Wrong. Your analogy is just as stupid as the Ford example.
Actually, his analogy is pretty accurate, Apple offers a service that is closer to Mastercard's than to a physical store's.
However, where he is wrong, in my humble opinion, is that the enormous appeal of Apple's Store is worth a price. Apple has valued it to 30% of the sale price, and it seems many businesses are happy to go with these terms. If, as a business, you believe that you can make more money through your own outlet than you can through the Apple Store (which seems unlikely to me, but is entirely theirs to evaluate), NOT going to your own outlet is actually punishable by law in the United States, if I understand Business Law correctly, among other reasons, because it would (probably, me no law guy with suit) qualify as "gross negligence" which would translate to loss of revenue for the stockholders of said business.
Prefer equations?
If you consider that the value generated through customers that will buy through the App Store is X, and the value generated through customers that will buy through your own outlet is Y, that maintaining your own outlet cost Z and maintaining presence on the App Store costs W, then
if X - W + Z > Y (a simple enough equation), you should have stayed on the App store. Else, you need to switch to your own outlet.
Here's a WONDERFUL (sarcasm fully intentional) example of how well Comixology/Amazon listens to customer feedback...
Hi there,
Thanks so much for your patience. We know that you’ve come to expect fast, effective support from us and we want to make sure you continue experiencing that. We’ve received a high volume of emails over the past two days and want to set the expectation that it will take us longer than usual to get back to you.
As you may know, we no longer support in-app purchasing through comiXology iOS and have shifted to a web-based purchasing model that will allow us to strike the best balance between prices, selection and customer experience. You’ll now need to make all of your purchases on comixology.com and then the comics will sync over to your app.
Our web store is home to many exclusive money saving features like comiXology’s web-only bundles, subscriptions, and eGift cards. In fact, Subscriptions are a super convenient way to ensure the latest issues of your favorite series get delivered directly to your account as soon as they are released.
If you’re having trouble finding books that were previously available to you in the original Comics app, we’ll work with you to track everything down.
Start by opening the original Comics app, logging into your comiXology account, and tapping the Restore button at the top left of the Purchases tab. That will sync up your Apple ID purchases to your comiXology username. If you’re noticing that all of your comics are not showing up in your comiXology account, it’s possible that some of those Apple ID purchases were synced to a different comiXology account. No worries there, we can work to merge multiple accounts.
If you’re having trouble signing into your account, or if you haven’t reset your password since March 6th, follow this link: https://www.comixology.com/forgot
For any additional questions, or if you still need support, please contact us at support@comixology.com
As always, we can’t thank you enough for your support. Nothing matters more to us than our community.
Congratulations. I've purchased the majority of my comics through your original iPad app, with funds from iTunes cards. By switching over to direct billing, I will no longer be using your app for future purchases. I doubt that my stance will have any noticeable impact on your bottom line; I'm not foolish enough to think so. However, I wonder how many other customers are like me? I hope that your additional 30% that you'll glean by not going through Apple will be worth it. It's a complete shame - your app technology is far & away the best way to view comics on an iPad; coupled with the ease-of-use of the Apple iTunes ecosystem, you had a win-win situation.
--USER DATA--
Useragent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_9_2) AppleWebKit/537.75.14 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0.3 Safari/537.75.14
Probably wishful thinking, but I wonder if Apple will step into the fray, if not publicly, then at least behind the scenes. It's a high-profile app and I can see them taking action as needed.
Probably wishful thinking, but I wonder if Apple will step into the fray, if not publicly, then at least behind the scenes. It's a high-profile app and I can see them taking action as needed.
I, unfortunately, doubt very much that Apple will do anything about this. Amazon has no reason to be accommodating; they've managed to make it by with having the same crap happen with their own Kindle app. Really not happy with Amazon now.
I know they won't do it, but I wish that Apple would force additional language in the app description, something like: "Due to the decisions made by Amazon, the owners of Comixology, in order to actually read any comics in this app, you will need to exit it, go to the Comixology website in Safari, search for the title, add it to your shopping cart, purchase it through the website, then go back to your Comixology app and wait for it to appear in your "Purchased" area."
