Disappointed with Cubase 10 Upgrade

I was foolish enough to purchase Upgrade from Cubase Elements 10 to Cubase Pro 10 and purchase a USB Elicenser at the same time. I am disappointed that there was no recommendation/advice from Steinberg to purchase USB Elicenser FIRST and then upgrade once it arrived. This means I paid the full upgrade price and whilst waiting for my licenser to arrive to enable the upgrade, I saw the 50% savings offer !! If I had purchased just the elicenser and waited for it to arrive before I upgraded I would have made the 50% offer !! I sent emails to Ask-net to explain my predicament and they have who have forwarded to Steinberg but I have had no response. From reading multiple replies on the forum it looks like a) I will probably not even get a response and b) if I do it will be “bad luck”. I still haven’t downloaded the upgrade but looks to me like I should just do this and accept that is the way it is with Steinberg. I didn’t upgrade as obviously once I had done this it would be unreasonable to expect any support from Steinberg - I understand missing a grace period however I think my circumstance is a little different. I am fairly new to the world of Cubase and Steinberg VST’s and have been gradually upgrading and purchasing additional content. Any suggestions or do I just accept that this is the way it is with Steinberg ??

Activating the license to your USB stick will be acceptance/usage of the purchase, regardless of whether you’ve downloaded the software or not, have you activated it?

If it’s not activated then it may be worthy holding on for a reply.

In fact, if you read here:-

Quotes:-

"The terms and conditions for use of Steinberg software / hardware by you, the end user (hereinafter termed “Licensee”) appear below. By installing the software on your computer you agree to these terms and conditions. Please read the following text carefully in its entirety. If you do not approve these terms and conditions, you must not install this software.

In this event give back the product back to where you have purchased it (incl. all written material, the complete undamaged packing as well as the enclosed hardware) immediately but at the latest within 14 days in return for a refund of the purchase price."

And

“3. Activation of the software
Steinberg may use a compulsory activation of the software and a compulsory product registration of the OEM software for license control to protect the software against unlawful copying. If you do not accept the terms and conditions of this Agreement, the software will not work.
In such a case the product including the software may only be returned within 14 days following acquisition of the product. Upon return a claim according to § 11 shall not apply.”

By their own T&Cs you have 14 days to return if you do not accept. So i would read that as the cooling off period?

i really dont understand why you are angry. The USB elicenser is something obviously is needed and you were aware of that as you bought it from the website along with the upgrade license. And ofc it is needed some days to get the elicenser as its a physical product mailed my mail.
You bought something and you are angry because of the delivery time?
Also you could go to a music store, buy it from AMAZON next day delivery, e-bay and so on.

lol i initially read the OP as this too.

If you re-read their post you will understand that they bought the license for FULL price, then had to wait for the USB licenser to arrive. After the licenser had arrived the 50% sale was on BEFORE they had even had the chance to install/activate the product. So they are now at the point of not knowing whether to install or not if they can get some kind of refund.

I’d be pretty annoyed in that case. It’s nothing to do with not understanding that a licenser is required OR how long it took to arrive - it’s just the crap luck in timing they experienced. The opening line in their post is a bit misleading as it sounds like annoyance in waiting for the licenser to be posted. :slight_smile:

Glad i’m not the only one that mis-read initially.

@ondjpayn, you bought your license upgrade in time when there wasn’t discount. Where is Steinberg’s fault? Grace period was in november if I remember right.

You bought for a price you accepted with your payment. I also bought license upgrade with a discount for my second station and will activate it later when there will not be discounts. So according to your arguments I should pay second half of sum when I activate it??? Kind of stupidness!

I see now,
Well they mentioned that they will do something for those who bought the license in a kind of ‘grace period’ for this event.
’ The updates and upgrades will be included in the sales promotion before the weekend begins. If you have already updated to Cubase 10, please keep an eye on your emails.’
So I suppose he has to wait.

I am fairly certain you have misinterpreted those sentences.

The mention of updates and upgrades is because the 50% off sale was initially just for new Cubase licenses. After feedback, Steinberg decided that updates and upgrades would also be included in the 50% off sale, though this took a little time to arrange.

The mention of those who have already updated to Cubase 10 is that the newsletter included a 30% off sale on Halion 6. There are other offers coming over the next few weeks that are intended to offer something to those who already have all the Cubase 10 licences they need - I believe it is WaveLab, Dorico and Iconica that have been mentioned.


If the OP has not yet activated their Cubase licence, they might be able to back out of the sale within 14 days, then repurchase at the sale price. If the OP has activated their licence, it is almost certainly just bad luck. There is always the possibility of a discount coming along in the future. You pay the asking price for the product at the time. There is no guarantee what the price will be tomorrow. It is well known that Steinberg have sales from time to time, often in the late spring / early summer. You can buy a Steinberg licence and wait to activate it until the grace period for the next version has started, which gives a free update to that next version on release.

i see David, thanks for clarifying it. I was wondering what was meaning this one… It makes some sense

A little off topic, but I was surprised at this.
After hearing a lot of people talking about buying, and not activating until the next version comes out, I considered doing that.
But after thinking about it, it’ll probably be more than a half year before they update again.
A lot can happen in that time, like say, they activate and register your software.

I decided not to play cat and mouse games and just went ahead and activated 10.
I’ll get to use it for the time till the next update, and won’t have to worry about trying to stay within some kind of grace period.

I see many posts like this one.

“I paid X and now Steinberg has dropped the price to X/2.”

How on earth is that relevant to the deal you agreed to at the time of purchase? Did Steinberg hold a gun to your head and take the money from you?

And what if the price drops to X/4 tomorrow; should all of the half-price people also be angry then?

Well said, I agree and I paid full price for my upgrade

Disappointment isn’t the same as being angry, the OP is just disappointed that the sale happened BEFORE the dongle arrived and is asking if they are out of luck so should just install the software and enjoy it OR wait for a response from Steinberg?. There’s no complaint on the price they’ve paid at all, just disappointment in the timing.

Right now they’re in the 14 day period as quoted in the T&Cs so is a very much valid question, are you giving the advice that they should install and activate the code therefore? Need to be clear what you’re saying here really, otherwise it’s not clear if you’re addressing the question or just having a moan.

I guess it will all depend on when you bought it.
I’d wait for a reply, but I suspect they’re really busy right now. It might take a little longer than normal.


EDIT: after reading your first post again, I noticed this:

So you bought Cubase and then the sale was announced after. I don’t think there’s a grace period on sales - live and learn.
Stuff like that has happened to me many times.

E X A C T L Y !!!

People agreed full price and bought the product. But discount is for those who has not bought Cubase or upgraded license until that day when discount appears. Another situation could be when new version come out.

When the first wave of discounts came for those who buy completely new Cubase, I thought - okay, not for me. Because I worked on Pro 9.5 and felt happy. But when they offered update/upgrade discount of 50%, then all walls fell and I bought it.