TL;DR:
1) I bought a tier 2 deal that says "All future Unlimited Plan updates."
2) ezcourse's Unlimited plan now includes features that they want to charge significant amounts for me to use.
3) Ergo, bait and switch.

I really wanted to like ezcourse but it's a scam – buy in, and then they keep charging you more to get the features you actually need to use it.

The appsumo deal said I would get "All future Unlimited Plan updates." And the Unlimited Plan on their site (https://ezycourse.com/pricing?plan=year) has a bunch of features I want to use. Some are basic requirements for any course or community, and others are nice-to-haves. But all are included in the current Unlimited Plan.

But according to ezcourse, I need to pay outlandish fees for each of them.

For example: I want community participants to be able to chat with each other. But that'll cost me an additional $550 for lifetime access.
Push notifications cost an additional $123.
White-labeled apps? Extra $2,590!

And again: the AppSumo deal said I'd get "All future Unlimited Plan updates."
And again: all of these are listed as free with the current Unlimited Plan. 🤔

Seems pretty clear that they're not honoring what I purchased, so I chatted with a very agressive customer service rep named "Mujakkir" jut now. Absolutely useless transcript is below.

I'm going to ask AppSumo to intervene or issue a refund. But I assume I've lost the money, as I'm not willing to pay significantly more to use the features I bought.

Full chat below, after which "Mujakkir" blocked me. 🤣

How can we help with EzyCourse?
Hi - I'm looking into setting up my course and community. I'd like to understand what "Allow all community members to chat with each other" means (from the settings under community details). I bought a lifetime deal from Appsumo. Do I now need to pay extra for community members to chat?

Mujakkir:
Hi
Yes, you need to pay extra
It's a separate addon

me:
Wow. What a bait and switch.

Mujakkir:
https://ezycourse.com/addons/student-to-student-chat

Me:
So you provide a community as part of the lifetime access, but I need to pay extra to use it?

Mujakkir:
You can access the community with your lifetime membership, but the ability for members to chat directly with each other is an additional feature. If you want that functionality, it’s available as an optional add-on
You can explore others features within community

Me:
I bought a lifetime subscription. What a waste of money. I'll leave a review on appsumo in case you open that deal again.

Mujakkir:
https://courses.[mydomain].com/dashboard/current-plan/
These are all your features
When you had purchase the deal, this feature was not available

Me:
Doesn't mention communities. It's not a full list of features. And it does say "No monthly or yearly fees" but now I have to pay a fee to use a basic part of the software.

Mujakkir:
So we didn’t change anything
still we try to provide you but you are not honouring
-I bought a lifetime subscription. What a waste of money. I'll leave a review on appsumo in case you open that deal again.-
That time you had 3 months to ask refund, you should have use that time.

Me:
The appsumo deal says "All future Unlimited Plan updates."
Your Unlimited plan says:
"Things you'll get
Get free bonus add-ons worth $5800+
* Private Chat
So who's not honoring the deal exactly?

Mujakkir:
Appsumo Unlimited plan is whatever you are getting and attached with your dashboard
- The appsumo deal says "All future Unlimited Plan updates."-
It's completely clear.
These are regular plan, regular plan is not applicable for you, you should know which plan you purchase.
Kindly check your dashboard.

Me:
You should make it clear what people are purchasing then.

Mujakkir:
Moreover, it is not even an update,it is an addon. Anyone needs to purchase separately or free in higher plan.
- You should make it clear what people are purchasing then.-
We did and people are enjoying our platform

Then I tried to write "I'll be posting our chat so people can see how you treat your customers." but found "Mujakkir" had blocked me! 🙃