Thanks so much for your patience. We know that you’ve come to expect fast, effective support from us and we want to make sure you continue experiencing that. We’ve received a high volume of emails over the past two days and want to set the expectation that it will take us longer than usual to get back to you.
As you may know, we no longer support in-app purchasing through comiXology iOS and have shifted to a web-based purchasing model that will allow us to strike the best balance between prices, selection and customer experience. You’ll now need to make all of your purchases on comixology.com and then the comics will sync over to your app.
Our web store is home to many exclusive money saving features like comiXology’s web-only bundles, subscriptions, and eGift cards. In fact, Subscriptions are a super convenient way to ensure the latest issues of your favorite series get delivered directly to your account as soon as they are released.
If you’re having trouble finding books that were previously available to you in the original Comics app, we’ll work with you to track everything down.
Start by opening the original Comics app, logging into your comiXology account, and tapping the Restore button at the top left of the Purchases tab. That will sync up your Apple ID purchases to your comiXology username. If you’re noticing that all of your comics are not showing up in your comiXology account, it’s possible that some of those Apple ID purchases were synced to a different comiXology account. No worries there, we can work to merge multiple accounts.
If you’re having trouble signing into your account, or if you haven’t reset your password since March 6th, follow this link: https://www.comixology.com/forgot
For any additional questions, or if you still need support, please contact us at support@comixology.com
As always, we can’t thank you enough for your support. Nothing matters more to us than our community.
<div style="margin-top:10px;">
Congratulations. I've purchased the majority of my comics through your original iPad app, with funds from iTunes cards. By switching over to direct billing, I will no longer be using your app for future purchases. I doubt that my stance will have any noticeable impact on your bottom line; I'm not foolish enough to think so. However, I wonder how many other customers are like me? I hope that your additional 30% that you'll glean by not going through Apple will be worth it. It's a complete shame - your app technology is far & away the best way to view comics on an iPad; coupled with the ease-of-use of the Apple iTunes ecosystem, you had a win-win situation.
--USER DATA--
Useragent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_9_2) AppleWebKit/537.75.14 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0.3 Safari/537.75.14
Username:
<div style="border:0px;padding:2px;">For your reference this is Case #: 481037. </div>
Did you know we have a support Twitter account? It's super fast!
[/TD]
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</tbody></table>
[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody></table>
[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody></table> [[4568e9df40b7b236a3654a59c97341c628768d9c-231067446]]
Received the exact same email from "Andrew" after asking them to help me with deleting my account.
NOT the way to handle this. Disregarding anything you say and pretending like somehow we are still wanting to be excited about them stripping features. Lol
Here's my email and response. I literally wrote: "would like to delete my account." Their response? "Thanks for your support."
I went from simply wanting to delete an account I won't use... To despising the company.
Hi there,
Thanks so much for your patience. We know that you’ve come to expect fast, effective support from us and we want to make sure you continue experiencing that. We’ve received a high volume of emails over the past two days and want to set the expectation that it will take us longer than usual to get back to you.
As you may know, we no longer support in-app purchasing through comiXology iOS and have shifted to a web-based purchasing model that will allow us to strike the best balance between prices, selection and customer experience. You’ll now need to make all of your purchases on comixology.com and then the comics will sync over to your app.
Our web store is home to many exclusive money saving features like comiXology’s web-only bundles, subscriptions, and eGift cards. In fact, Subscriptions are a super convenient way to ensure the latest issues of your favorite series get delivered directly to your account as soon as they are released.
If you’re having trouble finding books that were previously available to you in the original Comics app, we’ll work with you to track everything down.
Start by opening the original Comics app, logging into your comiXology account, and tapping the Restore button at the top left of the Purchases tab. That will sync up your Apple ID purchases to your comiXology username. If you’re noticing that all of your comics are not showing up in your comiXology account, it’s possible that some of those Apple ID purchases were synced to a different comiXology account. No worries there, we can work to merge multiple accounts.
If you’re having trouble signing into your account, or if you haven’t reset your password since March 6th, follow this link: https://www.comixology.com/forgot
For any additional questions, or if you still need support, please contact us at support@comixology.com
As always, we can’t thank you enough for your support. Nothing matters more to us than our community.
