Registration warning - But I am already registered

[webrtcDude]

I recently started receiving the following warning after the update:



When I click the "More Info" button, it redirects me to this page:

https://www.3cx.com/docs/free-subscription-registration/

Which is just a tutorial on how to change the email on file *If the email does not belong to me*. My account is registered, and my email belongs to me, and I have double-checked to make sure that all of my contact information is correct, but the warning is still there. Is there something else that I need to do?

 

[GabrielaS_3CX]

You must be right - 3CX.com always knows and understands the end customers better than the partners ever will.

In reality however, those customers will still convert to paying customers, it just won't be with 3CX, they will go with another option instead.

3CX will see that as proof they knew better all along - free users don't often become paying custo

It will be very surprising if a Free customer decides to change the PBX solution because of a registration banner, however, they have the right to do it.

As a Silver Partner, I trust you can handle the customer's expectations.

 

[Alan9846]

It will be very surprising if a Free customer decides to change the PBX solution because of a registration banner, however, they have the right to do it.

As a Silver Partner, I trust you can handle the customer's expectations.

Its s cumulative thing, but as noted before, you guys know better than us, and I'm sure your analysis has already shows you that free customers don't turn into paying (3CX) customers.

I was a free customer myself, as a way to see if 3CX (at least at the time) was worth pursuing - I still have that free system running as a place to try things out. If I had been treated to that degree of uncertainty and disdain at the time, you would be far better of now, as I wouldn't be here hassling / trying to help you, and getting a two-finger response.

 

[GabrielaS_3CX]

Its s cumulative thing, but as noted before, you guys know better than us, and I'm sure your analysis has already shows you that free customers don't turn into paying (3CX) customers.

I was a free customer myself, as a way to see if 3CX (at least at the time) was worth pursuing - I still have that free system running as a place to try things out. If I had been treated to that degree of uncertainty and disdain at the time, you would be far better of now, as I wouldn't be here hassling / trying to help you, and getting a two-finger response.

What you are saying is a contradiction in itself. You were a free customer and now you sell enough to make it to Silver. The banner is staying in 4SC FREE and if it bothers them so much they can move to another solution.

 

[tomfoley]

I'm a long time free user (i'm a semi-retired IT consultant helping small businesses locally), but have steered business to 3CX, so please don't consider me a freeloader For my purposes the free edition works great as it's just me and no employees.

Recently I moved my self-hosted to a new VPS and discovered this REGISTRATION REQUIRED before December 31st, 2023 banner as described above. It had never happened prior to the move. Anyhow, I was relieved to discover this thread and find that I will in fact get a new renewal, provided I had the correct registration details in my dashboard at 3CX. That, I have.

The one thing that's kind of nagging me though as there was a reference to having your "COMPANY'S EMAIL" on file at 3CX. Since day one I have registered with my Gmail account and this is as it is now. As we know, a company email has a certain significance on the web, many use it as a way to filter out B2B rather than B2C, and I imagine time-wasters in general

So my question is, do I need to create a new account at 3CX using my company email address and transfer my license over? Or is my current gmail registration sufficient?

Many thanks,

-- Tom

 

[TerenceL_3CX]

Hi Tom,

We appreciate the ongoing support over the years !

If you have a company email domain - I would strongly suggest transferring ownership of the license from your gmail to the company email domain to avoid any uncertainty.

This can easily be done from the customer portal.

Kind Regards

 

[tomfoley]

Hi Tom,

We appreciate the ongoing support over the years !

If you have a company email domain - I would strongly suggest transferring ownership of the license from your gmail to the company email domain to avoid any uncertainty.

This can easily be done from the customer portal.

Kind Regards

Hi Terence, I truly like the pbx and I'd miss it if wasn't there. So great job 3CX, I'm sure complaints outnumber compliments on the various platforms, so hopefully this evens it up a bit.

I've created a new account in my company name and transferred the license. All without any issue whatsoever. I imagine I'm in good shape, no signals to the contrary.

