Joined
·
941 Posts
Long story short, I'm looking for a new motorcycle navigation app.
Going from free to $59/year without warning is low in my book.
Calimoto Bait and Switch
1 - 20 of 25 Posts
Long story short, I'm looking for a new motorcycle navigation app.
Going from free to $59/year without warning is low in my book.
They probably saw how many people were using it and decided to grab some money.
Seems like everyone is squeezing money now.
Automakers are disabling features that came with the vehicle , and will turn them back on if you subscribe, and pay. Tesla and Ford are two.
My landline phone company wants paid to allow me to change a setting on my voicemail. I tried to disconnect it and that was going to increase my internet bill by at least five times. I spent four hours over two days talking to customer service. I finally told them to put it back and leave it alone, I simply turned the ringer off.
It's some sort of new business model. I've always said when people are paid to change things, not all that change will be good for the customer. They have to justify the paycheck, so it's always change for the sake of change.
Seems like everyone is squeezing money now.
Automakers are disabling features that came with the vehicle , and will turn them back on if you subscribe, and pay. Tesla and Ford are two.
My landline phone company wants paid to allow me to change a setting on my voicemail. I tried to disconnect it and that was going to increase my internet bill by at least five times. I spent four hours over two days talking to customer service. I finally told them to put it back and leave it alone, I simply turned the ringer off.
It's some sort of new business model. I've always said when people are paid to change things, not all that change will be good for the customer. They have to justify the paycheck, so it's always change for the sake of change.
Joined
·
1,821 Posts
In business the one key thing I’ve learned is change is constant, period.
What bugs me about the email from customer support is the fact that you had to surprised to find out that the business model has changed. In my experience customer communication starts at a minimum of 120 days prior to any change to the user experience. Even longer if the product is being decommissioned. What’s laughable is he’s throwing operating costs at you, like really now, who doesn’t have cost? I’m sure their entire environment is living on VMs which is considerably cheaper to maintain and scale vs traditional bare metal servers.
My response to Tom would be like Robert Duvall in that movie Falling Down at the end
“[email protected] you, [email protected] you very much!”
What bugs me about the email from customer support is the fact that you had to surprised to find out that the business model has changed. In my experience customer communication starts at a minimum of 120 days prior to any change to the user experience. Even longer if the product is being decommissioned. What’s laughable is he’s throwing operating costs at you, like really now, who doesn’t have cost? I’m sure their entire environment is living on VMs which is considerably cheaper to maintain and scale vs traditional bare metal servers.
My response to Tom would be like Robert Duvall in that movie Falling Down at the end
“[email protected] you, [email protected] you very much!”
Can you share any Terms Of Service that you were given when you subscribed to this app? If there exists no forewarning to the possible change in the services provided for the free version, they may be in breach of contract.
Joined
·
323 Posts
I noticed the same thing with Calimoto and uninstalled. It's all about the bottom line and squeezing extra money out of consumers. Look at how so many things are moving to a "subscription based service" rather than flat out ownership. Spockster already mentioned auto manufacturers. Allow me to add to this the fact that I pay a yearly fee to have Microsoft Office on my home PC! Years ago, you'd simply buy Microsoft Office Suite for like $99. Now I pay $59.99 yearly to have Word and Excel, etc. And don't even get me started on the "web based" Word and Excel. But hey, if that helps Microsofts bottom line then I guess that's what's important.
Joined
·
941 Posts
I replied respectfully (IMHO) and even offered to pay for a lower tier of service. I don't need all the premium features. I kinda got the Robert Duvall response back.
![Font Screenshot Number Document Parallel]()
I agree that the subscription model sucks. Unless maybe it is ridiculously cheaper. But in Microsoft's case, $59/year is not significantly cheaper than $99 one time. I used Office 2007 for a good 7-8 years. At $59/year, that would have been $472 vs $99.
If you need the latest and greatest version (say Photoshop for a professional photographer) and you're going to be upgrading annually anyways, then subscriptions makes sense. But for us mere mortals, it just feels like a cash grab.
I agree that the subscription model sucks. Unless maybe it is ridiculously cheaper. But in Microsoft's case, $59/year is not significantly cheaper than $99 one time. I used Office 2007 for a good 7-8 years. At $59/year, that would have been $472 vs $99.
If you need the latest and greatest version (say Photoshop for a professional photographer) and you're going to be upgrading annually anyways, then subscriptions makes sense. But for us mere mortals, it just feels like a cash grab.
I've found some free alternatives that do the same thing as calimoto. Particularly, logging your trips. I'm curious if you've given other apps consideration? You're using Android, correct?
Not quite the same but here's an example of disregard for the customer....
The TV series Yellowstone, available on Paramount by subscription, many people signed up specifically for that show. As soon as the new season got going, they moved it to Paramount+, requiring another subscription. If comments are true, they lost a lot of customers with that move.