- Andrew
How are we doing?
APR 27, 2014 | 04:11AM EDT
Original message
comiXology wrote:
Would like to delete my comixology account.
--USER DATA--
Useragent: Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 7_1_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Mobile/11D201 Safari/9537.53
IP: xxxxxx
Hostname: www.comixology.com
Country: US
Device: com.comixology.comics
Referrer: https://www.comixology.com/my-account/profile
Username: xxxxxx
For your reference this is Case #: xxxxxx
Did you know we have a support Twitter account?
Ha! It's funny because when I initially read through their email to you guys I really thought they were being helpful and professional... Until I actually read what you initially contacted them about. Someone just pushed a button. Somehow, this doesn't make me feel any better. Sigh... ????
Ha! It's funny because when I initially read through their email to you guys I really thought they were being helpful and professional... Until I actually read what you initially contacted them about. Someone just pushed a button. Somehow, this doesn't make me feel any better. Sigh... ????
I'd be surprised if there even is a person pushing a button. Sounds more like it's set on auto response.
Comments
Wrong. Your analogy is just as stupid as the Ford example.
Actually, his analogy is pretty accurate, Apple offers a service that is closer to Mastercard's than to a physical store's.
However, where he is wrong, in my humble opinion, is that the enormous appeal of Apple's Store is worth a price. Apple has valued it to 30% of the sale price, and it seems many businesses are happy to go with these terms. If, as a business, you believe that you can make more money through your own outlet than you can through the Apple Store (which seems unlikely to me, but is entirely theirs to evaluate), NOT going to your own outlet is actually punishable by law in the United States, if I understand Business Law correctly, among other reasons, because it would (probably, me no law guy with suit) qualify as "gross negligence" which would translate to loss of revenue for the stockholders of said business.
Prefer equations?
If you consider that the value generated through customers that will buy through the App Store is X, and the value generated through customers that will buy through your own outlet is Y, that maintaining your own outlet cost Z and maintaining presence on the App Store costs W, then
if X - W + Z > Y (a simple enough equation), you should have stayed on the App store. Else, you need to switch to your own outlet.
Life's simple when you go back to basics
Here's a WONDERFUL (sarcasm fully intentional) example of how well Comixology/Amazon listens to customer feedback...
Thanks so much for your patience. We know that you’ve come to expect fast, effective support from us and we want to make sure you continue experiencing that. We’ve received a high volume of emails over the past two days and want to set the expectation that it will take us longer than usual to get back to you.
As you may know, we no longer support in-app purchasing through comiXology iOS and have shifted to a web-based purchasing model that will allow us to strike the best balance between prices, selection and customer experience. You’ll now need to make all of your purchases on comixology.com and then the comics will sync over to your app.
Our web store is home to many exclusive money saving features like comiXology’s web-only bundles, subscriptions, and eGift cards. In fact, Subscriptions are a super convenient way to ensure the latest issues of your favorite series get delivered directly to your account as soon as they are released.
If you’re having trouble finding books that were previously available to you in the original Comics app, we’ll work with you to track everything down.
Start by opening the original Comics app, logging into your comiXology account, and tapping the Restore button at the top left of the Purchases tab. That will sync up your Apple ID purchases to your comiXology username. If you’re noticing that all of your comics are not showing up in your comiXology account, it’s possible that some of those Apple ID purchases were synced to a different comiXology account. No worries there, we can work to merge multiple accounts.
If you’re having trouble signing into your account, or if you haven’t reset your password since March 6th, follow this link: https://www.comixology.com/forgot
For any additional questions, or if you still need support, please contact us at support@comixology.com
As always, we can’t thank you enough for your support. Nothing matters more to us than our community.
- Andrew
How are we doing?
APR 26, 2014 | 07:25PM EDT
Original message
comiXology wrote:
Congratulations. I've purchased the majority of my comics through your original iPad app, with funds from iTunes cards. By switching over to direct billing, I will no longer be using your app for future purchases. I doubt that my stance will have any noticeable impact on your bottom line; I'm not foolish enough to think so. However, I wonder how many other customers are like me? I hope that your additional 30% that you'll glean by not going through Apple will be worth it. It's a complete shame - your app technology is far & away the best way to view comics on an iPad; coupled with the ease-of-use of the Apple iTunes ecosystem, you had a win-win situation.
