upcoming fee for app

I just got a notification when I fired up the app this morning that to continue to access data after May 2013, I would need to re-download it and pay a fee of $9.99. No problem there, but I was wondering if this is a one-time charge or if it's going to be a subscription service with recurring charges.

I was also wondering about this since I paid the original subscription fee and was wondering how that will be factored into this.

The fee will be a one-time fee of $9.99 with unlimited data access and no recurring charges. We decided not to do a subscription plan.

When we first launched the app, we had a subscription plan of $4.99/year. That ended in May 2012, and it has been free since then.

For those of you that paid $4.99 once, you will have to pay $9.99 if you want to use the app starting in May like everyone else. You will not be automatically charged. We realize this means some of you will have paid more than others, but due to Apple privacy controls, we actually can't identify who paid $4.99 even if we did want to give them a break.

We came to the conclusion that we have a great offering, and $10 (or $15 for some people), is a hell of a deal for a guide to most climbing in America, especially one that is constantly updated and improved!

Nick Wilder wrote:We came to the conclusion that we have a great offering, and $10 (or $15 for some people), is a hell of a deal for a guide to most climbing in America, especially one that is constantly updated and improved!

true that.

Sounds good. Thanks for the quick reply!

Sorry you paid 5 bucks for something that we decided to give away later for free, and as a thank you we're going to charge you 10 more and tell you it's an awesome deal!

Sounds like the usual rational decision making that happens around MP.

Reginald McChufferton wrote:Sorry you paid 5 bucks for something that we decided to give away later for free, and as a thank you we're going to charge you 10 more and tell you it's an awesome deal! Sounds like the usual rational decision making that happens around MP.

Not sure you have much room to complain given your contributions to the site.

I haven't contributed that much to MP, certainly not as much as I've received, but it does bother me that I jumped at the chance to pay $5, then when the app became free, was told that the money would be credited in the future and am now told tough luck.

Mark Wyss wrote: Not sure you have much room to complain given your contributions to the site.

I've contributed plenty to this site. Sorry you don't like what I have to say.

Yeah, I recall being told that anyone who paid for it would get their remaining time credited to them after it went back to subscription.

Here is the back story on the price changes:

• We originally launched with a $4.99/year subscription
• Apple approved this system. Life was good
• 6 months into it Apple decided only "media businesses" could use their subscription system, which excluded MP. They deactivated our ability to charge a subscription.
• Our only choice was either free or one-time purchase
• Faced with that choice, we decided to give the app away for 6 months to create some buzz. All the messaging indicated we'd start charging for it on-or-around Jan 2013
• The 6 months came last month, and we decided to not start charging the one-time fee until May (another 6 months) to allow all those who DID pay the $4.99 towards the end of the subscription period to have a full year since it was impossible to know who to credit (because of Apple privacy restrictions) . Apple does not provide us access to any of the purchase details.

So you can see, these weren't knee jerk price changes. Apple forced a choice on us, we decided to make it free for a period, and then extended the free period for an entire year to avoid any users being "double charged".

Hope that explains it.

- Andy

I wish I had waited and not paid the initial $4.99. But now I that I have, and see what a great app it is, I'm happy to pay the additional $10. Thanks for putting the work into the app. I hope you guys make a few bucks.

How about offering those who paid the $4.99 a $5 off coupon for the tshirts, maybe require a $25 purchase? You won't lose any money and everyboy will feel like they got a fair deal. Make it the honor system except for Reginald. Get those ts off the shelf and out in front of potential advertisers too.

Great idea Mark... but....

We don't know who purchased the subscription! Apple holds that information, not us. When you bought that subscription (or any app purchase for that matter), you are making that purchase from Apple... not the app vendor. And they do not release that info to the app vendors.

It's pretty amazing the control Apple has on their ecosystem. It's hard not to admire their balls and ability in maintaining such control.

Edit: just saw the "make in an honor system". Good idea, I'll discuss with Nick.

Mark E Dixon wrote:How about offering those who paid the $4.99 a $5 off coupon for the tshirts, maybe require a $25 purchase? You won't lose any money and everyboy will feel like they got a fair deal. Make it the honor system except for Reginald. Get those ts off the shelf and out in front of potential advertisers too.

I like this idea. Everybody wins.

"Here is the back story on the price changes:

• We originally launched with a $4.99/year subscription
• Apple approved this system. Life was good
• 6 months into it Apple decided only "media businesses" could use their subscription system, which excluded MP. They deactivated our ability to charge a subscription.
• Our only choice was either free or one-time purchase
• Faced with that choice, we decided to give the app away for 6 months to create some buzz. All the messaging indicated we'd start charging for it on-or-around Jan 2013
• The 6 months came last month, and we decided to not start charging the one-time fee until May (another 6 months) to allow all those who DID pay the $4.99 towards the end of the subscription period to have a full year since it was impossible to know who to credit (because of Apple privacy restrictions) . Apple does not provide us access to any of the purchase details. So you can see, these weren't knee jerk price changes. Apple forced a choice on us, we decided to make it free for a period, and then extended the free period for an entire year to avoid any users being "double charged". Hope that explains it. - Andy"

Thanks for the clarification. Seeing as I bought the app in March, I at least will get over a year of use on it.

I don't really want to pay $10 for it, but I used it so much over the past year that it's worth it, especially when climbing in Utah's Wasatch Range; the last book published here was in 1998, so the updates on MP really compliment the climbing.

Nick just informed me we sell our t-shirts at wholesale. It was a good idea though! We use Cafepress, which is a print-on-demand service for the shirts. If we used sweat shops in China we could probably get them cheaper, but then we'd need to stock and ship t-shirts.. and that'd make Nick grumpy :)

If you paid the $4.99 for it, you paid for a one year subscription...correct? You got one one year out of it...correct? You got EXACTLY what you paid for...correct? Then the pricing scheme changed, but it didn't change the fact that you still got what you paid for...correct? And we're talking about $4.99...correct?

If anyone feels like the big bad purveyors of MP are just being TOO unfair or that the $4.99 they're "out" is TOO MUCH of a hardship, post a picture of yourself holding a sign that says "I'll humiliate myself for $4.99" and I'll send you a check.

Andy Laakmann wrote:Nick just informed me we sell our t-shirts at wholesale. It was a good idea though! We use Cafepress, which is a print-on-demand service for the shirts. If we used sweat shops in China we could probably get them cheaper, but then we'd need to stock and ship t-shirts.. and that'd make Nick grumpy :)

That's no problem. Just limit the discount to one month, raise the t-shirt prices $6 for "a while" and you'll make money on the deal. I wouldn't have even known the prices if I hadn't looked today.

Free enterprise at work!

Austin Baird wrote:If you paid the $4.99 for it, you paid for a one year subscription...correct? You got one one year out of it...correct? You got EXACTLY what you paid for...correct? Then the pricing scheme changed, but it didn't change the fact that you still got what you paid for...correct? And we're talking about $4.99...correct? If anyone feels like the big bad purveyors of MP are just being TOO unfair or that the $4.99 they're "out" is TOO MUCH of a hardship, post a picture of yourself holding a sign that says "I'll humiliate myself for $4.99" and I'll send you a check.

+1

Only I would not mail you a check

It's worth every penny!!!!

I mean where else can you have so much fun trolling????