In signing up for the new account I couldn't help but notice the very large SIGN IN WITH GOOGLE splash, which would entirely defeat the purpose of what I was setting out to do, i.e. NOT use a GMAIL account. I suppose this is almost a legacy option with yourselves when you were building mind/market share and get the product into the mainstream. Maybe that needs less prominence now that your target market is more focused and you already have market momentum. But that's me just waxing on, and perhaps something for the UI and marketing people to consider. Not in any way a complaint.

Thanks again, I'm looking forward to a continuing beneficial experience.

-- Tom

 

[TerenceL_3CX]

Hi Tom,

Thanks again for the positive feedback , it goes a long way !

The google SSO (single sign- on) icon you refer to is a common practice across millions of 3cx users and serves several beneficial purposes so I believe this is here to stay.

Correctly and professionally registering a 3CX license to an email domain of the company making use of the subscription is a different topic which I am pleased you have adhered too.

Regards

 

[PvK]

Hi Alan, the prospective paying customers are using the Free version for months or years, they have no reason to be annoyed, they should be in PRO already! If you upgrade their subscription to PRO the banner will disappear.

If you don't want your users to be Free users, get rid of that Free license rather than treating them like shit.

 

[PvK]

We are providing a Free subscription and extending the validity for customers with correct registration.
The banner is to ensure that all users of the Free subscription pay attention and correctly register their license so we can extend it accordingly or else the customers' phone system will be affected.
Investing a bit of your time to make sure that a Free subscription is correctly registered should not be an issue. The banner will remain for all until the extension of the Free subscriptions.

There is a simple solution. Change this sentence
2. Check the email displayed under “License Owner Email/Registration Details.” If the email isn't yours - follow the next steps.

To
Check the email displayed under “License Owner Email/Registration Details.” If the email isn't yours - follow the next steps. If your email is mentioned under License Owner - you are all set. The warning will go away next year.

 

[GabrielaS_3CX]

If you don't want your users to be Free users, get rid of that Free license rather than treating them like shit.

Our Free key is 3CX FREE. The FREE 4SC that you have been using since 2020 can be extended until the end of 2024 if the registration is correct, after this period of time you must decide if you would like to upgrade to PRO, move to SMB or find another FREE solution. The banner will remain.
As I can see you are not happy with 3CX. You have the right to look for a FREE solution that fulfills your needs.

 

[PvK]

Our Free key is SMB. The FREE 4SC that you have been using since 2020 can be extended until the end of 2024 if the registration is correct, after this period of time you must decide if you would like to upgrade to PRO, move to SMB or find another FREE solution. The banner will remain.
As I can see you are not happy with 3CX. You have the right to look for a FREE solution that fulfills your needs.

It says Free for ever.
Also I am extremely happy with 3CX, it solves my two user needs exactly. I am not very happy with a banner that suggest that I need to register when I am registered and I see many users come to this thread that have wasted time because of this banner. So be thankful for users giving you feedback.
However I am for the first time mostly annoyed by your Staff comment
"they have no reason to be annoyed, they should be in PRO already", as if it is OK to maltreat FREE users.

 

[GabrielaS_3CX]

It says Free for ever.
Also I am extremely happy with 3CX, it solves my two user needs exactly. I am not very happy with a banner that suggest that I need to register when I am registered and I see many users come to this thread that have wasted time because of this banner. So be thankful for users giving you feedback.
However I am for the first time mostly annoyed by your Staff comment
"they have no reason to be annoyed, they should be in PRO already", as if it is OK to maltreat FREE users.

The FREE version you are using if you have the correct registration will be available until the end of 2024. We extended this period as we care about all our customers!
If you would like to continue with 3CX in the FREE version you must then move to 3CX FREE (max. 10 users), however, I will suggest you have a look at our SMB which has more functionalities.

