Converting USUs to Purchase Credit
16 May 2007— Helix technical support is available on a pay-as-you-go basis and on an advance-purchase basis. (See /support/index.html for a fuller explanation.) Advance purchases provide three direct benefits to the buyer:
- You do not have to worry about handling payment when calling for support.
- You can receive a substantial discount (up to 50%) on the cost of support.
- You can convert them into direct discounts when upgrading your Helix licenses.
The purpose of this policy page is to clarify this third benefit.
User Service Units (USUs) — when purchased in advance blocks of 10 or more — are eligible for direct dollar-for-dollar coversion for product purchases, including upgrades. The conversion rate is calculated at the rate you paid for those USUs.
Only advance purchase USUs may be converted in this manner. Complementary USUs that are credited to your account when you purchase new or upgrade Helix products are not eligible. Those were given to you at no additional cost to you and thus have no equivalent dollar value. Those USUs may only be used when calling for user service.
If you have a combination of complementary and purchased USUs, your complementary USUs are used first when you call us for technical support.
How It Works
For example: say you purchased a Helix RADE & Server upgrade along with an advance purchase block of 40 USUs. Based on prices in effect at the time of this writing, 40 USUs cost $15.00 each (a 50% discount) for a total of $600.00. You also receive 6 complementary USUs: 2 for the RADE upgrade and 4 for the Server upgrade, for a total of 46 USUs.
Subsequently you call for support a few times, using 12 USUs altogether. Now you want to purchase an upgrade and apply your outstanding USU credits to the purchase. Here's the process we apply:
- All 6 complemetary USUs are applied to the support calls.
- 6 advance purchase USUs are applied to the phone calls.
- The balance of advance purchase USUs (40 - 6 = 34) are converted to credit based on the price paid ($15.00 in this example: $15 * 34 = $510.00)
- The credit is directly deducted from your upgrade cost.
- The USUs are deducted from your account.
Additional Notes:
- You may convert all or part of your advance purchase USUs.
- The upgrade purchase earns you complementary USUs at the current rate.
- The web store does not automatically convert advance purchase USUs — you must call QSA ToolWorks sales to convert USUs.
Advance purchase USUs are an ideal way to spread the cost of a Helix upgrade out over multiple fiscal years. They are not a ‘donation’ to QSA ToolWorks in any way: you receive an immediate tangible benefit as well as spreading your costs out and ‘softening the blow’ when you are ready to purchase an upgrade.