BlackBerry App World™ Development

[QuiteSimple]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the info, I'll keep this in mind for the next time.

However the side effect of the issue is that users see "Upgrade price $0.99" and when they click on upgrade, they got charged the full price $2.99. And after that they just write email to me calling me a scammer.

Is it possible to show the correct price to the users, I mean if they have to pay $2.99 at least it should be displayed as $2.99 not as $0.99?

[MSohm · Accepted solution]

There are multiple steps here.

1. User is notified App World has a newer Release # than the one installed and client knows it’s a $0.99 upgrade (which is displayed as such)
2. When the user goes to buy the upgrade and logs into their BBID, App World confirms that user doesn’t have a purchase record for it, meaning it is no longer an upgrade.
   
3. App World responds back with the App Price of $2.99 and user is shown a screen that the purchase price is $2.99.

So the initial screen would show $0.99, but they they should see another screen with $2.99 in the price before they complete their transation.

You can resolve this by using the same prices for new purchase and upgrade when switching from free to paid.

[QuiteSimple]

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MSohm wrote:

You can resolve this by using the same prices for new purchase and upgrade when switching from free to paid.

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I thought about this, for sure I will use this approach next time, i.e. will set the app price to $0.99, upgrade $0.99 and after few days I will increase the app price to $2.99.

Anyway, thanks for the prompt response, I feel I owe you few beers already See you at the DevCon

[jtegen]

There is still the issue of just charging an upgrade when the purchase model has not changed (still try and buy for example). The user is shown the full price of the product, not the upgrade price. Has this been resolved yet?

[MSohm]

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jtegen wrote:
There is still the issue of just charging an upgrade when the purchase model has not changed (still try and buy for example). The user is shown the full price of the product, not the upgrade price. Has this been resolved yet?

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This should be fixed in the update that went out on Monday.  Are you still seeing this problem?

[jtegen]

Have not tried it. Very gun shy to do it again and receive the mass hate emails from customers. I'll take your word on it that it has been resolved and properly tested.

[QuiteSimple]

Juts to add more info:

After the first paid upgrade I released another one with several bug fixes, the upgrade was this time free of course. Users who have already paid, got the upgrade without any issues. However those who still have the initial version now see notification "Free Upgrade", click on it and receive a $2.99 bill...

As you may guess this caused another wave of angry mails and bad reviews like "Free upgrade then why 3.00 rip off".

[MSohm]

QuiteSimple, please report this to App World Vendor Support.

[QuiteSimple]

Hi Mark,

I already did, I got the same answer as yours here in the thread

Thank you for contacting us.  Because your changed the price of your 
application from 'Free' to 'Paid', anyone who downloaded the app while it 
was Free will now be prompted to pay the Application Price, not the upgrade 
price. 

This is unfortunately how the system currently deals with this situation.  

On the DevCon Europe I spoke with Tamara Moona (Product Manager AppWorld), she promised to put this on the Dev team to-do list. Finger crossed.

Btw I'm not updating the topic to whine how bad the things are, but just to inform other vendors what would be the result if they choose to switch from free to paid app

[silver20]

What Mark is outlining makes sense... now.  However, I lacked the imagination to think of that in advance, and fell into the same snare as QuiteSimple in the past.  After additional experiences with paid upgrades and Try & Buy, I decided they've both got inherent snafu's and swore I'd never use either of them again.

The ultimate solution to customer sedation seems to be:

1. Publish trials separately,

2. never use license keys,

3. Avoid changing anything after publishing an app (especially the license model)