Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Airmail Users Frustrated About Sudden Switch to Subscription-Based Pricing on iPhone and iPad [Updated]

I bought this app specifically because it was not a subscription app and all features were included with no ******** fees.

Deleted as soon as I saw and confirmed this money grab. I paid for my part of the server costs with my purchase.

**** you, Airmail. You lied to me.

Where do I file a complaint with Apple for a refund of the apparently-worthless purchase price? https://reportaproblem.apple.com doesn't bring the app up.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Apple Fritter, Romeo_Nightfall, earlycj5 and 1 other person
I remember back when I was reluctant to spend even a couple dollars to purchase an app up front...now everything is going to the subscription route. I understand that devs need to generate a revenue stream, but this kind of thing is downright dishonest. I paid for this app with full functionality, now you're going to hold some of those features hostage to get me to shell out money every year? No way. This kind of thing is company-centric, not customer-centric.

I have the paid iOS app and have also been a beta tester for some time. I can confirm that customer support is awful and the dev himself is rude and unfriendly. Absolutely not worth paying a subscription for this buggy software.

I hope the whole industry-wide shift towards paid subscriptions eventually backfires. Sure $5 or $10 a year doesn't seem like much, but when you suddenly find yourself paying a few bucks for every app on your phone something's gotta give.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Apple Fritter, philosoraptor1, Howyalikdemapls and 1 other person
I'm surprised so many people say AirMail is low-quality: I've been using it as my primary mail client on Mac and iOS for years. I think it's quite excellent, with lots of good features. Switched from Mac Mail after I had all sorts of problems with it and Gmail years ago.

That being said, this transition is really being handled badly. I'm sympathetic to them needing to make revenue, but they should have added some features and then charged for them, or at least given a significant warning/grandfather-discount, etc.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sital, Howyalikdemapls, BigMcGuire and 1 other person
The developer broke their sales contract by removing capability from a paid app. They promised the user a given set of features in exchange for a specified one time fee and then removed those features.

If you purchased an item from a brick and mortar store you would then consider it yours to use without the expectation of any further charges or fees. If the same store then proceeded to send you a monthly bill for renting the item you would most likely not tolerate it.

Simply request a refund from Apple. Provide the reason for the refund request is that the product developer has engaged in deceptive and unethical business practices that prevent you from using the product in a method as described in the original sales literature.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Apple Fritter, auxbuss and Howyalikdemapls
dumastudetto said:
Developers need to eat. You can help feed them by paying for products and services.
Click to expand...
Yeah, and these people wanting to keep their push notifications already paid for the product and service.

Look, it’s not rocket science. Sometimes you price your product incorrectly and/or want to change your business model. That’s fine! It happens. But if you have users who already paid for functionality, you must grandfather them into the new pricing structure with all the same functionality they had before—at minimum—or else they’ll be rightfully furious.

That’s just common sense. If you attempt to screw people over, it’s bad business — no matter who needs to eat.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Apple Fritter, jdogg836, auxbuss and 3 others
The dev of that Apollo Reddit app pulled this same thing with push notifications. Promised them with future upgrade after people already paid for the app then, cried poverty and went subscription. Just want nothing to do with devs like that. Will stay away from Airmail.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Apple Fritter and Romeo_Nightfall
Martius said:
Well, push notifications cost money. And I can't even imagine how much they have to spend to run push notifications servers, because email apps are using them a lot.

But I agree they should have made the transition more customer friendly, but I think they count with losing quite a lot of their customers. However what are they gonna lose? All the customers have already paid for the app and those that will stick with the app will make them more money. So it's a clear win for them.

I think that subscriptions are the best thing what happened for developers and the worst thing for customers. I hate subscriptions too, at least in cases where do you see developers only milking their customers. I have no problem with content subscriptions like Spotify / Apple Music etc. But paying monthly for an email app? No thanks!
Click to expand...
You can send push notifications from a DigitalOcean server that costs $5/mo; it just involves sending an authenticated network request with a notification payload to APNS. As long as they’re convincing at least 2 people per month to buy the app at the old one-time price of $4.99, then they’ve made their money back on notifications with a couple bucks to spare.

Of course, that’s an overly simplistic view. But especially at their scale, push notifications should be a relatively negligible expense.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Apple Fritter, bwintx and tomnavratil
They should have held out and did this with the rollout of a new version. Waking up one day with less features that I've already paid for is just wrong.

I use Airmail on Mac, iPhone and iPad, and have for years and I'm but sure where to go next. I really like it but I'm certainly not going to pay up for it after buying each app.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Epimetreus
I get subscribing to a streaming platform cuz you are actually consuming something and it changes every day. What I don’t get is paying for a software subscription, like that just seems stupid to me. It’s not like you can expect new features every other day. That’s where a big Release with one fixed price and new features would step in
 
  • Like
Reactions: auxbuss and B4U
Funny thing is that the notifications never worked properly on Airmail using gmail on ios. I paid for Mac and OS versions. I have way too many subscriptions and this is another money grab that I can avoid. Already cancelled a bunch of these subscriptions and the savings really add up.
 
tkukoc said:
When developers do this late in the game it's because they've run out of ideas to enhance without throwing down telling users money will fix the issues. That's when you look elsewhere. I never use subscription based apps and I'll never develop one!
Click to expand...
MS Office 2019 will stay on my iMac for a very long time.
I have a giant middle finger for MS Office 365.
 
Ok, just bought Canary mail on mac and testing it out. Very interested in the message read feature. I had to send some pitches to potential clients and that will come in handy. Thanks airmail for letting me find better alternatives. I am glad to spend my money elsewhere on functional product.
[doublepost=1563217453][/doublepost]Can anyone comment on Canary for ios? I am transitioning from Airmail ios and I have not seen any instructional videos on youtube. I would like to find an alternative to airmail. Thanks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tomnavratil
I was never really impressed when I first purchased Airmail over a year ago. I think I used it for maybe a month before moving back to the stock mail app.

It also would have been nice for Airmail developers to at least communicate to customers regarding the change from a one-time only charge to a subscription based model. To me, this just leaves a bad taste in my mouth -- especially if I still used the app.
 
Reading all these comments...... I have to say......

Why don’t you use the Mail app on the iOS or Mac?

In my opinion it’s better easier and best of all, FREE!!!!!!!
 
Hi,

I just tested the read message feature on Canary mail and this is fantastic. It sends you a notification when the recepient reads the email. I sent an email to a potential client last week and have not heard a reply. I do not know if the recipient
saw the email, saw it and has not replied, or is on vacation etc.

This simple feature would have helped me out very much in the decision process eg. contact another editor in the office etc.

Canary is the silver lining to the airmail cloud.

alchemistmuffin said:
Reading all these comments...... I have to say......

Why don’t you use the Mail app on the iOS or Mac?

In my opinion it’s better easier and best of all, FREE!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
 
alchemistmuffin said:
Reading all these comments...... I have to say......
Why don’t you use the Mail app on the iOS or Mac?
In my opinion it’s better easier and best of all, FREE!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Lacks some of the features some of us rely on. No push notifications for Gmail, no snooze, or the ability to send later. Does not easily integrate with other apps and services and is not very customisable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back