check your Veeam quotes or it may cost you!

[YaharaSoftware]

We’ve been a Veeam customer for some time. When I read that Veeam Backup and Replication was adding functionality to back up to AWS S3, I thought it sounded like a great opportunity. I reached out to our account manager and said, “We’re looking into using Wasabi cloud storage for our backups. We’re currently using Veeam Backup Essentials Standard 9.5, licensed for four sockets. Additionally, we have two other two-socket VMware hosts we would like to license for Veeam Backup Essentials, including the backup to Wasabi option. Can you let me know what set of licenses or upgrades we’ll need?”
I received a trial license key, piloted a POC, and we decided to upgrade.
When I received and installed my upgraded licenses, I was no longer able to backup to a scale-out backup repository. The license we received did not include the functionality. I asked our vendor to give us the license we asked for at the quoted price and received a quote for $1000. My company refused to pay, and Veeam refused to resolve their mistake.
I had to pay for the license out of my pocket.
So, double- and triple-check your Veeam quotes; it might cost you big time!

[Gostev]

Well, this sounds like a pure miscommunication. I will forward this to the sales management for review and let you know what I hear back. Thanks!

[Gostev]

Hello there!

Frankly, we're a bit lost, as the data in our system does not match what you are describing.

You explained above that you purchased an upgrade recently based on an incorrect quote, but the upgraded license did not fit your needs. And so you recommended everyone to double/triple check quotes before purchasing, not to repeat your mistake.

However, according to our records, you did not actually purchase anything from us in the recent months? We cannot find either the quote, nor the actual upgrade transaction you are referring to.

We do see all other things you have mentioned:
a) Existing 4 sockets contract renewed in July 2018.
b) New 2 sockets contract acquired in April 2020.
c) No cost upgrade to VUL Enterprise Plus (100% discount from the list price of USD ~8K) a few days ago.
d) Maintenance contract extension required for upgrades (USD 840) a few days ago. This is probably those $1000 you are referring to.

So what I don't understand is how could you have "received upgraded licenses" if there was no actual upgrade transaction in the first place? I'm referring to this:

I received a trial license key, piloted a POC, and we decided to upgrade. When I received and installed my upgraded licenses, I was no longer able to backup to a scale-out backup repository. The license we received did not include the functionality.

Thanks!

[YaharaSoftware]

Thank you very much for following up. I see that now, the quote I received is confusing. I didn't even know we had been given the license without charge. That's quite a difference from what I understood. I'll reach out to my account manager and get a full explanation of what we've received. I'll reply to this thread when I've been updated.

[somoa]

Wow wish I got a quote for no cost to upgrade to VUL. Was quoted a crazy amount for us to change over with 10 sockets not expiring until 2022.

[YaharaSoftware]

A general manager I worked for would say “Fail fast, learn faster.” Well, I’m learning from this failure.

I reached out to our Veeam account manager, Brandon, in April asking to upgrade to the version of Backup and Replication that would allow us to copy backups to the Wasabi cloud. Five months later I’m set with licenses for the Enterprise Plus version and Wasabi holds a complete set of our VM images. What I didn’t know was the great effort Brandon had made to get us what he thought we deserved. While we were going through the proposal process, the new portable Veeam Universal License (VUL) was rolling out. Brandon knew the VUL would serve our needs best and converted our per-socket licenses. When the VUL proposal came to many times the cost of the original proposal, he fought to get our licenses at the original price. He convinced the decision makers, and we received our licenses. I didn’t know about Brandon’s internal struggle and when I received the invoice for our new support contract I was surprised. Here’s my failure; I should have picked up the phone and called him right then. Instead, I made assumptions and got frustrated. I made this post thinking I had gotten less than I deserved as a customer. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Thank you, Brandon, for fighting for me as your customer. I’ve learned that real person-to-person interaction is the best way to communicate. If you’re frustrated, pick up the phone and make a call.