Since I have already bought CC HTML editor, can I still get the 45 page PDF offer?

Sure, just purchase it from our store at www.coffeecup.com/store/#books

This type of deal always rips my shorts. The answer given here is: you are not important to us in any way, we don't care you have already spent X amount of your hard-earned money with us so yes, you can be part of this offer by going and buying the book like any other punter. However, new buyers of the editor, who we have never seen before and who haven't spent any money with the company or helped out in the forums or spread the word among their friends for many years get his book completely free! Loyal CC users, who in my mind are the most deserving, have to pay for it.

I know CC is in business to make money and would take a significant hit dishing out 8 million copies of the HTML5 pdf for free, (though like anything written once and sold a million times, it is hardly taxing to copy and paste), but this type of promotion creates a certain amount of customer remorse. I am always very careful in my own business not to insult my existing client base by limiting special deals to only new clients. It is a very fine line when trying to attract customers and easy to cross. Any business that relies on repeat custom in order to survive has to be very careful not to alienate those who have essentially funded the company's growth (and put the owner's kids through college and kept them in expensive sneakers). On balance, you might get a few thousand new customers taking up the deal (if they buy the template pack as well then profits are much greater) but overall the company makes a relatively small amount compared to what they could make by marketing to their 8 million already loyal clients. Imagine offering a 50% discount on all products for all existing clients; what a sales bonanza that would be and the coffers would be filled very quickly. The same deal to new clients might bring in some revenue, but nothing like that gleaned from existing clients who would surely take up the offer.

However, CC's business model doesn't rely on repeat business, which is probably why the focus is on finding new clients. Their business model is such that we pay for a product once and have free upgrades from then on. It is a credit to CC when they could easily charge (as do most other software vendors) for upgraded versions. That said, I would happily pay for upgrades because as it stands, CC is locked in a never-ending quest to find new clients as they are the primary source of the revenue needed to fund further growth. Existing users may buy the odd piece of software here and there but new clients are required to grow the business, hence these honeypot offerings to induce them to 'hurry up and buy'. It is similar to a Ponzi scheme, where new revenue is constantly needed to satisfy the company's cash flow requirements. In my opinion (which I know isn't worth a pinch of whatever), more special offers to existing clients would ease the reliance on new clients and their much-needed revenue. Imagine offering the HTML pdf for half price to those who already own the editor - you would sell a million copies just like that, as well as inducing those who don't yet own the editor to buy that as well (another opportunity for a package deal?) thus meeting your revenue targets and all without pissing some of us existing off, which is what is happening by giving the book away to new clients while the rest of us have to pay full price for it.

While Internet business models are often very different, people's emotions stay the same. This type of deal may make a small percentage of people happy but all this promotion (and others like it) ends up doing is creating ill-feeling toward the company from those it really needs to be keeping happy, its loyal existing customers.

Then again, it might just be me.

My 2 cents.

Dave, that is not the case at all. I think people are not actually even reading the special. If you go to https://www.coffeecup.com/store/specials/editor2010/ and look at the prices, you will see as an existing user, things are actually even cheaper for you.

Look at the first special, the cost is $69 for the bundle. If you already own the Editor, you can purchase the PDF for just $9. That still saves you $11.00 (49+9=58). We actually priced the bundles that way just so existing users can take advantage of the deal and save a few bucks.

There will always be new specials and promotions and no company in the world can go retroactive and give something to all past buyers. If you buy a subscription to Sports Illustrated today, you may get a free clock or blanket. This doesn't mean they can send one to all past subscribers. That just doesn't make financial sense.

Last month we ran the PARTY promotion and offered all users 30% any purchase. The month before that, we had the FRIENDLY promotion that offered 40% off. In March we had the WEARTHEBEST that offered 25% off. Almost every month there is some sort of discount existing users can take advantage of and those discount percentages are extremely generous.

If anything can be said to critique CC's business model, it would be that it's TOO generous to existing customers. I'm actually amazed that it took them as long as it did to charge charging $15 per incident for phone support (which is still cheap compared to other companies that often charge between $35 and $65 per incident). My only complaint about that is, as a recognized "super user" (hehehe) I rarely call CC with stupid questions. Most of my contacts have been caused by glitches or limitations in the software, but CC refunds the money if the issue turns out to be in the software rather than the user.

I have to say that I feel CoffeeCup is the most generous and customer oriented company I can think of. Not only do they provide applications that are very user friendly, they offer them at attractive prices.

The free updates for life policy is over the top, keeping users abreast with changing technology. if you discover that one of the applications you purchased really doesn't meet your specific requirements or expectations, that may change in time with the introduction of additional features.

But the best thing about the company is the interaction they provide on this forum. You will be hard pressed to find this level of customer service with any other software company, period.