--USER DATA--
Useragent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_9_2) AppleWebKit/537.75.14 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0.3 Safari/537.75.14
IP: 50.164.1.123
Hostname: www.comixology.com
Country: US
Device: com.comixology.comics
Referrer: https://www.comixology.com/
Username:
Did you know we have a support Twitter account? It's super fast!
[[4568e9df40b7b236a3654a59c97341c628768d9c-231067446]]
Since this particular dead horse hasn't been beaten enough yet, check out this great editorial:
http://comicbook.com/blog/2014/04/27/gerry-conway-the-comixology-outrage/
Probably wishful thinking, but I wonder if Apple will step into the fray, if not publicly, then at least behind the scenes. It's a high-profile app and I can see them taking action as needed.
Probably wishful thinking, but I wonder if Apple will step into the fray, if not publicly, then at least behind the scenes. It's a high-profile app and I can see them taking action as needed.
I, unfortunately, doubt very much that Apple will do anything about this. Amazon has no reason to be accommodating; they've managed to make it by with having the same crap happen with their own Kindle app. Really not happy with Amazon now.
I know they won't do it, but I wish that Apple would force additional language in the app description, something like: "Due to the decisions made by Amazon, the owners of Comixology, in order to actually read any comics in this app, you will need to exit it, go to the Comixology website in Safari, search for the title, add it to your shopping cart, purchase it through the website, then go back to your Comixology app and wait for it to appear in your "Purchased" area."
Received the exact same email from "Andrew" after asking them to help me with deleting my account.
NOT the way to handle this. Disregarding anything you say and pretending like somehow we are still wanting to be excited about them stripping features. Lol
Here's my email and response. I literally wrote: "would like to delete my account." Their response? "Thanks for your support."
I went from simply wanting to delete an account I won't use... To despising the company.
Hi there,
Thanks so much for your patience. We know that you’ve come to expect fast, effective support from us and we want to make sure you continue experiencing that. We’ve received a high volume of emails over the past two days and want to set the expectation that it will take us longer than usual to get back to you.
As you may know, we no longer support in-app purchasing through comiXology iOS and have shifted to a web-based purchasing model that will allow us to strike the best balance between prices, selection and customer experience. You’ll now need to make all of your purchases on comixology.com and then the comics will sync over to your app.
Our web store is home to many exclusive money saving features like comiXology’s web-only bundles, subscriptions, and eGift cards. In fact, Subscriptions are a super convenient way to ensure the latest issues of your favorite series get delivered directly to your account as soon as they are released.
If you’re having trouble finding books that were previously available to you in the original Comics app, we’ll work with you to track everything down.
Start by opening the original Comics app, logging into your comiXology account, and tapping the Restore button at the top left of the Purchases tab. That will sync up your Apple ID purchases to your comiXology username. If you’re noticing that all of your comics are not showing up in your comiXology account, it’s possible that some of those Apple ID purchases were synced to a different comiXology account. No worries there, we can work to merge multiple accounts.
If you’re having trouble signing into your account, or if you haven’t reset your password since March 6th, follow this link: https://www.comixology.com/forgot
For any additional questions, or if you still need support, please contact us at support@comixology.com
As always, we can’t thank you enough for your support. Nothing matters more to us than our community.
- Andrew
How are we doing?
APR 27, 2014 | 04:11AM EDT
Original message
comiXology wrote:
Would like to delete my comixology account.
--USER DATA--
Useragent: Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 7_1_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Mobile/11D201 Safari/9537.53
IP: xxxxxx
Hostname: www.comixology.com
Country: US
Device: com.comixology.comics
Referrer: https://www.comixology.com/my-account/profile
Username: xxxxxx
For your reference this is Case #: xxxxxx
Did you know we have a support Twitter account?
I too received a stock email response that did not at all address my message sent to them but mine was different than the posted one above.
I'd be surprised if there even is a person pushing a button. Sounds more like it's set on auto response.