Comments on: Transferring an iPhone app: last episode

By: Ortwin Gentz

Ortwin Gentz — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:35:54 +0000

@Rich, as I said before, I sincerely apologize that the App Store right now doesn’t issue a “it will be free” notice before the purchase. See the bugreport we submitted to Apple.

I’m wondering though if Where To was presented to you as an update in the update section of the App Store app. To my knowledge this is not possible because Apple maintains no relationship between Where To under the old and the new account.

To make you go a bit easier: By purchasing the app under the FutureTap account, you’re eligible for a free update to the upcoming Where To 2.0. This will greatly increase the value of the app and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed!

By: Rich

Rich — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:33:33 +0000

You should make it clear at the very top of the apps description in the app store and in the info on the update:

***IF YOU PURCHASED THIS APP PREVIOUSLY AND DOWNLOAD THE UPDATE YOU WILL BE CHARGED $2.99 AGAIN! DO NOT DOWNLOAD IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE CHARGED AN ADDITIONAL $2.99***

Unfortunately for me, no such warning existed and when I saw the update on my phone and thought “great let’s pull it down and see what’s new” I then downloaded over the air on my phone (I’d purchased a while back) and was charged for the app AGAIN! No warning, nothing just an unexpected charge.

Surely you value your clients more than this?

Rich

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:52:45 +0000

Geez, you guys, stop whining. It’s 3 dollars. You can’t buy an app for a PC that says “Hello World” for $3. I am hesitant to spend even $1 on an app sight unseen. But if you already know you like it, then $3 is practically nothing.

By: Ron

Ron — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:01:41 +0000

It’s sad, but Apple has become the Big Brother that the PC never was.

By: Ortwin Gentz

Ortwin Gentz — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:32:48 +0000

@Maxim: as I said, we’re working to offer a price-reduced upgrade path to version 2.0 for current, loyal Where To owners. Please stay tuned, we’ll come up with more info when 2.0 is ready.

@Geoff: I sincerely apologize for this unfortunate situation. The App Store should definitely notify the customer of a free re-download before and not after asking for the purchase confirmation. (We’ll post an issue in Apple’s bug tracker.) Rest assured though that you won’t be charged again when 2.0 comes out. All buyers after June 23 will not be charged again for the new version.

Let me stress once again, we tried hard to work with Apple to retain the customer history when transferring the app into our account. Unfortunately Apple was completely overstrained with this issue. Apparently a transfer keeping customer history is just not possible with their back end system.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:47:20 +0000

Yes, I have to agree this is messed up. I downloaded the app when it first came out. Recently upgraded to 3.0, lost everything, and was just trying to download back my old adds which I had bought before. I was charged 2.99 again for this app thinking I would be able to just re download it for free. Also looks like from reading this I will get charged again for the upgrade. Most likely going to dispute this charge and remove the app completely. You guys should really consider a more customer friendly approach.

By: Maxim

Maxim — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:26:27 +0000

I purchased Where To? days after it came out. The app looked great, but was pretty disappointing in functionality. With the release of OS 3.0, I hoped you would use the Maps API to make the app more functional. Looks like that will be the case, but unfortunately I will not benefit, as it does not seem prudent to buy something twice. After all, “less loyal” customer get the update free.

Why the disincentive here? I understand that there may not be a lot you can do (actually, you could offer the app for free for a couple of days to everyone, which would cost sales but buy goodwill; you could also offer redemption codes to past customer), but understand that it is also not my problem. This tarnishes the FutureTap brand in my mind, and I hope you do the right thing by your past customers.

By: Ortwin Gentz

Ortwin Gentz — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:33:50 +0000

@anonymous: I deleted your comment. It’s not about censorship of specific content (in this case saying bad things about Sophia) but we only accept comments you can stand behind with your good name. I invite you to repost mentioning your name. E-Mail addresses are not published but might be used to verify the authenticity.

By: Ortwin Gentz

Ortwin Gentz — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:50:38 +0000

@Joseph, first: thank you for being a loyal customer! As mentioned in my post, we’re working to offer a price-reduced upgrade path to version 2.0 for current Where To owners. Please be patient until 2.0 is ready.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:35:24 +0000

To be honest, I’m really disappointed that I’m going to have to repurchase “Where To?” I was one of the loyal early customers and when I got it I didn’t think too highly of the app. Design was great but the features and functionality, lacking or redundant. I followed it closely because the team behind it looked like one of the most promising at the time. I’ve followed this saga from the beginning, and while unfortunate, the customer should not be the one to come up with the short end of the stick due to things beyond their control. I’ve waited and waited for some kind of substantial update to “Where To?” and, sorry, but dozens of localizations is not what I’ve had in mind. Now with the new API’s you are given the tools to truly breathe new life into this app and you have decided that that rebirth won’t come at any kind of discount to the previous customers. I know your hands are tied but at least providing a small window of time that customers could purchase “Where To?” for free might one of the few ways to wrong this right.