A serious issue with the way upgrading to a higher resolution fx set seems to work

On 25 Aug 2021 I purchased Rain (RA1_2K). The 2K version of the rain set.

On 14 Jul 2022 I decided I wanted/needed the 4K version of that set, so on this day I purchased Rain (RA1_4K). The 4K version of it.

When I was buying Rain (RA1_4K) there was a small warning somewhere on the page(s) saying something like “You have already purchased this”. That warning looked new to me (though I think I’ve upgraded other sets by buying the higher res versions previously, but not very recently).

That warning wasn’t really correct though (and I checked). I had already purchased the 2K version of the set. I hadn’t purchased the 4K version of that set previously.

That warning (that wasn’t really correct) seems to be the only thing different about the order compared to my previous order (of Rain on Glass 2K).

On 15 Jul 2022 I then get a message from ActionVFX support questioning my order, questioning whether I bought the right license, asking me to fill in a form confirming the purchase was made “on behalf of your company” but that it would only be for 1 person etc. That assumes it was made on behalf of a company – what about freelancers? What about people who buy an fx set for personal use to increase their skills? The email didn’t give any clear reason why they had assumed what they did (ie. why they were questioning if I’d bought the right license?). I have bought the right license on all my purchases.

This whole thing around the emails/forms etc. seems to have happened because of the incorrect warning when ordering Rain 4K (as that’s the last set I ordered before I got the email about the “recent purchase” and the only real difference between that and the order for Rain on Glass 2K (the previous purchase to Rain 4K). It seems like it must be a quite recent change as I’m sure I must have upgraded to higher res versions of other fx clip sets in the past without this happening. Ordering a higher res (4K) version of a set you already own the 2K version of now seems like it is setting some flag(s) somewhere (eg. on the order and/or account) when it shouldn’t. It’s a perfectly legitimate thing to order a 4K set that you previously bought the 2K version of (eg. buying Rain 4K some time after buying Rain 2K). So I really think the system needs changing so it doesn’t do that every time, for every user.

The above is the main reason I’m posting this.

Previously (around January 2022) I had asked support about upgrading to higher resolution sets of clips through the website (I thought it had given an option to upgrade with a lower price than if you bought both the 2K and the 4K sets separately - at a time previous to that contact with support). I was then told they could create a custom order for me if I told them what set I wanted to upgrade. But when I then emailed sales asking for a custom order to upgrade a particular set on 16th Jan 2022 I don’t seem to have received any reply.

It would be good if the website could be made to easily allow upgrades to a higher res version of a set that was already purchased previously (eg. to buy the 4K set when you already have the 2K set) with a reasonable discount (since if you bought just the 4K set it gives you the 2K files too but currently if you buy the 2K then the 4K version of a set you can be paying about $150 (or whatever the cost of the 2K one was) extra compared to just buying the 4K set (where you get both in the downloads section).

Hi! Thanks for bringing this to our attention! My name is Travis, Im the Customer Success Manager here at ActionVFX. I’d love to take care of this issue for you.

It looks like there are a few different things going on here so I can understand the confusion. To begin, even though these events happened around the same time, there is no correlation between trying to upgrade from (RA1_2K) to (RA1_4K) and the email sent from our support team about licensing. We send licensing emails to anyone that purchases an individual license that also has a business account. This isn’t to assume that anyone is purchasing the wrong license, but allows the user the opportunity to sign the form stating that they are an individual/freelancer acting as a business. After the form is signed, it is held on file and prevents the user from being contacted in the future.

I see that you have an individual account so it seems that you have received this email by mistake. Can you please email me at travis@actionvfx.com and I’ll make sure that these issues are resolved for you as quickly as possible!

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Thanks for your help. I’ve sent you an email.

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@travis Hey, since the thread topic is about upgrading from 2k to 4k and I don’t actually know how or if that works or what the policy/pricing is; can we add that to this thread or create a sticky so a forum search on the subject answers the question?

Thanks as always for the help!

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@zaubermac Hey, I’m grateful this question was asked because after looking into it, we found that the feature had been accidentally turned off! Thanks to this discussion it is now turned back on!

At this time only Collections can be upgraded from 2K to 4K. To take advantage of this feature, you simply visit the collection and click on “Upgrade to 4K”. I’ve added some screenshots below to show the upgrade buttons.

As always, if anyone has any questions about this topic or other questions that can’t be answered in the knowledge base or this forum, we encourage you to reach out to our Support Team!


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