Autocads scam?

[Anonymous]

Recently my student license for Civil3d expired and I spent a couple of days trying to 'get around' that fact but after many unsuccesful attempts to get it renewed or get the free trial I gave up.  And of course, purchasing Civil 3d is waaay too expensive!! Or is it?  Yesterday I saw an ad for Civil 3d for 60% off on my regular Google search page.  I clicked on the site.  It looked like an Autodesk webpage (atleast to my hungry eyes at the time) and sure enough was selling older versions of Autodesk software for what I thought were much more reasonable prices, e.g. Civil 3d 2020 for 699$ for a 3 year subscription.  Notice that they structure their pricing just like Autodesk does on their own pages.  When I had trouble with the download I attempted to contact their "24/7" support line and when nobody picked up I got suspicous...

Anyway, to make a long story short, does Autodesk have any affiliations that sells their software online?  This site was called depotcads.com.

-Peter

[leowarren34 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

I would be very suspicious of depotcads.com as it looks very suspicious - a typical canned website.

A quick google can bring up analysis websites which can look at domain stats

It's also very suspicious that the domain is extremely young - 1 month and 14 days and also not secure via https which is another red flag to me.

I would most definitely avoid - if something is too good to be true it probably is.

I would look at official channels or look at a different product entirely as there are alternatives.

[DarrenP]

authorized resellers are listed here: https://www.autodesk.com/partners/locate-a-reseller?cntr=US

[Anonymous]

Thank you leo.  Your doubts are correct.  Aftter my initial posting I went back to turn on my virus controls (though i am surprised that autodesk also asks you to turn these off for downloads) and did a quick scan and found a virus on my computer!  These guys definitely are scammers!BTW, I hope Autodesk can find a reasonable middle ground on their software.  Over 2000$ is waaay too much for their program (Civil 3d).  But I was willing to plop down 700$ for these scammers that I wrongly assumed was Autodesk or a legitimate dealer.  I'm sure at a reasonable  price there are thousands of people around the country that would pay for this great software.  Why not atleast make available the older versions for cheaper.  And let's face it, It costs them virtually nothing since the program already exists.  I truly do not get this.Thanks Again,-Peter

[Anonymous]

the price is the price if you don’t like it look at cheaper alternatives from other vendors

you can google to find what those are

not going to mention any here

[Anonymous]

Oh sorry, you are right...So much more important to stick to your 'principles' than make money selling your product.  My bad.

-Peter

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
And let's face it, It costs them virtually nothing since the program already exists.  

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And do you think the program just sprouted out of the blue one day, and Autodesk came over, pulled it out and decided to sell it? 

Or... is it possible that Autodesk has hundreds of programmers working on these products and needs to pay them for their work?

Whether the cost to value ratio is fair is another story...

[Anonymous]

Not a response to my comment.  Only dummies like you seem to be sprouting up out of the blue everywehere.