flying drone applications, so your PIX4Dmapper license has not lost any of its functionalities.
We wish to address your specific concerns and furnish more detailed information. We will be contacting you directly via email to engage in further discussion and provide additional insights.
We appreciate your understanding in this matter.
Lorena Uzquiza, on behalf of the Pix4D team
Matic is a direct extension of mapper, clearly solving one of mappers biggest issues, ie that you couldn’t take many photos.
I was happy to pay the annual fee on the assumption that you were still developing mapper, you side stepped all you perpetual users but renaming a product.. Its really disgusting business practice..
Yuck
Simon Ellis
07817455729
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