Hi everyone
I initially charge my customers for the SambaPOS implementation and a one year free support.
Now what i want is to set some sort of a validity or an expiry date after that POS stops working. and it can resume once the support charges for the next year are paid.
Is it possible?
never tried but would be a user logged in rule I guess.
Or think there is a application started event rule.
That rule could be delete me if the customer has access to edit automation.
Iām not sure thatās possible. You could stop support but you canāt make Sambapos stop working that would be misleading considering they can get it themself and use forum for support and you cannot stop them from that.
User Login Event
Check the date.
If date is overdue/expired:
Show Message Action telling them to renew their contract, then
Logout User Action which will kick them back to Login Screen.
I agree with @Jesse on thisā¦ I would be royally pissed if I could not use the software, and would de-recommend the support company.
Then come to Forum, where they could find me, and I would be happy to remove the expiry check for them by running a couple SQL Queries.
Delete Management Module 
And you then offer support how?
And they canāt add products or change prices?
TBH with that kind of practice I wouldnāt use you for my support!
All my products/changing prices are done through a remote web interface.
I was only replying because someone asked how to stop a customer accessing management and emre said that you could just delete it.
Anyways, all I was saying was if OP wanted to go with that route where he will disable support after a year then that would be how to prevent the user aceessing management, and providng support with an account or boot device which hadd the mangment module.
Thought that was his suggestion LOL
I think a popup to remind about support would do the job.
You cant stop the program running because support expiredā¦ support doesnt mean program. I would be really miffed if that was sold to me.
If you offer a rental agrement including support, maybe, but not if you dont by support software stops working, is blackmail forcing them to take your support.
If thats the arrangement wanted it may be doable based on the average customer (someone experianced would always be able to overide this type of setup in one way or another) BUT you need to be clear on the arrangement with the customer.
Personally I would never go down that route.
Thank you so much for your quick response. I am bit new to automation. Can you refer me an article where i can learn to play with events and actions?
LOL, yet you want to lock your customer into relying on you for support
Every other topic on the forum
There isnt a tutorial for what your asking about and doubtful there would ever be one but thats not to say its not posible.
As a newbie to automation I would recommend maybe watching some of my video tutorials which are step by step with voice guide.
See here, also has links to my other videos;
It seems nobody mentioned already, but locking people out of the system when your support expires when you have sold them a V5 license is surely against the terms of the V5 license you purchased on behalf of your customer for SambaPOS.
As others have said, this is a very bad idea. And considering you say yourself you are a new to this, you surely are not in a position to be locking down your customers. This idea goes against everything SambaPOS is designed for, itās not meant to be resold and locked down by a reseller to the point that the end customer cannot use it without paying that reseller for support.
Also, I had a feeling I heard the same mentioned before, and I checked back through your post activity. You asked the same question before in 2015 and were told then about not doing this. So PLEASE do not do this, there are many resellers including myself who provide a quality service to our customers and donāt lock them in like this (my customers pay me for support based on the service I provide, I donāt need to ālock them inā like this). Doing what you intend will give customers a bad experience and indirectly then they will link this with the name of SambaPOS as a whole, and I think you should consider strongly about that. You come on the forum here and get free support from people, yet you want to take and not give back. You want to stop your own customers getting the help you get. This is not a business model based on providing a quality service to your paying customers.
What he (@markjw) said. If I could like that post more than once, I would. 
+1000
A diamond would also workā¦ 
Do you know how I first started programming SambaPOS? One day a restaurant owner friend of @mehmet called us because his POS stopped working. He thought there is something wrong with the hardware. It was noon and there was a lot of hungry people in the venue so he asked us to come urgently. We rushed there, saw an error message about license so called the POS software company. They said support period ended and it needs to be paid. Mehmet said weāll pay it shortly but it will be fine if they allow software to work now as waiters registering orders to paper. That was 7 years before so I donāt remember it exactly but it was something small like $50 but they said it is not possible without making the payment. When friend heard that he really pissed off, didnāt pay the money and just wanted from us to uninstall it and replace it with something else 
In just 3 months I implemented first SambaPOS version and he was the #1 SambaPOS user. He dealt with all new software issues without even complaining once.
Threatening customer to stop his business if he donāt pay is just blackmailing. Some people wants us to do it. Resellers running the most part of SambaPOS business but even nobody sells SambaPOS weāre %100 against that kind of business. We never work with such people.
Iām considering implementing a feature to allow up tier resellers to login directly to management by using their private reseller key. Iāll discuss that with team.
This situation I have heard many many times and is a disgusting way to run a business. Company I worked with in the past did exactly that, blackmailing customers for payment when license expired, deliberately not allowing them to renew license until a couple days before expiry (so they are forced to pay or struggle without a POS) and worst is their sales people lied telling customers it was a lifetime license (of course, business terms said otherwise but most donāt read). Even then, their support was useless - they didnāt help customers, just gave empty promises to call back. All this angered customers as youād expect. Their whole business model was based on recurring license fees. I really canāt stand it when I hear others wanting to run a business like that and think that is an acceptable business model - itās not, itās unethical and just plain wrong.
I wish I could shame that company online however it wouldnāt be worth my while as theyād just come after me with legal threats. I am happy to say I have converted quite a few of those customers who used that companyās software over to SambaPOS and those customers are very happy.
I think that was a good situation for you and your first customer Emre - it gave you motivation to build SambaPOS and because of that, we have the great software we have today! 
@markjw
Thanks for the reply. I understand your point.