The TV series Yellowstone, available on Paramount by subscription, many people signed up specifically for that show. As soon as the new season got going, they moved it to Paramount+, requiring another subscription. If comments are true, they lost a lot of customers with that move.
Yeah, it's terrible that they do that.
It would be unethical for me to condone or encourage the pirating of television shows and movies from the internet. It would be absolutely wrong of me to speculate that one could easily torrrent any episode of any show they wish to see usually within a few hours of airing, if one only knew the methodology.
Nope. I certainly would never suggest that anyone engage in the act of downloading whatever the hell they want to watch, whenever they want. There are laws, dammit! There are laws that protect those billionaires and their hard-earned money! They need every single penny!
I wouldn't recommend that anyone dare to acquire the Tor Browser and use it to browse sites that provide torrents. I wouldn't recommend that anyone use a VPN along with Tor Browser to thwart detection. I would never recommend that one watch illicit copies of television shows and movies on a separate computer or television that is never connected to the internet.
Nope. Just keep on shoving money at the billionaires. Poor guys, they need it more than we....
Joined
·
941 Posts
Yes Android. Do you have one you'd recommend?
Of course, we can't talk about subscription models without bringing up BWM's subscription based seat heaters....
There you go, the other one I couldn't remember. I'd be hot wiring the seat heaters. You don't install equipment in my car that I purchased and then hold it for ransom. Kiss my grits BMW. We'll shorten their acronym to just BM, that's medical jargon for bowel movement.Yes Android. Do you have one you'd recommend?
Of course, we can't talk about subscription models without bringing up BWM's subscription based seat heaters....
I mean, technically speaking, Google Maps (as much as I loathe recommending them) supports GPS based devices. I did a search for "alternative to calimoto". If you're coding that device yourself in Android, pretty much anything comparable to Google Maps should work.Yes Android. Do you have one you'd recommend?
Of course, we can't talk about subscription models without bringing up BWM's subscription based seat heaters....
And as far as the BMW subscription based amenities go, I recall something about that being challenged in court. The argument being that the precedent would allow car manufacturers to charge a fee for anything that cars aren't "required" to have. And that's a lengthy list. Cars aren't required by law to have anything other than a horn, light lights, turn signals, rear view mirrors and a speedometer. I'm pretty sure that BMW will be forced to stick to the existing business model, which is: if you want heated seats in your model, you pay for them once and they're yours.
But time will tell, and we'll just have 5o wait and see how it plays out.
My thought is, if someone has the money to throw away, they'll just pay for whatever and never think twice about it. Heated seats are, of course, just an unnecessary luxury.
Back to the calimoto thing, there's far too many amateur Android devs out there that know far more than I that would probably have better advice.. you should seek out some Android Discord servers. So much easier and faster to get advice and assistance in real time.
EDIT: BMW: New Subscription Fees for Heated Seats Won’t Impact U.S.
Hey, which exact features do you need that calimoto was previously providing for free?Yes Android. Do you have one you'd recommend?
Of course, we can't talk about subscription models without bringing up BWM's subscription based seat heaters....
Joined
·
941 Posts
I used:
Turn-by-turn navigation (Google has that).
Computer based trip planning (Google has that, but not as elaborate).
Ride plan sharing (Google has that).
Basic ride info (ave speed, estimated arrival etc) (Google has that).
Ride logging (I can do that on my new data logger device, though not as elegantly. The logs also aren't online).
Curvy road finder (Google only has highway/avoid highway). Super Twisty roads was a premium feature.
More than 9 waypoints (Google is limited to 9 waypoints).
Past rides drawn on the amp. It would show the roads I've ridden in blue. (My data logger doesn't have map info so it can't show where I've ridden)
Okay. So, here's something important to note: Any software can be legally modified by anyone for their own purposes, and this is often done for "research". The only caveat is that you cannot sell your version of the modified software. That would be copyright/trademark/patent infringement. Not sure if that's helpful or not, depending on your level of programming experience?
I'll see what else I can dig up. We might be able to find something open source, maybe even something still in the developmental stages that might be of interest.
Also, I've got an idea how you can acquire that calimoto premium service for free, legally, but PM me to discuss it.
Joined
·
941 Posts
Well as of this morning, it's working again. A glitch that it stopped working? A glitch that it's working again? A lot of negative responses?
Or, a friendly stranger on the internet made a rather angry telephone call and it was taken much more seriously than expected......
Make of that what you will.
Joined
·
941 Posts
Are you that friendly stranger?!?
I can neither confirm nor deny that query.
PS: Be sure to congratulate the new mod, Spockster! See the stickied post.
Ha, sounds like PayPal when they brought about a mass exodus from their site. Paraphrasing... "Oops, our bad, we didn't really mean it, .. it was that guy, or something...".
Let us know if it dies again. We can summon the O'Darkness.
1 - 20 of 25 Posts
