Autocad Subscription Service - Worth it ?

Hi, The company I work for is upgrading to 2004 from 2000 and 2000I. When we get prices to do that, we are offered, at additional cost, a service called Autodesk subscription service. Have any of you tried the service? Was it worth the money? Without the service is there no tech support included in the basic software? Any opinions or guidence would be appreciated Thanks snipped-for-privacy@therestaurantstore.com

On Wed, 08 Oct 2003 23:35:47 GMT, "Bob Daniels Jr"
  Quoted Text Here  
Autodesk sells the subscriptions with the sweetener that you get all upgrades during the currency of the subscription. It comes down to judging whether you are actually getting something worthwhile with the subscription. As for correcting bugs, most countries have consumer laws that require goods to be fit for their intended service. If something does not do what it is supposed to, then Autodesk is going to have to fix it anyway, subscription or not.
As for tech support, Autodesk does not provide it and never has. This is provided by dealers who have, what boils down to, a franchise. The fact that you have a subscription with Autodesk does not imply you have a support agreement with your dealer. The two are completely independent businesses.
For businesses subscriptions are expensed whereas purchases and upgrades are depreciated. Either way, the expenditure (or the depreciated portion) only reduces your taxable income by the amount claimed. In either case it is not that your tax bill is reduced by the expenditure, it is only reduced by the fact that the amount claimed reduces your taxable income.
What subscriptions do for Autodesk is guarantee them cash flow, nothing more and nothing less. As to whether you actually get a benefit with a subscription, only time will tell. It comes down to whether you mind paying a regular amount or hanging on to your money and only spending it when you see something worthwhile or you have the proverbial gun put to your head - upgrade or lose the ability to upgrade ;-)

wrote:
  Quoted Text Here  
get
Well there are several advantages having just been ripped through the a### for an upgrade. If you are serios about the progam you will get a price break by using the subscription service on the next release. That is ii there is a new release in the year you buy it Keeping up to date on your software is very important.

Yes it is, to Autodesk. So much so they needed to change the file format to convince people.
  Quoted Text Here  
Keeping up to date on your
  Quoted Text Here