Problems with upgrading process.

[kikosoft2]

I'm very happy to find that Textpad now has unicode support. Moreso, it seems that with version 8 very little else has changed, as far as I can see, which is a good thing. No fancy, but useless, new icons, weird menu changes, etc. It also seems stable.

So, I decided to upgrade my license. Here the ride got a bit bumpier.

- The 'Ordering Information' in the 'about' popup (v8) doesn't work. The one in the help menu does work.

- The price list at http://www.textpad.com/buy/pricing doesn't mention upgrade prices, but there's a link in the menu bar. How many visitors will miss that link, while looking for the prices?

- After a few more clicks I reached the upgrade form. Regretably it doesn't accept my license code. No explanation is give. It is invalid, but happily running, under my name, in TP 7.51. Yes, it is quite an old license. I must be doing something wrong.

- TP is NOT expensive so I decided to buy a new license. Grabbing my credit card, and filling in the appropriate form, I notice that my credit card information will be sent to Helios Software, albeit encrypted, this is not a trusted payment service provider. Not a good idea. I therefore switched to PayPal. I don't like to use PayPal, because I think they're an unnecessary and expensive middle man, but in this case I have to use them.

As I said, I like TextPad, and Helios Software needs some income to continue its development. Encountering all these problems in the ordering process cannot be helpful.

[kengrubb]

Paypal doesn't cost you anything, only Helios, in this case. However, from the perspective of not having to deal with payment issues, it's probably worth it from Helios' perspective.