I understand that FREE customers don't like the banner, at the moment the only solution to remove the banner is to upgrade to PRO or move to SMB.

 

[PvK]

The FREE version you are using if you have the correct registration will be available until the end of 2024. We extended this period as we care about all our customers!
If you would like to continue with 3CX in the FREE version you must then move to 3CX FREE (max. 10 users), however, I will suggest you have a look at our SMB which has more functionalities.

I understand that FREE customers don't like the banner, at the moment the only solution to remove the banner is to upgrade to PRO or move to SMB.

How do I know I have the correct registration?
Are you saying that the Standard version I am using will need to move to FREE? I am using on premise, that does not seem to be available in 3CX FREE.
You are making this more confusing than it was before.

 

[jed]

How do I know I have the correct registration?
Are you saying that the Standard version I am using will need to move to FREE? I am using on premise, that does not seem to be available in 3CX FREE.
You are making this more confusing than it was before.

I´m very sorry to interfere, however, it does seem like you don't want to understand and just want to ride in the same groove for the sake of discussion.
You start your dialogue by bashing 3CX, and yet the staff is friendly and tries to explain to you that you can continue with your free installation until the end of 2024 and that only after that you have to decide whether you want to spend €145, - on getting a PRO, or whether you want to move to another solution,
So for now you have the option to stay on your PI, spend €145 on PRO, live with a banner, or find another solution. ENTIRELY your own choice.

 

[Aaron1984]

I just started experiencing this problem today and have a few questions....

1. The customer that brought this to our attention is actually not listed as a "FREE" customer, but rather under "3CX Standard". We have a customer that IS listed under "3CX Free," so it seems that the system is differentiating these somehow. The license renewal date is also inconsistent between the license management portal (which shows renewal 12/31) and the license info pane in the PBX (which shows 12/30). I realize these are quite possibly normal behaviors due to change in nomenclature, but I want to verify that there is no cause for concern, especially since there is nothing else end user side that verifies everything is done correctly.

2. The notification is showing up on the user's webclient console and is blocking functionality to certain functions that they need to use the full functionality in the contacts list (pictured below).



3. We are a managed IT company and manage these dashboards for our customers as well as handle their license renewals. I can understand the desire to make sure that all users are properly registered before the renewal occurs in December in order to prevent a loss of service. That being said, since this is showing up on the customer's end and cannot be removed even when the account is properly registered, it will likely cause a lot of alarm among our customer base as more of these notifications start appearing. Is there some way to at least remove the notification on the end user side? I do not understand what goes into building this functionality, so I do not want to assume what the correct solution is. I am just trying to voice concerns to see if there is any additional way this can be addressed.

 

[CostasT_3CX]

I just started experiencing this problem today and have a few questions....

1. The customer that brought this to our attention is actually not listed as a "FREE" customer, but rather under "3CX Standard". We have a customer that IS listed under "3CX Free," so it seems that the system is differentiating these somehow. The license renewal date is also inconsistent between the license management portal (which shows renewal 12/31) and the license info pane in the PBX (which shows 12/30). I realize these are quite possibly normal behaviors due to change in nomenclature, but I want to verify that there is no cause for concern, especially since there is nothing else end user side that verifies everything is done correctly.

2. The notification is showing up on the user's webclient console and is blocking functionality to certain functions that they need to use the full functionality in the contacts list (pictured below).

View attachment 37383

3. We are a managed IT company and manage these dashboards for our customers as well as handle their license renewals. I can understand the desire to make sure that all users are properly registered before the renewal occurs in December in order to prevent a loss of service. That being said, since this is showing up on the customer's end and cannot be removed even when the account is properly registered, it will likely cause a lot of alarm among our customer base as more of these notifications start appearing. Is there some way to at least remove the notification on the end user side? I do not understand what goes into building this functionality, so I do not want to assume what the correct solution is. I am just trying to voice concerns to see if there is any additional way this can be addressed.

