License renewal and a leap year

The licensing team have advised that the expiry for my subscription is now the 21/1/2021, so my problem is solved. There was no explanation. It pays to check, and always pays to ask!

Hi Jon,

For the sake of others who may read this thread, I can confirm that your case had nothing to do with a leap year and was due to the backdating we calculate if there is a gap between the expiry of a subscription and the start of a new subscription containing Enhanced Support. I have double-checked the date/time stamps on all Assets and transactions in your case and believe the originally calculation of 1-day back dated was correct. This is explained here: https://community.sophos.com/kb/en-us/125611#Why%20didn't%20I%20get%20the%20full%20term%20when%20I%20activated%20my%20license%20key?

However, a member of our licensing team was clearly feeling generous and added the extra day back on for you!

Regards

Paul

Paul,

Thanks for the explanation. However it still does not make sense to me; essentially you are saying that Sophos would have penalized me 1 day, because I activated the subscription renewal on the 22/1/2020.

Given the old subscription expired at midnight on the 20/1/2020, why did the renewed subscription, which on the invoice was from the 21/1/2020 - 20/1/2021, need to be docked a day? I did not expect it to be from the 22/1/2020 to 21/1/2021, only to honor the invoice, and what I paid for. The licensing tab on the device showed the subscription had expired, and the services provided were not available, so the firewall was running in basic protection mode, presumably from the 21st.

You should also check why your reseller and your licensing team took 5 business days to create a new key.

Jon

Hi Jon,

The backdating amount was calculated as a fraction of 1 day but rounded to 1 day. I agree that is a little over-zealous and I will get that calculation in the system reviewed.

The invoice you refer to must have been one for your purchase from the Reseller, Sophos has no control over those invoices. However, you should have received a copy of the License Schedule. In some regions Sophos sends this directly to the Customer and in other regions it is sent to the Distributor and/or Reseller. In any event it is intended that the License Schedule should always ultimately be received by the Customer as, for example, it contains the license key and the instructions on how to activate it - invoices from Sophos don't include license keys.

On the License Schedule it does show a Start / Expiry Date in the 'Schedule of products and services' section but includes a note below stating 'If a License Key has been provided, the Start and Expiry dates are dependent on the date that it is activated'. 

Finally, on your point about the previous license being expired and the services not being available. That is what the display of the license in Web Admin / MySophos will show, but in actual fact, there is always a short grace period and your features would have remained active for the 1-2 day gap. Sophos accepts that there can sometimes be a combination of circumstances that might lead to an unintentional late renewal.

If you have any further queries please do feel free to PM me and I will happily discuss further.

Regards

Paul

Paul,

Thanks again for responding. I think the whole backdating thing should be reviewed, not just the calculation. Given that I had paid for the subscription; the money was taken from my account on the 14th, I believe there could be legal implications from such a penalty. I will be checking the terms and conditions to see where this penalty is described.

In my case the problem has been resolved, as you put it, by the generosity of the licensing team.

Jon

Paul,

Thanks again for responding. I think the whole backdating thing should be reviewed, not just the calculation. Given that I had paid for the subscription; the money was taken from my account on the 14th, I believe there could be legal implications from such a penalty. I will be checking the terms and conditions to see where this penalty is described.

In my case the problem has been resolved, as you put it, by the generosity of the licensing team.

Jon