ECI Support & Licensing

ECI Software Solutions, Inc. bills companies using our Spruce application using a monthly licensing fee based upon the number of licensed seats. To keep initial licensing costs low, we spread out these costs over time as a monthly charge. Support is a separate charge and is mandatory. We don't offer "per call" Support plans or subscription plans.

Failure to pay Support and Licensing fees results in a block on any assistance from Support personnel regarding any issue, regardless of contact method (telephone, email, fax, and web site contacts). When licensing/support fees are not paid, ECI will disable the application until it is re-licensed and any past due amounts due are paid. We reserve the right to require larger payments in advance if a customer fails to pay Support or Licensing fees consistently.

Maintenance and hardware support for a server and any peripheral devices must be arranged with a third party.* Changes to the server including applications installation, updates, or settings changes can affect proper operation. Any time spent by ECI Support researching or correcting problems resulting from user changes is billable. Re-installation of any third-party product or the Spruce application is not covered by Support fees.

What is ECI Support?

The ECI Support team is here to provide any assistance your business needs to successfully use our software products. You can contact us by telephone, fax, mail, or email directed to either our Support staff or other employees or representatives of ECI Software Solutions, Inc. It does not include contacts to marketing (sales) or for administration reasons such as billing questions. Only certain types of assistance are covered by a Support plan. In-depth training is a billable service except in cases where we have scheduled on-line training classes open to all users who maintain a Support plan. We don't provide any support for hardware, network, or third-party software products, except for specific product integration purposes.

ECI support and licensing covers the following:

•Telephone support for the Spruce application during our regular Support hours.

•Access to billable emergency support when our offices are closed.**

•Web site access to our support area.

•Free stability updates and full release upgrades.

Licensed Merchants Not Maintaining Support

Maintaining a Support plan is mandatory. No support assistance of any kind is provided to users who don't maintain a Support plan with us.

Billable Support Services

Some services we may be asked to perform are not covered under Support and are considered billable services, including:

•Training1

•Remote Installation of the server and related components

•Data Conversion

•Custom Report Writing

•Any assistance with Hardware (Server, PC, Mobile Device, etc.) or Network-related issues.

•Assistance with any software or service that your company does not maintain a Support or Licensing Agreement with ECI for.

•Assistance correcting or researching any issue resulting from changes made to data, views, functions, tables, or procedures outside of the Spruce application or from any outside source another than a utility provided by ECI. We also reserve the right to immediately terminate Support if this is found to have occurred. If you feel that data needs to be changed outside of the functions provided and available through the software, please contact support for assistance.

1We do offer scheduled free on-line training classes on a regular basis. These scheduled classes offer free registration to users at any company maintaining support that is currently live on the Spruce software and after all paid training time in their contract has been exhausted.

What ECI Support does not Cover

ECI does not provide support for hardware or equipment, including servers, personal computers (laptops, PCs, notebooks, etc.), printers, third-party software applications, phones, tablets, and all peripheral devices. All warranty issues for such equipment and software must be handled directly with the manufacturer.

  • Custom changes to the application are not included in Support fees.

  • ECI does not provide support for any version of Microsoft SQL® Server or any server including those running Microsoft Server Terminal Services® (aka. Remote Desktop Services). This includes all questions or assistance with database maintenance, queries, and training. Companies must arrange for this support independently.

  • Support agreements do not cover operating systems or other software installed on any server, PC, or device. This includes training or assistance with general use of any PC, device, or particular operating system. Users who are not familiar with the basic functionality of their computer or other device should seek assistance from another party to familiarize themselves with their proper use. It is not the intended purpose of Support or Training to provide this level of instruction.

  • Internet Connectivity is the responsibility of your company and we recommend that you contact your ISP or network administrator for assistance with internet problems and questions.

  • Please contact the manufacturer for warranty support in case of any device failures or errors.

  • Companies must arrange for network support independently to manage network problems or trouble-shoot network issues.

  • Software or database errors caused by viruses, malware, worms, or user errors. We recommend you install a subscription-based anti-virus software with automatic updating on every server and PC on your company's network.

  • ECI does not provide on-site installation of any additional hardware or software components.

*Applies to those servers not purchased from ECI. We no longer sell servers and the number of customers who this exclusion applies is very limited. For servers that were purchased through ECI, we provide limited assistance in contacting IBM for server issues; however, we don't support the hardware directly.

**The only exception to off-hour Support billing is an error that originates with the Spruce application and that prevents the use of Point of Sale by all users. Otherwise, all other off-hour support is billed at our hourly rate in 1/4 increments. In addition, any other off-hour assistance is provided at the discretion of the on-call technician.