Hi Aaron,

Allow me to address your points of concern here.
1) As of the summer of 2022, 3CX announced that we will be discontinuing the 3CX Standard license which replaced our Free solution for 2022, while we worked on releasing our new Free offering. From there we announced our new Free offering and informed our partner base through multiple emails and a blog post (which you can find here) describing the steps needed to not only retain your previous 3CX Free license but also gain an extension before it is completely removed and replaced with our new Free offering.

2) If you would like to have this pop-up removed while also retaining the same functionality and more. Then I will have to echo the words of my colleagues and advise you to upgrade to the 3CX Pro 4SC Dedicated license. Since our new Free offering does not offer the same set of features as our dedicated licenses.

3) This functionality was built with the hopes that our Partners would notice and take appropriate action as noted in both the previous blog post I have linked or through the multiple mailers we had sent out to inform them by clicking the ¨More info¨ link.

I hope this helps clarify your questions and concerns.

 

[Aaron1984]

That does answer most of the questions with a bit of follow up

2. My client still has 3 months of the Standard license left that is already paid for. If I opt to upgrade them to PRO to maintain the given features and eliminate the notice now, will the Standard license run its course first or will the Pro start its 12 month cycle immediately?

3. I understand the desire to make sure everybody is informed and even appreciate it. As the partner in this scenario, it is good to be informed regarding the changes. That being said, as the partner I have read the emails and can see the management console so I am aware of the issue. I still do not feel it is necessary to have this notification populate perpetually on the user's end as it creates confusion between us and our customers. In addition, it is actively hindering the user's efficiency in using your platform. Is there anything that can be done regarding the notification on the user's end?

 

[CostasT_3CX]

2. All 3CX Standard licenses have already been converted to 3CX Free and have been granted an extension until the end of the year. So the remaining time on the key is an extension of the conversion, meaning that if you upgrade to the Dedicated Pro license it will then set the date of the upgrade as the new expiry date. Since it will now be considered a commercial license key as opposed to Free.

3. Currently, the only way to remove the pop-up notification would be to upgrade to a 3CX commercial license key.

 

[Dalibor]

I am using the 3CX standard for my family (on two continents), not for business. The system runs on two servers. One is hosted on a VPS in Canada. It has one trunk from freephoneline.ca (perpetual license), with no monthly subscription and free US and Canada calling.
The other one is running in a VM in Europe (on a local home server) and has 2 trunks; one is freephoneline.ca, and the other is local - geofenced, so it must be in that country's internet.
The servers route calls between themselves by using the freephoneline.ca trunks.

With this switch from Standard to Free, will this continue to function?
Is the renewal automatic, as it was before, or does the system stop working once the license expires?

This was a "set and forget" setup; will it continue to be like that?

 

[GabrielaS_3CX]

I am using the 3CX standard for my family (on two continents), not for business. The system runs on two servers. One is hosted on a VPS in Canada. It has one trunk from freephoneline.ca (perpetual license), with no monthly subscription and free US and Canada calling.
The other one is running in a VM in Europe (on a local home server) and has 2 trunks; one is freephoneline.ca, and the other is local - geofenced, so it must be in that country's internet.
The servers route calls between themselves by using the freephoneline.ca trunks.

With this switch from Standard to Free, will this continue to function?
Is the renewal automatic, as it was before, or does the system stop working once the license expires?

This was a "set and forget" setup; will it continue to be like that?

HI

Currently, our free offer is 3CX Free which is a bundle including 3CX PBX and a hosted shared instance, for up to 10 users. It is managed and supported by 3CX and it can be deployed in less than 1 minute from your customer portal!
For this free option, you must use a 3CX Preferred Sip Trunk.

Your Free Edition keys are currently valid until the 31st of December 2023.
If your existing sip trunk configuration works for you, I suggest you move to 3CX PRO so you can continue using it. However, I highly recommend you align your configuration with our manuals (Use supported VoIP providers) to avoid technical issues.